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NEW YORK—Vanessa Fimreite, a fourth-year optometry student, and the first recipient of the SUNY Student Innovator Award was on hand at the VM Summit on Wednesday to pick up her award. In March, Essilor of America, Jobson’s Rick Bay Foundation and SUNY Optometry, announced that Fimreite was the recipient of the $5,000 award, which was first announced at last year’s Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit.



The honor was designed to reward an original concept developed by a SUNY Optometry student that is impactful, viable and feasible in today’s optometric practice. Fimreite’s winning idea, known as MAVA: Mobile Acuity and Vision Assessment, is a vision screening app geared to assess young children. It was presented for the first time publicly to the attendees at this year’s Summit.

The competition began last fall when students were invited to submit abstracts related to innovations or improvements in clinical eyecare, research, practice management, optometric education, health care policy, community education, technology, social media and more.

Essilor’s Howard Purcell, OD, FAAO (l) and
Jobson’s Marc Ferrara (r) present Vanessa
Fimreite, with her award.
“Jobson’s Rick Bay Foundation is thrilled to be able to work with Essilor and the SUNY College of Optometry in awarding the first SUNY Student Innovator Award,” said Marc Ferrara, CEO, Information Services for Jobson Medical Information. “The Student Innovator Award program is a unique partnership which will encourage the next generation of optometry to bring impactful, innovative ideas to the profession and our industry.”

“The future of optometry is important to Essilor, and through awards like this, we have an opportunity to recognize optometry students whose ideas have the potential to make a lasting impact on our industry,” said Essilor’s SVP of customer development Howard Purcell, OD, FAAO.

In 2017, VSP will be joining as a supporter of the competition, Ferrara announced at the VM Summit.