Optometric Education: Volume 48 Number 3 (Summer 2023)

Announcement

SCO Faculty Members Win ASCO’s
2023 Dr. Lester Janoff Award for Writing Excellence

Southern College of Optometry faculty members Melissa Zarn Urankar, OD, FAAO, Gregory S. Wolfe, OD, MPH, FAAO, FNAP, and Janette D. Pepper, OD, FCOVD, FAAO, are the winners of ASCO’s 2023 Dr. Lester Janoff Award for Writing Excellence.

The award recognizes an outstanding research paper published in the previous 2 years in ASCO’s online peer-reviewed journal, Optometric Education. A committee of members of the journal’s Editorial Review Board selects the winning paper based on significance of the topic chosen, quality of the paper and potential impact. Read this year’s winner ― “Training Implicit Bias and Awareness of the Impact of Systemic Racism on Health: a Preliminary Study of Second-Year Optometry Students” ― at the journal website. Aurora Denial, OD, FAAO, DAAO (OE), talks more about the paper’s impact in this video presented during ASCO’s Annual Business Meeting.

The award is named in honor of the late Dr. Lester E. Janoff, who was Editor of the journal from 2002-2005 and a longtime member of the Editorial Review Board. Dr. Janoff was known not only as an exceptional optometric educator, administrator, contact lens clinician and researcher but also as a beloved mentor of young writers. The winners of the writing excellence award receive certificates and $2,000, which is divided among the authors.