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• Also Notable

This year’s Optometry’s Meeting, an annual event hosted by the American Optometric Association (AOA), held in Denver, in late June, featured an update by the organization’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force on how it has worked toward making the AOA and the entire profession more inclusive to minority groups.

Specifically, Jacqueline M. Bowen, O.D., chair of the task force, highlighted these efforts:

• The AOA Leadership Institute. This project gives diverse young O.D.s tools and encouragement to become leaders in their local and state AOA affiliates as well as in the main AOA. This year’s institute is comprised of 130 optometrists.
• Related courses. This year’s Optometry’s Meeting offered courses on diversity, equity, inclusion and cultural competency.
• Being Black in optometry report. This recently published report includes interviews with Black AOA members regarding their personal experiences in the profession. (See bit.ly/3hwpm7A .)
• One-time stipends. The Opportunities in Optometry grants program, put together by the AOA and American Optometric Student Association, gifts one-time stipends to future optometry students who have been underrepresented in optometry. Five applicants received the first grants in May.

• Resolution amendments. The AOA’s House of Delegates passed two amendments to existing resolutions: One highlights addressing gaps in optometric education access for those traditionally underrepresented in optometry, and the second amendment is made up of changes to the optometric oath, which now include a commitment to health equity in all communities.
• Promoting awareness about the profession to students at historically black colleges. The AOA helped push “Impact HBCU,” a forum by Black EyeCare Perspectives. (See blackeyecareperspective.com .)
  The AOA’s DEI Task Force made a commitment to support growing a more diverse AOA and optometric profession in July 2020 and also includes AOA Trustees Steven T. Reed, O.D., and Lori L. Grover, O.D., Ph.D., and Trustee Teri K. Geist, O.D. OM