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MANALAPAN, N.J.—The Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association, International (NORA) announced the appointments of its new executive and advisory board members. For the executive board, DeAnn Fitzgerald, OD, assumes the position of president, succeeding Susan Daniel, OD, who now joins the NORA Advisory Board; Charles Shidlofsky, OD, FCOVD is appointed vice president; and Tanya Polec, OD, FNORA, FCOVD, joins the executive board as secretary/treasurer. Drs. Shirley Blanc and Melissa Zarn Urankar are new members of the NORA Advisory Board, joining returning members Patti Andrich, MA, OTR/L, COVT, CINPP , Shirley Ha, OD, FCOVD , and Gina Kim, MOT, OTR/L, CBIS.

Dr. Fitzgerald has been providing eyecare to eastern Iowa since graduating from Pacific University School of Optometry in 1984. She runs a busy primary care clinic where she diagnoses and treats ocular disease and evaluates patients with brain injury. She has lectured nationally about neuro-rehabilitation and concussion.

Dr. Shidlofsky has served as NORA secretary/treasurer since 2016. He is clinical director at Neuro-Vision Associates of North Texas, a multi-office specialty clinic that serves both children and adults who have neurological vision processing problems. Dr. Shidlofsky is also clinical director for Special Olympics, Texas and serves as team Vision Coach/Eye Doctor for several professional sports teams.

Dr. Polec is a neuro-optometric concussion specialist at VQ Learning Sports Rehab in North Central Tucson, Arizona, where she specializes in treating a wide range of visual system issues that are caused by traumatic brain injury. She joined the NORA Advisory Board in 2018.

Dr. Blanc dedicates most of her practice to assessing and treating patients with visual problems due to acquired and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Blanc has conducted many speaking engagements on the topic of vision and concussion for organizations including Brain Injury Canada, Sports Physiotherapists of Canada, the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and the University of Toronto.

Dr. Zarn Urankar is an assistant professor of optometry and the director of Interprofessional Education (IPE) at Southern College of Optometry (SCO). Dr. Zarn evaluates and manages patients with traumatic and acquired brain injuries at the SCO clinics as well as at local rehabilitation hospitals. She has been a member of NORA since 2008

Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association, International (NORA) is an inter-disciplinary group of professionals dedicated to providing patients who have physical or cognitive disabilities as a result of an acquired brain injury with a complete ocular health evaluation and optimum visual rehabilitation education and services to improve their quality of life. For more information, visit www.noravisionrehab.org.