2020 IACLE Award Winners
IACLE salutes the achievements of its 2020 Award winners
Contact lens educators from six countries – India, Malaysia, South Africa, the US, UK and Venezuela – are celebrating their success in the 2020 IACLE Awards. The meetings they will attend to receive their awards will be confirmed once COVID-19 restrictions allow.
The IACLE Contact Lens Educators of the Year – awarded by the International Association of Contact Lens Educators – recognize and reward achievements in contact lens education worldwide. Sponsored by CooperVision, and supported by the American Academy of Optometry, these prestigious awards are presented each year to an individual from each of IACLE’s global regions.
The 2020 winners are:
• IACLE Americas Contact Lens Educator of the Year
Professor Renée Reeder (above left)
University of Pikeville Kentucky College of Optometry, USA
• IACLE Asia Pacific Contact Lens Educator of the Year
Professor Bariah Mohd Ali (above center)
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• IACLE Europe/Africa – Middle East Contact Lens Educator of the Year
Jo Underwood (above right)
Association of British Dispensing Opticians College, Godmersham, UK
Professor Reeder commented: ‘This is such exciting news and such and incredible honor. I am so thankful to know that I have colleagues all over the world with the same struggles who are always willing to share and help. I hope that I can serve as a resource for them as well.’
The IACLE Travel Awards enable IACLE members to travel to international contact lens meetings and are funded by all the Industry Sponsors of IACLE (Alcon, CooperVision, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Bausch + Lomb and Euclid). These Awards are also supported by the Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators and by the American Academy of Optometry.
The 2020 recipients are:
• Dr Elizabeth Chetty (left)
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Elizabeth will attend the 2021 Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators (AOCLE) Annual Workshop, with kind support from AOCLE.
• Professor Martín Guzmán (center)
Universidad Nacional Experimental Romulo Gallegos, Zaraza, Venezuela
• Associate Professor Nirav Mehta (right)
Hari Jyot College of Optometry, Navsari, India
Professor Guzmán commented: ‘I am immensely honored to be chosen as the recipient of this award, taking into account the times we are currently going through and the relevance of knowledge in the different areas of health, and the potential contribution that we have ahead. It is our duty to continue studying in order to better serve our patients. This award will be fully used for that purpose.’
IACLE President Dr Shehzad Naroo added his congratulations to this year’s winners and acknowledged the support of the sponsors and supporters: ‘Each year the competition for the IACLE Awards gets stronger. Thank you to CooperVision for continuing to sponsor the Educator Awards. We are pleased to be able to offer three Travel Awards too and we have three worthy recipients. We are grateful to be able to make these awards with the support of all our sponsors,’ said Dr Naroo.
Find out more about this year’s Educator Award winners
And read more about the 2020 IACLE Travel Award recipients
Information on all IACLE membership benefits is available at www.iacle.org.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
