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Craig Combs
School of Optometry
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Last modified: Friday, July 13, 2007

Indiana University's Edwin Marshall named Optometrist of the Year

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 13, 2007

Edwin Marshall

Edwin Marshall

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Dr. Edwin C. Marshall, a professor of optometry at the Indiana University School of Optometry and adjunct professor of public health at the IU School of Medicine, has been named the 2007 Optometrist of the Year by the American Optometric Association.

Marshall, also a graduate of the IU School of Optometry, has provided more than 35 years of service to optometry, aligning with its mission to protect and advance the health of the public. Just a year after graduating, he helped found the IU School of Optometry's first off-campus clinic designed to meet the vision and eye care needs of the community's underserved population. He was the clinic's first director.

Marshall served for more than 20 years as an optometric representative on the National Institutes of Health's National High Blood Pressure Education Program Coordinating Committee. He was appointed to a four-year term on the National Advisory Council on Health Professions Education by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1987. He is a founding member of both the Vision Care Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the IU School of Medicine's Department of Public Health. In 2002, Marshall was the first optometrist elected president of the Indiana Public Health Association. The following year, he became the first optometrist in the 132-year history of APHA to be elected chair of the executive board.

Marshall received an American Optometric Association (AOA) Healthy Eyes Healthy People State Association Grant in 2005 to develop the Indiana Optometric Association (IOA)-sponsored "Eye Care About My ABCs" program. The following year, he was elected to the Prevent Blindness Indiana Board of Directors and named chair of the board's program committee.

Marshall is a past president of the Indiana Optometric Association (IOA) and the National Optometric Association (NOA). For more than 20 years, he served as executive director of the NOA. He has served on numerous AOA committees and chaired the Information and Data Committee from 1986-1989.

Marshall, the 2006 IOA Optometrist of the Year, has received numerous awards and currently serves as the University Grand Marshal. The IOA previously honored him with the Distinguished Service to Optometry Award in 1998. In 2001, he received the State Health Commissioner Award for Excellence in Public Health. In 2005, the Indiana governor named him a Distinguished Hoosier, the second-highest honor given by the state.

The Indiana Public Health Foundation presented Marshall with the Tony and Mary Hulman Health Achievement Award in Public Health and Preventative Medicine in 1999. Marshall received AOA's Optometrist of the Year award on June 28, during the 110th Annual AOA Congress in Boston.

Marshall also serves as associate dean for Academic Affairs and Student Administration. He is also adjunct professor of public health at the IU School of Medicine.