President's Message

Judy Riley, O.D.
HOAECC President

Greetings from the Heart of America Eye Care Congress! Since the first annual Congress, 64 years ago, optometrists and their staff have been traveling to the Heart in Kansas City for quality continuing education. With our reputation for having a welcoming and friendly vibe, attendees return yearly to enjoy the camaraderie with old and new friends. In our busy Exhibit Hall and classrooms, the Heart Board always seeks to be innovative with new technologies, products, and important current topics.  We had a great meeting thanks to the board, our speakers, our sponsors and exhibitors and our attendees that was full of our famous "Education, Camaraderie and Innovation"!

Vintage travel postcards with Greetings from the Heart of America were our theme this year to reflect the fact that the Heart is the place to travel to for great education. Signposts were scattered around the meeting with directions to the 5 member states of the Heart Congress. Classic cars in the Exhibit Hall along with a $3,000 prize for travel anywhere continued the theme of travel to the HOAECC. Even the music at the Presidential Camaraderie Reception came from the 5 states in the Heart region.

This year. 41 different states and 1 Canadian province were represented by our attendees.  91 residents representing most colleges in both the USA and Canada attended to present their posters in our Friday Poster Session.  Our exceptional course instructors were selected across the USA with speakers from coast to coast and border to border. We have already heard back from speakers about their experience.

From the West Coast: Dr. Michelle Hoff: "What a wonderful experience for me. It didn't even feel like I was working, more like hanging out with friends and talking shop. I'd love to be involved with this event anytime."

From the East Coast:  Dr. Susan Gromacki: " I have lectured at almost every large and medium-sized meeting in the profession, and yours is quality in every way. You and your fellow Board members knocked it out of the park again."

One of the most important highlights of the Congress is always the awards we give to those outstanding in our profession. This year we honored Rich Castillo, OD, DO for his many educational and leadership contributions to our profession with the Vision Service Award. He is proudly bringing the news of his award back to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke College of Optometry Medicine where he just became the founding Dean. We had a great poster session, and the recipient of the Larry Stoppel Outstanding Poster was Shihij Takoo from Ohio State University who shared how her case of helping an ALS patient communicate. Our Fontana Scholarship recipient, Mora Boatman from Missouri, wrote to us about how she sees her future in optometry; "As a future optometrist, all of my endeavors must be seen through the lens that each patient is a person who has inherent dignity and value that cannot be taken away from them based on their circumstances."

We have begun our plans for the future 65th Congress, February 20-22, 2026. Please join us then for another great meeting.

Sincerely,
Judith Riley, OD
President, Heart of America Eye Care Congress
president@hoaecc.org