2022 ISVA Annual Conference Speakers
Emmanuel Alabi OD, PhD., FAAO
Emmanuel Alabi O.D., PhD., FAAO is a graduate from the University of Waterloo and is the in-house optometrist and lead research scientist at ICS Laboratories. Dr. Alabi is responsible for special projects at ICS Labs where his area of research spans the ocular surface, ophthalmic optics, eye/face protection and military combat ocular protection. Dr. Alabi holds appointments in the ANSI Z80 committee on ophthalmic optics, ANSI Z87 committee on occupational eye and face protection and he is a USA representative to the ISO/TC94/SC6 “occupational eye and face protection”.
Alex Andrich, OD, FCOVD
Dr. Alexandar Andrich is a graduate of The Ohio State University College of Optometry and is in private practice in North Royalton, Ohio. He lectures on the topics of pediatric/infant vision, binocular vision disorders, sports vision, neuro-optometric rehabilitation and learning-related vision disorders. In addition to providing Vision Therapy, Sports Vision, and Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation services at his private practice, he is also on staff in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation departments at University Hospitals Parma Medical Center and the MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute of Ohio. In addition to serving as the president of the International Sports Vision Association, Dr. Andrich is a vision coach for the Cleveland Indians, and Cleveland Monsters hockey team. He is professionally involved at state, national and international levels. When he is not busy with optometry, Dr. Andrich enjoys spending time with his family, playing tennis, and mountain biking.
Patti Andrich, OTR/L, COVT, CINPP
Patti Andrich MA, OTR/L, COVT, CINPP is an Advisory Member to the Board of the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA), an inter-disciplinary group of professionals dedicated to providing patients who have physical or cognitive disabilities as a result of an acquired brain injury with a complete ocular health evaluation and optimum visual rehabilitation education and services to improve their quality of life.
Patti is an occupational therapist known for her success in treating individuals with difficulties in visual-motor, visual-perceptual, auditory perception and vestibular functioning.
Patti received her Master degree from The Ohio State University College of Education and her occupational therapy degree from the Cleveland State University Department of Health Sciences. Additionally, she holds certification in auditory processing using The Listening Program with Bone Conduction from Advanced Brain Technologies and is certified in CINPP primitive reflex integration techniques; having studied in England under the direction of Sally Goddard at the Institute of Neurological Physiological Psychology (INPP).
Patti is a certified vision therapist, member of The Optometric Extension Program as well as the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, the recipient of several honors and awards and has been a guest speaker for local, state, national and international conferences.
Greg Appelbaum, Ph.D.
Greg Appelbaum, Ph.D. is a Professor at the University of California, San Diego where he heads the Human Performance Optimization Lab (Opti Lab). His research addresses the brain mechanisms underlying visual-motor control, and how these systems can be improved thorough behavioral, neurofeedback, and neuromodulatory interventions. Since 2011, Dr. Appelbaum has been conducting DARPA and Army Research Office-funded research addressing the role of vision, and vision training in sports. This line of research has included randomized and controlled studies testing vision training interventions, has been conducted with thousands of athletes at all levels of accomplishment, and has led to over a dozen research articles and three review articles.
Paul Brewer, OD
Dr. Paul Brewer graduated from Southern California College of Optometry and is the founder of Diverge Sports Vision, which is dedicated innovating the field of sports vision training and sports performance.
Dr. Brewer has lectured and trained on sports vision and concussions at several universities, conferences, and sports camps. Currently, he is part of a team researching the impact of vision training on sports performance and physical education.
He currently consults and trains athletes and coaches in Idaho and several other states, who compete in amateur and professional teams. Some of the sports he has trained are football, baseball, basketball, soccer, rugby, volleyball, softball, golf, lacrosse, motor cross, Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, competitive shooting, boxing, mixed martial arts, tennis, water polo, ice hockey, skiing and snowboarding.
Dr. Brewer grew up in the North Shore of Oahu and has played many sports growing up, focusing on water polo in high school and college. He is a former high school head coach for girls water polo, in which he led them to a division championship. Dr. Brewer’s wife is currently an Olympic weightlifter for the USA who has competed in international competitions. Together they have a business that trains athletes in proper weight lifting techniques and functional movements.
Nathaniel Cabrera
Nathaniel Cabrera has played hockey at a competitive level as a goalie for 28 years and coaching for 10 years. He started with professional roller hockey in Southern California for 2 years before making the switch to ice hockey. He played ice hockey at Utah State University and is currently with the Park City Pioneers, a Semi-Pro Senior A hockey team. For the past 3 years, he has served as an assistant coach and goalie coach for the Cache Valley Wild High School Hockey Team and helped lead them to win the State Championship in 2021. Nathaniel started sports vision training with Dr. Davies and has seen improvements in his depth perception, reaction time, and puck tracking increasing his save percentage significantly. He became passionate about vision training, and now works at Utah Vision Development Center as the Director of Sports Vision Training. Sports Vision Training has become an integral part of his coaching and playing regimen.
Adam Clarin, OD
Adam J. Clarin, OD is the owner of Clarin Eye Care Center, one of South Miami’s premier optometry practices. In 2017, Dr. Clarin founded Miami Sports Vision, Miami’s only optometric-directed sports vision training program. He has worked with Florida International University’s baseball team and works with both professional and amateur athletes. He received his B.S., cum laude, from the University of Florida, with a major in Psychology. He then went on to obtain a B.S. degree in Vision Science before earning his Doctor of Optometry degree, with honors, from Nova Southeastern University.
Jarrod Davies, OD, FCOVD
Jarrod Davies, OD, FCOVD currently practices in South Jordan, Utah as the clinical director of Utah Vision Development Center. He specializes in vision rehabilitation and sports vision performance training. Dr. Davies has worked with many athletes including baseball, tennis, hockey, golf, football and ski team members on both a professional and amateur level. He also frequently lectures on topics including sports vision training, concussion rehabilitation, binocular vision, and vision therapy.
Dr. Davies is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Southern College of Optometry where he was honored with numerous awards and scholarships.
In addition to being a founding member of the International Sports Vision Association, Dr. Davies is Past-President of the Utah Optometric Association. In 2013, he was voted the Utah Optometric Association Young Optometrist of the Year. In 2015 he was awarded the Utah Optometric Association Optometrist of the Year, and in 2018, was honored by this organization with an ISVA Award of Service.
Frederick R. Edmunds, OD, FAAO
Frederick R. Edmunds, OD, F.A.A.O. established and runs the XTREMESIGHT Performance Clinic, a sports vision only practice devoted to visual performance enhancement of athletes.
In addition to his work with professional and collegiate teams, Dr. Edmunds provides custom programs for elite level youth and high school athletes. He also offers sports vision practice management services to his fellow eye care professionals.
Previously, Dr. Edmunds worked for Bausch & Lomb and was awarded ‘Sports Vision Optometrist of the Year” for his efforts to promote sports vision worldwide through the Olympic Vision Center. Additionally, he was involved in the development of a novel sport-tinted contact lens, NIKE MAXSIGHT, designed to enhance the visual performance of athletes. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and currently a member of the American Optometric Association’s Sports & Performance Vision Committee. He lectures internationally and has published numerous articles on sports vision and contact lenses.
Graham Erickson, OD, FAAO, FCOVD
Graham Erickson, OD, FAAO, FCOVD is a professor at Pacific University College of Optometry, and currently teaches the Vision Therapy, Strabismus/Amblyopia and Sports Vision courses. He is the coordinator of the Vision Therapy/Rehabilitation and Pediatric Optometry residency at Pacific University.
He has worked with collegiate, Olympic and professional sports athletes and teams for more than 25 years. Dr. Erickson has authored the text Sports Vision: Vision Care for the Enhancement of Sports Performance, as well as co-authoring the text Optometric Management of Reading Dysfunction, and published chapters and articles in various professional journals. He lectures internationally on the topics of sports vision, pediatrics, and binocular vision.
Nicklaus Fogt, Ph.D.
Dr. Nick Fogt is a professor at the Ohio State University College of Optometry, where he has been a faculty member since 1996. He earned his OD, MS, and PhD degrees from the Ohio State University. Dr. Fogt's research is primarily related to vergence eye movements, fixation disparity, and head and eye coordination. He teaches courses in retinal disease, systemic disease, and eye movements at the College of Optometry.
Solomon Gould, OD, MBA
Dr. Solomon Gould is a professional speaker, practice management consultant, author and practice owner of two private practices in the Twin Cities. As a 4th generation optometrist with over 14 years of consulting experience for both the private and public sectors, Dr. Gould brings an unforeseen depth of knowledge, experience and insight to the industry. To date, Dr. Gould has helped elevate over 40 practices and large-scale private equity-based firms in the ophthalmic industry to their fullest potential. When not serving his patients or presenting, Dr. Gould enjoys writing articles on Practice Management for various business and clinical platforms.
Dr. Gould completed his undergraduate training at Luther College in Decorah, IA where he triple majored in Biology, Chemistry and Spanish. Dr. Gould then completed his Doctorate of Optometry at the New England College of Optometry in Boston, MA. To further cement his passion for business, Dr. Gould completed his M.B.A. at Southern New Hampshire University with an emphasis in Health Care Administration.
Lawrence Lampert, OD, FCOVD
Dr. Lampert has been involved in Sports Vision Training for over 30 years. He is one of a select number of people in his field with a fellowship in developmental vision and vision training.
Dr. Lampert is the author of THE PRO’S EDGE: VISION TRAINING FOR GOLF and has worked with PGA and LPGA touring pros. He has worked with players from the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Twins, Japanese Baseball League, PGA and LPGA golfers, USTA tennis players and world-class international Olympic athletes
Dr. Lampert has been featured on The Golf Channel, NBC Sports, Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, Sportsvision Magazine, Wall Street Journal, as well as other national and local TV and Radio shows.
Joshua Lander, DC, MS, DACNB, CSCS
Dr. Lander DC, MS, DACNB, CSCS is a chiropractic physician with specialty board certification in neurology. He has provided rehabilitative care in private practice since 2001. Dr. Lander also holds a master’s degree in Exercise Science & Nutrition and is an adjunct professor (neural science) in the Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Science at Sacred Heart University (Fairfield, CT). He is currently the section editor of Neurologic & Neurodegenerative Disease for the Journal of Exercise Physiology. Dr. Lander is a nationally accomplished triathlete and former All-American collegiate boxer.
Louisa Nicola
Louisa Nicola is a Sydney-trained neuroscientist and neurophysiologist serving as the head performance advisor at Neuro Athletics, a small multi-enterprise venture, where she consults professional athletes, teams, and portfolio managers. Under the brand umbrella of Neuro Athletics, there are two distinct groups: a consulting practice and a portfolio of digital products. Both of these groups are supported by a research team composed of research analysts in the field of neuroscience, health, and life sciences.
Dale Pfriem
Dale Pfriem is the founder (est. 1995) of ICS Laboratories, the first internationally accredited (ISO/IEC 178025) laboratory in the U.S. directed to the testing and conformity assessment Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). He currently functions there as CEO. He is also the principal of Protective Equipment Consulting Services, a consulting firm established in 2005 providing regulatory compliance and litigation support services directed to PPE.
Mr. Pfriem serves as a Subject Matter Expert to numerous ANSI, CSA, ASTM and ISO standards for PPE. He is the U.S. Chair to ISO for all standards regarding PPE and the Chair of ASTM Committee F08.57 which serves to write and publish standards directed to Eye Protection Devices for Sports and Recreational use as utilized in the U.S. by various sport & game authorities (e.g. U.S. Squash, USA Racquetball, U.S. Lacrosse, National Federation of High School Sports).
Walter Potaznick, OD, FAAO
Dr. Potaznick has been an associate professor at the New England College of Optometry (NECO) since 1986. He retired from the NECO faculty in 2016 where his last assignments include serving as a lab instructor for Principles and Practice of Optometry II, and teaching the elective courses to third-year optometry students in clinical problem based learning and in performance (sports) vision. Additionally, Dr. Potaznick is a private practitioner at Cornerstone at Dedham Square and at Cornerstone Optometric, both primary care practices with sports vision and vision therapy specialties. He also lectures at local, national, and international events.
Dr. Potaznick has 46 years of experience as an optometrist, including 20 years as Director of Eye Care Services at the South Boston Community Health Center. He has clinical research experience in the disciplines of public health, pharmacology, epidemiology, and the detection of diabetes, and was the first optometrist to publish on the topic of ocular manifestations of chronic fatigue syndrome. Dr. Potaznick has been a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry since 1989 and is a member of the Academy’s Education/Quality Assurance committee. He is also a member of the American Optometric Association and of VOSH International. Dr. Potaznick is a COPE/ARBO lecture reviewer. Throughout his career, Dr. Potaznick has contributed to optometric education and to the profession itself in South Africa. He works with the South African Graduate Institute of Optometry, advising them on clinical development and patient care, and conducts workshops throughout the country. He teaches as a guest lecturer at four of the country’s five colleges of optometry. In 1997, while on sabbatical in South Africa, he was a consultant optometrist for the South Africa Red Cross Flying Doctors Service, with whom he conducted research on the impact that taking measurements of patients’ blood pressure has on vision screenings. This research led the Flying Doctors to incorporate blood pressure measurements into both their vision and their dental screenings.
Dr. Potaznick earned his doctor of optometry degree from the Massachusetts College of Optometry in 1976. In 1977, Dr. Potaznick completed the first clinical fellowship offered in pediatrics. He is a former president of the College’s Alumni Association and was the 1996 recipient of the Alumni Service Award.
Charles Shidlofsky, OD, FCOVD – President
Charles Shidlofsky, O.D., FCOVD is Clinical Director of Neuro-Vision Associates of North Texas, a specialty clinic serving children and adults with neurological vision issues. He is a member of the medical staff at Baylor Scott and White Institute for Rehabilitation-Frisco, Dallas and Ft. Worth.
Dr. Shidlofsky also serves as a consultant for several Texas-based rehabilitation centers, including the Centre for Neuro Skills and Pate Rehabilitation. He is residency director for a private practice residency in vision rehabilitation through Southern College of Optometry.
He is also the team vision consultant for the Dallas Stars (NHL), Allen Americans (ECHL) and FC Dallas (MSL). In addition, he is Vice President of the Neuro Optometric Rehabilitation Association. (NORA).
Jennifer Stewart, OD
Dr. Jennifer Stewart is an optometrist, speaker, writer, consultant, and entrepreneur. She is a partner at Norwalk Eye Care and has been involved in the optometric community for almost 20 years.
She is a nationally recognized speaker, with a passion for helping optometrists and organizations with operations, optical success, contact lens sales and practice management through her company OD Perspectives. She is an established writer and has been featured in most optometric publications. She is a delegate for the NECO Alumni Board, a Director for the Connecticut Association of Optometrists, and a Member Director for IDOC. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New England College of Optometry.
With a deep interest in sports vision, Dr. Stewart is the Co-Founder and Chief Vision Officer for Performance 20/20 which provides services for sports and performance vision training. She is a recipient of the Theia Award for Innovation by Women in Optometry and serves on the Executive Board for the International Sports Vision Association.
Dr. Stewart is passionate about sports safety, enhancing performance, and helping business owners achieve their goals. An avid Disney fan, she lives her life by the quote “if you can dream it, you can do it.” She is inspired to help others with their dreams.
Alireza Somji, OD
Alireza Somji, OD is owner of a private practice in greater Houston and founder of 20/20 Athlete; a visual performance service in his main practice. Dr. Somji is a consultant to the Houston Dynamo FC MLS soccer team and is on the medical team for the Sugar Land Skeeters minor league baseball team. He works with recreational and professional athletes and is passionate about elevating athletic performance through sports vision training.
Dr. Somji's clinical interests are visual performance, concussions, dry eye, myopia management, hybrid and scleral contact lenses. He has lectured on contact lens considerations for athletes and presents on sports performance vision to Athletic Trainers in Texas. He is also a regional leader with the Professional Eye Care Associates of America. He loves helping other ODs and is an adjunct clinical faculty at the University of Houston College of Optometry where he graduated from in 2011.
James M. Stringham, Ph.D
Dr. Stringham earned his doctorate in experimental psychology and neuroscience from the University of New Hampshire in 2003, and did postdoctoral training at both Harvard Medical School and the Medical College of Georgia. He has since held positions at the University of Georgia, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and most recently the Duke Eye Center.
Nearly all of his research has been geared toward understanding visual and cognitive benefits of proper nutrition. Recently, he became the Chief Scientific Officer of MacuHealth, where he is investigating new ways that nutrition can benefit visual and cognitive performance in athletes, visual and systemic health in those with metabolic disease, and neural health and development in children.
Joan Vickers, Ph.D.
Dr. Joan Vickers is a Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She has over 100 refereed publications in peer reviewed journals, as well as a number of books, book chapters, videos and other publications in the areas of vision, cognition, and motor performance. She discovered the “quiet eye”, which is a perceptual-motor characteristic of elite performers in sport, surgery, law enforcement and other motor skills. The quiet eye begins before a critical phase of the movement and is longer for experts during successful performance. Theoretically, the quiet eye represents the time needed to organize the neural networks underlying the control of the movement. Quiet eye training helps novices adopt an expert's quiet eye, leading to greater improvements in both the quiet eye and accuracy compared to traditional training.
Dr. Vickers has worked extensively with coaches and athletes at the Olympic, World, National and local level, as well as with surgeons, police officers, and individuals in other professional areas. Her research has been featured on Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda, on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Golf Digest, New York Times, PBS, The Discovery Channel, ABC FiveThirtyEight, and many other media outlets. Her website quieteyesolutions.com provides more information about the quiet eye and quiet eye training. Many of her papers are available. or can be requested on ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/.
Joshua Watt, OD, FCOVD
Joshua Watt, OD, FCOVD is the clinical director of Impact Vision Therapy, a multi-location referral-based vision therapy specialty practice. Dr. Watt specializes in learning related vision therapy, neuro-optometric rehabilitation, and sports vision training. He works with a lot of everyday athletes to help them achieve their best.
After dealing with years of struggles due to his own visual deficits, he knows how important a good functioning visual system is to performance. He currently serves as the Chair of the American Optometric Association Sports and Performance Vision Committee. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Southern College of Optometry.
