News from the AOA's Blog

A few years ago, AOA membership staff and volunteers were looking at some updated statistics and found a trend: New graduates were not transitioning their membership from student status to active status. Conversations ensued and one day I got a phone call suggesting, “Why don’t you visit all of the schools and colleges of optometry during your years as president-elect and president? You look a little different than all the presidents that have served before you.” Read the rest of this entry ?

I’m sometimes asked, “Why on earth do you live where you live?” I thought of this the other night as I was driving and my entire view to the north was filled with the Northern Lights. They are spectacular. My best memories of growing up revolve around lying in the grass late at night watching nature perform for me. Read the rest of this entry ?

I’ve had the opportunity to visit most of the schools and colleges of optometry at this point.  Invariably, I get asked: “How did you first get involved in the AOA?” I wouldn’t have considered myself a political person. However I ran into some issues when my husband Mark and I opened our first practice. Someone told me I couldn’t do something BECAUSE I was an optometrist. Then insurance companies wouldn’t reimburse us for services we were skilled to do BECAUSE we were optometrists. I was raised to believe that it does no good to complain. If something isn’t right, change it. So I asked my state association how I could help, and the rest is history. Read the rest of this entry ?

A couple of weeks ago my son was sitting in the kitchen when he said, “Guess what I learned in school today? Women use more words in a day to communicate than men do.” Living in a houseful of men, I could have provided the testimonial on that, as could many of you who have only women in your household. 

Communication.  The word has been used a lot lately. It’s funny in a way that for the last two weeks  I’ve heard a lot about the lack of communication. In our Grafton office right now, we have a literal lack of communication. Freezing rains have brought down the lines that bring us access to the Internet! Read the rest of this entry ?

This time of year I find myself resolving and cleaning. Each year, Mark and I sit down to set our goals for the upcoming year. We started this the year we were married. It might have had something to do with opening our first practice within two years of our wedding, but regardless, we’ve kept up the tradition. Read the rest of this entry ?

This is the time of year when I find myself reflecting back and thinking of what I’m thankful for – things like my family, friends, time at home to reconnect with people I care about and the fact that it’s early December and there’s still no snow on the ground outside!

I’m thankful for the opportunity to visit the White House yet again this year. The most recent visit was to deliver the Joint Statement developed by the School Readiness Summit held last April. We had 31 different organizations sign the statement, which calls for comprehensive eye exams to be the foundation of children’s care, in order to make sure that they have every chance to succeed in school. Read the rest of this entry ?

I can’t walk 10 feet at a meeting without being asked, “Dori, can we talk to you for a minute?” or have a finger being pointed in my chest, followed by, “What are you (AOA) going to do about those schools?”   It makes for interesting conversations at times, and I thought I would open up that conversation to more than just those few individuals. Read the rest of this entry ?

And the earth shook in fear when I arrived in Washington, D.C., to visit with Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Okay, perhaps that’s a little bit of a stretch, but it is true to a certain extent. Read the rest of this entry ?

I grew up on a small grain farm in northern Minnesota with parents who never had anything beyond a high school education. My father was well-known for some of his sayings – many of which we repeat in our household to this day. One of his favorite sayings when I was a kid was, “When times get tough, they can take your house. They can take your car.  They can take all your worldly possessions, but they can never take away your education. You need to get an education.”  Read the rest of this entry ?

My 77-year-old patient, George (not his real name), was waiting for me to get home from Optometry’s Meeting® in Salt Lake City in June. On that Monday morning he appeared in my office stating that for the last few days he had been noticing intermittent episodes of blurry vision. He lives a half-hour from me and one and a half hours from any other provider. He knew there was something wrong, but traveling to another provider wasn’t something he could easily do. As it turned out, he was having intermittent angle-closure attacks, and I helped him get the care he needed. He’s doing well. Read the rest of this entry ?