A Word from Our Chair
Welcome to our summer edition of On Board! The Board of Directors annual meeting was held in June in Chicago, Illinois where we had the privilege of welcoming two new Directors, Dr. Lynn Hammonds and Dr. David Parker, who will each serve a three-year term. Dr. Hammonds will be serving as a representative of the AOA. Dr. Parker will be serving as a member-at-large. Additionally, Dr. Katherine Mastrota was appointed to serve as board secretary. Finally, the Board recognized Dr. Michael Gerstner as his time on the Board came to an end, having served since 2013. I would like to publicly thank these new board members who have agreed to serve the ABO and our chosen profession and especially thank Dr. Gerstner for his many years of dedicated service.
The Board and staff continue to work on behalf of our Diplomates to maintain a meaningful, high quality, board certification program. Several focal points of this work are highlighted in this issue. One article from Executive Director, April Wilhelm, discusses the results of our recent Diplomate survey and another article from our Director of Education and Assessment, Dr. Catherine Hines, concerns a new pilot program that will offer Certificates of Added Qualification (CAQ) for ABO Diplomates. Please take time to read these two important updates.
Finally, ABO has formed an exploratory committee to look at expanding Board Certification to Canadian OD’s. Dr. Mark Eltis, an ABO Diplomate practicing in Toronto, joined our meeting in Chicago to help facilitate initial discussions. The committee will meet again in the fall for further discussions. Stay tuned.
Finally, please take an opportunity to present the benefits of Board of Certification to colleagues you may know. As with many things in life, a personal invitation is worth more than hearing from an unfamiliar voice. Each of us today entered our profession with the help and guidance of an optometrist that we already knew. In that same spirit we can invite and encourage our colleagues to invest in themselves and our profession by choosing Board Certification.
David J. Sterna, OD, FAAO
Chair, American Board of Optometry
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