MOA President Ryan Powell at Optometry's Meeting®.

Optometry's Meeting® 2010 in Orlando

The MOA was well represented at the 2010 Optometry's Meeting® held in Orlando, FL.

The opening General Session featured an interesting presentation by keynote speaker Frank Abagnale. Frank's life was the basis of the Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can.

Our MOA president, Dr. Ryan Powell, represented Missouri during the AOA House of Delegates opening ceremonies ably bearing the Missouri flag.

During the House of Delegates, two resolutions were passed this year.

  • The first resolution declared the support of the House of Delegates for the Drug Evaluation and Classification Program utilized by law enforcement and requested that members become familiar with the program.

  • The second resolution adopted designated Optometry Cares as the AOA's domestic charity of choice.

Elections were held for the officers and trustees of the AOA Board of Directors.

UMSL DelegationUMSL Students at Optometry's Meeting®

Also in attendance were more than 40 students from UMSL College of Optometry. For many of them, this was their first national meeting. "I monitored CE for 2 days and found it to be an easy way to meet and speak with doctors from various parts of the country," said Laura Ebbert. Tania Botts, a veteran student attendee found it to be "an honor as a student to get to attend this meeting, and have the opportunity to mingle with the people that started our profession!"

UMSL StudentsUMSL Students at Essilor Student Bowl.

Chris Boschen was UMSL's contestant in the Essilor Student Bowl. Chris, a 4th year student from Springfield, MO, made it all the way to the final round of the Jeopardy like knowledge bowl. All the UMSL students were joined by Drs. Howard McAlister, Jeffrey Weaver, Tim Wingert and LeeAnn Barrett in cheering Chris on. The MOA helped sponsor the students' trips to Orlando.

The meeting concluded with the Presidential Celebration sponsored by HOYA and featuring comedians Frank Caliendo and John Pinette.