Speakers for 28th Annual VOSH Meeting November 7, 2020

Sandra Block, OD, MEd, MPH, FAAO, FCOVD, FNAP

Dr. Block received her degree from Illinois College of Optometry (1981), and then completed a Pediatric Residency. In 1988, she completed her M.Ed. and 2015 her MPH. She has been a consultant to Special Olympics since 1995 and was instrumental in developing the vision program protocols used globally.

Dr. Block recently retired as a professor at ICO.  She has been the Medical Director for the Illinois Eye Institute at the Princeton Elementary School –a school-based vision clinic serving Chicago Public Schools since 2011.

Dr. Block has authored numerous articles and conducted presentations nationally and internationally.  She was one of the authors of the first vision report from the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine. She is member of the American Academy of Optometry and American Optometric Association and sits on the Board of Prevent Blindness. She is a fellow and Diplomate in the American Academy of Optometry, as well as, a Fellow in College of Optometrists in Visual Development, Co-chair of the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health (HRSA), Chair of the Public Health Committee of the World Council of Optometry and is past Chair for the National Academy of Practice in Optometry.  She is currently a member of a Technical Advisory Group for a WHO working group on Eye Care Packages in response to the World Report on Vision.

Audrey Blondin, Esq., MPH, VOSH-Connecticut

Audrey Blondin has been a practicing Attorney in Torrington, CT for over 40 years. She and her daughter Attorney Rose Blondin Shea have Litchfield County’s only mother-daughter law firm, practicing in the areas of real estate, probate, wills and estate planning, bankruptcy and business law including the buying and selling of optometry practices. She currently serves as Secretary of the Connecticut Democratic Party and is a former member of the Connecticut Judicial Selecting Commission. For the past 20 years, since founding VOSH-CT with her husband. Dr. Matthew Blondin in 2001, she has organized and supervised all aspects of 19 eyecare missions to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua as well as a mission to Emporia, VA with RAM/USA in 2019. For her service Attorney Blondin was recently honored with the Citizen of the Law Award by the Connecticut Bar Association in 2020. She is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University, Temple University School of Law and holds a Masters in Public Health degree from the University of Connecticut where she received the Susan S. Addiss Award for demonstrated leadership, public health advocacy and commitment to the health of the community. Dr. & Attorney Blondin have 3 children, Dr. Nicholas Blondin, a neuro-oncologist at Yale Smilow Cancer Center, Dr. Joseph Blondin, an endodontist in Poughkeepsie, NY and Attorney Rose Blondin Shea, along with 6 grandchildren and a foster child from Nicaragua, Orlando Sevilla and 3 foster grandchildren.

Matthew Blondin, OD, MPH, VOSH-Connecticut

Dr. Matthew Blondin has been a practicing optometrist in Torrington, CT for over 40 years. He currently practices along with his son-in-law, Dr. Michael Shea at Blondin Shea Eye Care LLC. He currently serves as Chairman of the Connecticut State Board of Optometry and also holds a Masters in Public Health Degree from the University of Connecticut. In 2001 he and his wife Attorney Audrey Blondin founded VOSH-CT and have helped provide eye care to over 50,000 residents of the San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua area over the past 20 years. As the clinic director, he has helped supervise all aspects of the missions, including local area volunteers, optometrists, opticians, optometry students, translators and other mission helpers. He and his wife also organized a mission to Emporia, VA in conjunction with RAM/USA in 2019. Dr. Blondin is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Pennsylvania College of Optometry – Salus University and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry as well as a Diplomate in the American Board of Optometry

Deepa Chandrasekaran, OD, MS, FAAO, IACLE

Deepa Chandrasekaran, OD graduated from Pacific University – School of Optometry in 2004 and did her Master’s in Vision Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She teaches at the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and is affiliated with the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Chandrasekaran specialises in contact lenses and low vision. 

Derrick March, VOSH-TWECS (British Columbia, Canada)

Immediate Past President (2019-2021)

Tracy L. Matchinski, OD, FAAO, FVI, Immediate Past President, VOSH/International

Dr. Matchinski graduated from the Illinois College of Optometry in 1995 and completed her residency at the William Feinbloom Low Vision Rehabilitation Center of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 1996.  She splits her time between The Chicago Lighthouse for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired and is on the faculty at the Illinois College of Optometry working in Low Vision Rehabilitation.  She has been practicing Low Vision Care for 18 years and has a special interest in pediatric Low Vision Rehabilitation.  Dr. Matchinski is a Low Vision Diplomate of the American Academy of Optometry and has lectured both nationally and internationally on Low Vision Rehabilitation.  Dr. Matchinski is currently the Coordinator the Rosenbloom Low Vision Rehabilitation Service at the Illinois Eye Institute and the Low Vision class coordinator for third year optometry students.  She is the president of VOSH- Illinois, active in the CURE Network locally and faculty advisor to SVOSH at ICO.

Bina Patel, OD, FAAO, Professor and Director of the Center for the International Advancement of Optometry at the New England College of Optometry

Dr. Bina Patel is Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Disease and is the director of the Center for the International Advancement of Optometry at the New England College of Optometry (NECO).  At the Center, she coordinates and implements international programs in countries seeking to upgrade their optometric degree programs. She has significant international teaching experience in primary care optometry with an emphasis on ocular disease, including in Brazil, China, Colombia, and Germany and providing continuing education lectures in Mexico, Italy, and South Africa. She serves on several committees within the College and is currently chair of the curriculum affairs committee and faculty.  

Dr. Patel is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a member of the American Optometric Association. She currently is member of the Education Committee of the World Council of Optometry (WCO), and International Optometric Education of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry.  In 2010, she was the chair of the steering committee for the 6th World Conference on Optometric Education held in Durban, South Africa and has been member of the Scientific Committee of the 1st World Congress of Optometry in Medellin, Colombia, the 2nd World Congress of Optometry in Hyderabad, India and 3^rd World Congress of Optometry in Orlando, USA. She represents WCO in the working group for diabetic retinopathy of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). 

Dr Patel is also a member of VOSH-ONE and was a Board member of VOSH/International.

Dr. Patel is a certified reader in telemedicine for the Joslin Vision Network at The Joslin Diabetes Center’s Beetham Eye Institute in Boston and is actively involved with VOSH-ONE

Dr. Patel has been awarded the Dupuis-Pellerin Award for Faculty Excellence and the Carroll Martus Award for outstanding clinical instruction. She was awarded International Optometrist of the year by WCO in 2015 and Humanitarian of the Year Award from VOSH International in 2016. Dr. Patel earned her OD degree from Indiana University and completed her residency training in higher diagnostics and therapeutics with North-eastern State University College of Optometry in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Marina Roma March, OD, FVI, VOSH-TWECS (British Columbia, Canada)

Emiliano Teran Bobadillas, PHD, Professor and Researcher, Autonomous Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mexico

Emiliano Terán Bobadilla, PhD

El Dr. Terán es docente e investigador científico del Programa de Optometría y del Facultad de Ciencias Físico-Matemáticas de la Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa. Estudió la Licenciatura en Física, la Maestría en Ciencias en Óptica Física y el Doctorado en Ciencias en Óptica Física en el Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada. Actualmente es Coordinador del Comité de Educación de ALDOO, además miembro del Comité de Salud Pública. Actualmente es asesor para el área de América Latina de VOSH/Internacional. Ha publicado diversos artículos de investigación y 4 libros. El más reciente a principios de este año, intitulado ‘El ladrón del sueño. El impacto negativo de la luz azul en el ciclo circadiano’.

Dr Terán is a lecturer and scientific researcher at the optometry program and at the faculty of physical-mathematical sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mexico.  Dr Terán has a degree in physics, a master of sciences on physical optics and a PhD on the science of physical optics obtained at the Ensenada Center of Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE), Mexico. He is the chair of the Education Committee and a member of the Public Health Committee of the Latin American Association of Optometry and Optics (ALDOO).  He is a member of the newly established Latin American Advisory Committee of VOSH/International.  Dr Teran has published several research papers and four books.  In early 2021, Dr Teran published the book “The thief of dreams. The negative impact of blue light in the circadian cycle”. 

Jerry E. Vincent, OD, MPH, FAAO

Jerry Vincent is a public health optometrist who has spent most of the past 25 years working in complex humanitarian emergencies. Based in Thailand he was the blindness prevention advisor for the International Rescue Committee where he provided technical support and oversight to IRC health programs world-wide. Dr Vincent is recognized as the leading authority in the provision of eye care in conflict, disaster and crisis affected populations. Jerry writes, speaks and lectures internationally, serves in advisory capacities to several international eye organizations and has had faculty affiliations with optometry schools on three different continents. He has won numerous awards including being named the International Optometrist of the Year by the World Council of Optometry in 2006.