Dean's Message

A message from the Dean of the College of Optometry
By Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD
Karla Zadnik

“You’ve got to fight through some adversity. You’ve got to have some tough times. You’ve got to have some rainy days.” –Tom Izzo

I know, it’s shocking that I would lead this letter with a quote from a rival team’s basketball coach, but he captures how I’m feeling at the moment.

I’m in my tenth year as dean of the College of Optometry and my 40th day as the interim dean of the College of Public Health. Both colleges are experiencing some challenges, along with opportunities.

Honestly, these are tough times. These are rainy days. The world is uncertain. University leadership is in flux. It’s hot. I drove through the worst thunderstorm of my life a couple of weeks ago where I was grateful for the lightning because it lit up the road and I could see where I was going.

What Coach Izzo doesn’t follow up with is what happens due to and after the adversity and the tough times. We are resilient. We are committed to excellence. We are engaged in our hard work with energy and dedication. We have umbrellas. Our windshield wipers have recently been replaced.

We competed to hire and then hired a fellow-to-faculty-member, funded by Ohio State’s Office of Academic Affairs for five years. Read more about Yueh-shun (Walter) Wu, PhD on page 32.

We said good-bye to faculty members Cayti McDaniel (OD/MS’08), Tatevik Movsisyan (OD/MS’16), and Kim Patton (OD’18 MS’20) this summer. We welcomed Jonathon Ross, OD, MS from the University of California, Davis. We promoted Professor Heather Chandler, PhD and reappointed Clinical Professor Roanne Flom, OD. We promoted Lisa Lex (OD’82), Tina Pawlikowski, OD, Amanda Ransdell (OD’13), and Bill Patton (OD’13).

We just opened our two classrooms and three teaching laboratories in the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Center, just east of the Fry Tower. The facilities are beautiful, and we finally have teaching areas that equal the teaching acumen of our faculty and the learning abilities of our students.

Come join us on the college’s—your alma mater’s—journey. We are weathering the tough times!

Go BuckEYES,

Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD
Dean
Glenn A. Fry Professor in Optometry and Physiological Optics

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