OPT Visionary - Spring/Summer 2013

NSUCO Visiting Researcher: Dr. Feng Jiang Feng Jiang, M.D., who is serving as a visiting researcher at NSUCO, graduated from the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai in 2006, where he majored in ophthalmology. He then started to work as an ophthalmologist at Jinling Hospital’s Department of Ophthalmology. After spending the first five years as a general eye surgeon, he further specialized in treating strabismus and amblyopia. In 2011, he completed his advanced studies by doing a strabismus and amblyopia fellowship at Tianjin Eye Hospital in China. At NSUCO, Dr. Jiang is conducting research on the neural mechanisms underlying binocular suppression found in strabismic amblyopia. NSUCO Receives Two STUEY Award Nominations In March, the College of Optometry was recognized in two categories when finalists were an- nounced for the 14 th Annual NSU Student Life Achievement (STUEY) Awards nominations. OD3 student Morvarid Fallahzadeh was nominated in the Student of the Year category, while Fran Fran- coneri, who serves as the college’s recruiter, was represented in the Staff Person of the Year cat- egory. However, when the awards were presented on April 16 at a festive ceremony held on the NSU Davie campus, neither Fallahzadeh nor Franconeri claimed the coveted STUEY. For those who are unfamiliar with the STUEY Awards, the event was created in 2000 to honor the people and organizations that best exemplify the core values of academic excellence, student centered, opportunity, scholarship/research, integrity, diversity, innovation, and community within the university community. • Morvarid Fallahzadeh Morvarid Fallahzadeh, who has served as the college’s SGA president over the past year, was able to unify her class in a spirit of cooperation and fun by organizing many events, including the 2013 EyeBall. She also inspired the college’s student body to raise money for World Sight Day, which is an annual event held to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment, and rehabilitation of the visually impaired. Thanks to Fallahzadeh’s direction, online fund-raising campaigns were held along with a very successful bake sale that raised over $1,200 for the World Sight Day projects. • Fran Franconeri Fran Franconeri is noted as someone who is always there for students and constantly striving to make sure all people she interacts with have a smile on their faces. As someone who truly cares for every single optometry student, she is always involved in activities that assist students, whether they be health fairs and fund-raisers or efforts to bring optometric care to the world during World Sight Day. Franconeri is a huge asset to the optometric community at NSU because she has a positive impact on students and faculty members. If the truth be told, she is like a pair of glasses— without her, student life at NSUCO would indeed be blurry. Eye Care Institute Provides Community Diabetic Eye Disease Education On March 26, NSU hosted American Diabetes Association Alert Day in the Carl DeSantis Building Courtyard on the main campus. Janet Leasher O.D., and Nicole Patterson O.D., represented NSUCO’s Eye Care Institute at this event, educating the community about diabetic eye disease and reminding attendees to have annual comprehensive eye exams, which The Eye Care Institute offers at five locations across Broward County. The event served as a one-day national wake-up call where attendees were asked to take the Diabetes Risk Test to discover if they were in jeopardy for developing type 2 diabetes. Early diag- nosis is critical to successful treatment and delaying or preventing some of its complications such as heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, stroke, amputation, and death. Attendees received educational information about diabetes as well as free blood glucose screen- ings, foot care and education, and vascular screenings. NSU is one of 10 locations in Broward County that partnered with the American Diabetes Association on this important event. THE V ISIONARY • S PRING /S UMMER 2013 — 5 News Briefs Fran Franconeri and Morvarid Fallahzadeh Dr. Feng Jiang Dr. Janet Leasher