Celebration Profiles – July 3-7
In honor of our centennial anniversary, we are featuring members of our optometry community — past and present — each day of 2023!
See below for this week’s profiles.
This Week, We Are Celebrating…
Deborah Orel-Bixler, OD, PhD, FAAO
Dr. Deborah Orel-Bixler, Professor of Clinical Optometry and Vision Science, is chief of Berkeley Optometry’s Infant Toddler Clinic, as well as the Special Visual Assessment Clinic. The Special Visual Assessment Clinic was created in 1984 when Amanda Hall, Ph.D. (the low vision rehab specialist) and Dr. Orel-Bixler (then a graduate student in Physiological Optics) recruited the Berkeley Optometry Low Vision resident Lori Sakamoto, OD, to examine children with special needs. Their clinical goal was to answer the parent’s question of “what can my baby/child see?” in this population of non-verbal, visually impaired young patients. Measures of vision were obtained using preferential looking and VEP techniques, glasses were prescribed (most often for the first time despite high refractive errors) and detailed reports, including educational recommendations, were provided to the families.Dr. Orel-Bixler was the recipient of the 2022 Dolan award. The Dolan (Resident Mentor of the Year) Award was established in 2008 to honor Dr. Bernie Dolan for his outstanding service in the education and mentorship of optometry residents. The award is presented annually to a residency mentor who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, mentorship, and service to the residency program and the profession of optometry.Her research interests include assessment of visual abilities in infants, children and special-needs population; visual evoked potentials; vision screening; and photorefraction.
Edward I. Goodlaw, OD, FAAO
Dr. Edward Goodlaw was born on January 4, 1913 in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Berkeley Optometry in 1934 and earned his Doctor of Optical Science (DOS) degree from the Los Angeles College of Optometry in 1950. He maintained a private practice in Los Angeles for 60 years before retiring.Through his research using a biomicroscope, he concluded that the manufacturers of contact lenses should make their lenses of some semi-pervious material to allow for the oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange through it. It was a prescient and far-reaching conclusion, among other things helping to pave the way for the first corneal contact lenses made by Kevin Tuoh. In other areas of research, Dr. Goodlaw developed the “bifocal half glass,” which gives an intermediate or near power. It is essentially a bifocal for emmetropic presbyope patients or presbyopic contact lens patients. In low vision, he created a see-through mirror for patients with a hemianopsia.
He published numerous articles in the fields of contact lenses, binocular vision, and low vision in journals of the American Optometric Association and the American Academy of Optometry. Dr. Goodlaw’s teaching responsibilities included lecturing across the United States and Europe on the use of the slit lamp biomicroscope and contact lens fitting.
Timothy C. Jankowski, OD, FAAO
Dr. Timothy C. Jankowski has been in private practice in Huntington Beach since 1981. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Optometry in June 1980 and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. He has served as an Expert Examiner for the California State Board of Optometry and as a Clinical Examiner for the National Board of Examiners in Optometry.Dr. Jankowski is a member of the Rio Hondo Optometric Society, the California Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association. Before joining the Rio Hondo Optometric Society, and while a member of the Long Beach Optometric Society, Dr. Jankowski served as President (twice), Treasurer (twice), Secretary, and Membership Chairman (twice).
In 1999, Dr. Jankowski was elected to the Board of Directors of VSPGlobal, the largest vision insurance company in the United States. From 2010-2012, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors. After rotating off the Board in 2014, Dr. Jankowski continued as a consultant to VSPGlobal.
Dr. Jankowski is licensed in the use of diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents and is certified by the National Board of Optometry in the Treatment and Management of Ocular Disease. He also co-manages LASIK patients, providing consultation, pre-op, and post-op care. Having undergone LASIK personally, he is able to discuss firsthand with patients the pros and cons of the procedure.
Pabita Dhungel, BOPTOM, MS
Pabita is a vision science student; born and raised in Nepal. Her academic background is in Optometry. She completed her Bachelor’s in Optometry in 2014 in Nepal and a master’s in Vision Science from Pacific University, School of Optometry, Oregon. During her Masters of Vision Science, she worked in Prof. Patrick Caroline’s lab, studying the impact of the scleral lenses on intraocular pressure and posterior ocular perfusion. She has worked as a clinician and a researcher more focused on contact lenses, ocular disease, and diagnostic imaging. After working as a clinician for a while, she realized that by being involved in research, she could explore more and help people on a larger scale.Pabita chose UC Berkeley because she believes it is the best place to be for its state of art labs, great interdisciplinary approach, and extraordinary students and faculties. She is more focused on the mechanism of intraocular pressure regulation in the eye and its impact on eye growth regulation and myopia development. Her aim is to be a vision scientist and work in myopia development and glaucoma. In the long term, she sees herself being an educator in vision science. Pabita loves to travel, visit new places, see different cultures, meet other people and try local cuisines. She loves listening to music, hanging out with friends, cooking, gardening, walking with her dog, hiking, and chasing waterfalls.
Read more about Pabita in the story linked below!
Celebrating Diwali with Pabita Back to Archive Celebrating Our Community Return to Main Centennial Page