Optometry Hall of Fame to induct IU professor

Edwin C. Marshall, vice president for diversity, equity and multicultural affairs and professor of optometry at IU, will be inducted Friday into the National Optometry Hall of Fame in recognition of his contributions to his profession.

Marshall will be inducted in Washington, D.C., at Optometry’s Meeting, the official annual meeting of the American Optometric Association and the American Optometric Student Association. He will join 47 other people – including four with ties to IU – in the organization’s hall of fame, according to an IU press release.

An optometry professor at IU for more than 30 years, Marshall has frequently been recognized for his scholarship, teaching ability and professional advocacy. A past president of the Indiana Optometric Association and the
Indiana Public Health Association, Marshall was named Optometrist of the Year by the American Optometric Association in 2007, according to the press release.

“This is a wonderful recognition of Dr. Marshall’s commitment and contributions to the community,” IU School of Optometry Interim Dean Sarita Soni said. “I am happy to see him join two other IU School of Optometry alumni and two extraordinary faculty who have been previously honored by the National Optometry Hall of Fame.”

Other members of the hall with ties to IU include Henry “Hank” Hofstetter, the founding dean of the IU School of Optometry; Irving Borish, for whom the IU Borish Center for Ophthalmic Research is named; Melvin D. Shipp, an IU optometry alumnus who today is dean of the College of Optometry at Ohio State University; and Joan Exford, an IU alumna and a past president of the American Academy of Optometry, according to the press release.

“It speaks volumes about the quality of the program ... not only the training aspect of the School of Optometry, but also about its history of giving back,” Marshall said of his predecessors and their connections to IU in the statement. “We teach students that, yes, it’s important that you’re good at what you do clinically, but you also have to be engaged in the larger community in which you live and serve.”

The Hall of Fame recognizes distinguished men and women who have made exceptional and enduring lifetime contributions to the profession of optometry.

“It’s great to be recognized like this so early in my career,” Marshall said in the statement. “I look at it as a signal award in terms of a composite of what one has contributed so far.”