Envision University Honors Leaders in Vision Care at 2024 AOA Conference | Envision Blog

Envision University Honors Leaders in Vision Care at 2024 AOA Conference

By Beth Walker • Jul 29, 2024
Lou standing with Joan Stelmack as she holds her award.

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Envision University leaders recently attended the annual American Optometric Association (AOA) Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The AOA is the leading authority on quality care, representing more than 50,000 Doctors of Optometry (O.D.), optometric professionals and optometry students. Envision University had a booth to share the latest initiatives on continuing education and research opportunities offered by Envision University that aim to close practice gaps for low vision rehabilitation professionals.   

Every year at AOA, Envision sponsors an award called the Jerry P. Davidoff Vision Care Award. This award is given annually to a Doctor of Optometry who is active in a clinical low vision rehabilitation practice setting and has demonstrated a long-standing contribution and shared knowledge with fellow practitioners for the betterment of low vision rehabilitation eye care. This year’s recipient was Dr. Joan Stelmack, a Veterans Affairs Optometrist of 35 years and Clinical Associate Professor at the Illinois Eye and Infirmary and Director of the Low Vision Service. Her research is focused on rehabilitation outcomes and includes two multi-center randomized Low Vision Intervention Trials (LOVIT and LOVIT II) to evaluate the effectiveness of low vision outpatient services.  

 Lou Celli, Executive Director of the Envision Research Institute, attended the AOA Conference and presented this year’s award to Dr. Stelmack.  

He shares his congratulations, stating, “On behalf of the hundreds of Envision employees who are blind or have low vision, our leadership, and the CEO of Envision, Michael Monteferrante, Envision is proud to sponsor the Dr. Jerry P. Davidoff Vision Care Award. We are delighted to present this award to Dr. Joan Stelmack. As a lifelong public servant and 22-year U.S. Army veteran, Dr. Stelmack's 45-year career serving our Nation's veterans at the Edward Hines and Jessy Brown VA hospitals in Chicago would be considered commendable enough. Combining that with her dedication to the vision rehabilitation community by mentoring, teaching, conducting research, and her passion to help developing physicians, makes her an obvious choice to be the recipient of this prestigious award. Congratulations, Dr. Stelmack."