UAB Optometry Dean, others speak to Rotarians

Dr. Kelly Nichols, Dean of the UAB School of Optometry since 2014, recently spoke to the Trussville Rotary Daybreak Club through Zoom about how the pandemic has affected the school’s operations and how they have adapted using CDC guidelines. 

She also shared about some of the organization’s outreach programs in areas such as the Black Belt. Dr. Nichols received her Doctor of Optometry degree from the University of California at Berkeley, completed a residency in ocular disease at Omni Eye Specialists of Colorado, and earned her MPH in biostatistics and PhD in vision science at Ohio State University. Prior to her appointment at UAB appointment, Dr. Nichols was a professor at the University of Houston, College of Optometry, where she co-founded and served as Executive Director for the Ocular Surface Institute, a translational research institute focused on bench-to-bedside research on ocular surface conditions. 

Earlier, Dr. Nichols was faculty at the Ohio State University College of Optometry. She currently serves as a medical adviser to the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation, has served extensively on the executive board and for the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society and on each of the steering committees and is a founding member of Ocular Surface Society of Optometry. A leading expert in dry eye disease, Dr. Nichols is or has been on the editorial boards of the journals Optometry and Vision Science, and The Ocular Surface, and is extensively published.

The Club currently meets at 7 a.m. on the first through fourth Wednesday mornings of each month, mostly by Zoom. For more information on the Trussville Rotary Daybreak Club, or to help with one of our projects, please email Diane Poole at dianepoole1225@centurytel.net.

– Submitted by Diane Poole.