From The Trussville Rotary Daybreak Club
TRUSSVILLE — 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 (DEWS, DEWS II, Contact Lens Discomfort, and MGD workshops), 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.
Other upcoming speakers expected to speak to the Club through Zoom include:
Mike Harrell, Security Engineer with UAB Medicine. Harrell will speak on March 3. He is responsible for employee security awareness training and manages the threat intelligence program. He has over 30 years in information technology with the last ten years focused on information data security.
Hewitt-Trussville (HT) Varsity Baseball Coach Jeff Mauldin and HT Head Softball Coach Taylor Burt. These two successful coaches will provide an update on the upcoming baseball and softball seasons. HT Athletic Director Lance Walker will also join them at the March 10 meeting.
Award-winning director, cinematographer, and editor, Brian Reed. Reed’s short films and documentaries have screened around the globe. His first feature-length film, Awakened, was released and distributed by Word Films in 2016. Reed will present to the group on March 17.
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 a project, email Diane Poole at dianepoole1225@centurytel.net.