Minnesota optometrist Dr. Mary Gregory is this year’s recipient of the Dr. W. David Sullins, Jr. InfantSEE Award.
The award is presented to a practitioner who goes above and beyond for the InfantSEE program, which, thanks to volunteer American Optometric Association optometrists, provides no-cost comprehensive eye and vision assessments for infants within the first year of life.
InfantSEE is a public health program managed by Optometry Cares – The AOA Foundation.
Dr. Gregory graduated from the University of Missouri at St. Louis College of Optometry and is a driving force behind the Minnesota Optometric Association’s (MOA) strong participation in InfantSEE, ranking it in the top five states for the program. Of Minnesota’s 641 InfantSEE assessments in 2013, Dr. Gregory provided 82 of those exams.
An instrumental leader in children’s eye care, Dr. Gregory chairs the MOA’s Children’s Vision Committee. She has designed several InfantSEE recruitment programs for the MOA and has made her voice heard in legislative efforts for quality early childhood eye care. She also recruits other doctors to participate in the program and put together a kit for her MOA colleagues to use in their offices to promote early childhood eye care.
To help families and educators understand the importance of children’s eye care, Dr. Gregory works tirelessly to promote the InfantSEE program to the community. She serves as a media spokesperson for the program in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro area and volunteers her time speaking to parents and teachers at local schools about children’s eye care.
The award is in honor of the late Dr. W. David Sullins, for his dedicated leadership in the profession of optometry. Dr. Gregory received the award during the AOA’s annual conference, Optometry’s Meeting®, which was held June 25-29 in Philadelphia.
For more information about the award, visit www.aoa.org/sullins.