Latest News Lewis Reich, OD, Ph.D, Named Southern College of Optometry President By Staff Wednesday, January 20, 2016 12:21 AM Lewis Reich, OD, Ph.D MEMPHIS, Tenn.—The board of trustees at Southern College of Optometry (SCO) has appointed Professor Lewis Reich, OD, Ph.D., as the institution’s new president. Reich has been serving as interim president since March 2015.“The board of trustees is proud to announce that we unanimously voted for Dr. Reich to be SCO’s new president,” said Dr. Steven Reed, SCO’s board of trustees chair. “The board has done its due diligence, and we strongly believe that this decision represents what is best for the future of SCO and for the profession.”Reich becomes SCO’s seventh president in the college’s 85-year history. Prior to being named interim president, Reich served as executive vice president for academic affairs. He joined SCO’s faculty in 2008, following nearly a decade of service at Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry, where he served as associate professor and as assistant dean for student affairs. A 1988 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, he completed a residency in low vision rehabilitation at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and later joined the faculty. He received his doctorate from the University of Houston in 1999. Southern College of Optometry, established in Memphis in 1932, is an independent, not-for-profit institution of higher education with more than 500 students and residents from 40 states. The Eye Center at SCO serves nearly 60,000 patients annually, helping make the college one of the top in the nation for clinical optometric education. SCO’s Community Outreach Program reaches more than 12,000 children through vision screenings provided annually to Shelby County students in public, private and charter schools. Additionally, SCO opened a second clinic, University Eye Care, on the campus of The University of Memphis in 2013.