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Dr. Janet Leasher

Dr. Janet Leasher is an Assistant Professor of Optometry at the Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry since June 2003. Current teaching assignments include the vision screening courses OPT 3741 and OPT 4941 and advising in the binocular vision clinics. As Director of Outreach for the College of Optometry, she directs the vision-screening program and is responsible for creating effective outreach strategies to provide quality vision services to our community. She continues to consult with international visual health and development programs, in particular in Latin America. Her research interests surround program evaluation and global access to quality vision care.

Dr. Leasher received her doctor of optometry degree from Pacific University College of Optometry in 1986. She practiced full-scope optometry in a private practice in Portland, Oregon and served as adjunct clinical professor at Pacific University College of Optometry, faculty advisor and founder of the Amigos student VOSH program until 1995. She moved to Honduras in Central America where she developed a private practice and volunteered to provide community health outreach to villages surrounding 5 national parks along the North Coast and consulted with the environmental organizations designated to protect these parks. She built and equipped the first primary health clinic in a protected area in Honduras at the Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge. She worked diligently to provide vision services to the underserved and needy through VOSH, Lions Clubs and other organizations.

In 1999 she received her Masters in Public Health in International Health and Development from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She returned to Pacific University as a part-time assistant professor where she taught courses in Public Health and Optometry, Clinical Procedures, Patient Communication, Basic Spanish for Optometrists and was a clinical attending in the primary care, ocular disease and special testing, vision therapy and contact lens clinics throughout the Portland metro area. She was responsible for innovative mobile vision care for the Latino Migrant Farm worker population surrounding the university. She advised student thesis projects in culturally competent and linguistically appropriate vision care for Vietnamese, Arabic and Spanish speaking patients. She practiced part-time at the Teamsters Medical Center, a multidisciplinary labor union private clinic with an emphasis on occupational vision, contact lenses and a high prevalence of ocular disease.

She was named Oregon Young Optometrist of the Year in 1993, Top 150 Alumni of Pacific University and is listed in Who’s Who in Health Care in the New Millennium. She has received humanitarian service recognition for her dedication to serving those less fortunate both domestically and in developing countries. She has served as APHA Vision Care Section Secretary, Personal Advisor on Latin America to the president of the World Council of Optometry and is currently the Regional Coordinator for the UNESCO Chair in Visual Health and Development for North America. She is a 20+-year member of the American Optometric Association. She continues to be very active in VOSH and has served over 25 missions to various locations in Latin America.