Acting Dean's Welcome
On April 8, 2024, a once-in-a-lifetime event – a total eclipse in Ohio – descended upon us. Day turned to night and back to day again in less than four hours. People flocked to Ohio to witness this rare event. Ohio was in the center of it all.
Optometry was also in the center of it all. The responsibility of optometrists is to save vision, whether it be through correction of refractive error, preservation of ocular health, or prevention. Optometry accepted the responsibility of protecting the public, especially The Ohio State University College of Optometry and the Ohio Optometric Association.
The Communications Team in the College of Optometry – Sarah Cupples, Dave Moore, and Kerri McTigue – along with Francesca Fuerman-George from Alumni and Development, developed an evening event for alumni in January. The program included a 45-minute media training session followed an hour of continuing education related to potential consequences and protection while viewing the eclipse by Aaron Zimmerman (OD’06, MS’08). The live virtual event was attended by 250 friends and alumni, providing optometrists throughout the state with the tools to educate the public through the media about safe viewing of the eclipse. A website containing the important information from that event was created and observed more than 1,000 times. Several faculty in the College of Optometry conducted interviews with local television, trade publications, several other outlets to educate the public about safe viewing.
In addition, AJ Peiffer (OD’16, MS’18) was a featured speaker at CLEclipse: A Buckeye Countdown to the Solar Eclipse. At the event hosted by the Ohio State Alumni Association and the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Peiffer spoke to almost 300 attendees in March at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History about eye safety while viewing the eclipse.
The Realeyes program created content for Ohio children related to safely viewing the eclipse. That content reached 93,124 children in 4,284 classrooms around the state. The Ohio Optometric Association also created a website related to the eclipse that had more than 5,000 hits, and their eclipse safety PDF was downloaded 663 times.
The total eclipse was an opportunity for optometry to prevent vision loss through education. While we can’t measure the effects of our efforts, we can be certain that our efforts helped to save vision. I am proud of dedication to public safety provided by the College and the profession of optometry. Go Bucks, and as Dr. Newcomb always said to students, “Go save some vision!”
Jeffrey Walline (OD, MS’98, PhD’02)
Acting Dean
