National Academy of Practice 2020 Awards

National Academy of Practice 2020 Awards

NAPO James A. Boucher Award (Optometry) is awarded to John C. Townsend, OD, FAAO, Director, Optometric Service, Veterans Health Administration.

The Boucher Award is awarded by the Optometry Academy to a NAP Optometry Academy Member who has demonstrated exemplary contributions to the profession of optometry and the healthcare field and has upheld the mission of NAP to advance science and the concept of interprofessional care.

Since becoming Director, Optometric Service for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Dr. Townsend has greatly contributed to the VA mission improving access to and quality of optometric primary eye care and low vision rehabilitation services for our Nation’s Veterans. He is responsible for leading VA’s nationwide optometry programs and in that role has greatly contributed to VA strategic planning and policy development.  

Prior to becoming Director, Optometric Service, he had a distinguished career as a clinical educator and scholar at the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare System where he taught optometry residents and student externs. He was a Professor with Tenure at the Southern California College of Optometry and has published a textbook on visual fields, several chapters in textbooks as well as over forty articles in peer-reviewed journals. He co-developed the Optometric Grand Rounds Clinical Conference and was a sought after lecturer at local, regional, national, and international conferences. For these contributions to the optometric profession, Dr. Townsend was inducted as a Distinguished Practitioner, National Academy of Practice in Optometry within the National Academies of Practice.

In selected highlights regarding service to the optometric profession, Dr. Townsend served as Chair, Clinical Guidelines Coordinating Committee for the American Optometric Association, Representative to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Committee Z80 for Ophthalmic Standards, Affiliate Member of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry as well as Planning Committee Member, National Eye Health Education Program, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He has served on the Editorial Boards of numerous prestigious professional journals including Optometry of the American Optometric Association, the VA Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, and Optometry and Vision Science.