Director's Message
As the end of the year approaches, Dr. Stan Woo looks back and celebrates the School of Optometry and Vision Science’s achievements, including on Giving Tuesday. He also highlights recognition for students as well as for researchers Drs. William Ngo and Lyndon Jones. He then looks forward to the year ahead with an invitation to Alumni Weekend and highlights a new feature – Class Notes.
Features
A model for northern eye care
The School collaborated with the Churchill Health Centre (CHC), the Manitoba Association of Optometrists and an anonymous donor to set up a state-of-the-art optometry lane at the CHC. Crucially, the equipment will remain in northern Manitoba to make it easier for optometrists to serve northern and remote communities, while the teleoptometry capabilities of the new equipment will enable follow-up care between visits.
When optometry runs in the family
Our latest alumni spotlight highlights the mother-daughter pair of Jenna Braham (OD ’23) and Manon Hapke (OD ‘91), both proud Waterloo grads and Ottawa-based optometrists. Both were influenced by seeing how older optometrists balanced work and family life while caring for their patients. The pair also reflect on how optometric education has evolved over time.
Advanced procedures
Registration is opening soon for the COPE-accredited Advanced Procedures Certificate Course, where you can enhance your knowledge and skills in laser procedures commonly used to treat anterior segment disease and minor surgical procedures commonly used for eyelid lesions. The course includes online modules, live virtual lectures and hands-on workshops in Waterloo.
Working to prevent dry eye disease
Dr. William Ngo has received an NSERC Discovery Grant to help enable his fundamental research on better understanding cellular aging at the front of the eye, how aging is linked to inflammation in the eye, and using bioinformatics techniques with the aim of discovering novel compounds that might modulate aging and inflammation and thus prevent dry eye disease.
Class notes
In this new section of the Insight alumni newsletter, we invite you to share your personal updates with other Optometry & Vision Science alumni, up to a maximum of 100 words, with an optional photo. To start us off, we have gathered publicly available information about our alumni, but for next time, we look forward to hearing about your weddings, babies, retirements, achievements, milestones and anything else you’d like to share.