ASCO Hires New Optometric Education Managing Editor, Rebecca Dobrinski

ASCO Hires New Optometric Education Managing Editor, Rebecca Dobrinski

After more than a decade, Desiree Ifft, ASCO’s long-time managing editor of ASCO’s online Journal, Optometric Education (OE) decided to seek other employment opportunities.

After an extensive search, ASCO welcomes Rebecca Dobrinski as OE’s managing editor.

Rebecca attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she earned her BA and MA degrees in history, focusing on how cities develop, and added another MA in the preservations of historic architecture from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

Throughout her career, Rebecca has managed everything from nonprofits and fundraising to magazines, educational content production, and editorial calendars. In 2022, she co-edited the exhibition catalogue Thornton Dial: I, Too, Am Alabama and resumed writing her recurring column covering the City of Birmingham’s Design Review Committee for The Lede, al.com’s Birmingham online news publication. She also currently writes for Auburn University’s Urban Studio, which is part of the University’s College of Architecture, Design, and Construction.

Passionate about communication, she developed a business writing course for union agents to provide resources to improve their written communication skills. Earlier this year, Rebecca coached a cohort of the Urban Studio’s Fifth Year architecture students for their presentation at the 60th annual International Making Cities Liveable conference in Rhode Island. This was the first time a group of Urban Studio students presented at a conference.

She copyedited the urban history textbooks Interstate: Express Highway Politics, 3rd Edition (2012) and The Making of Urban America, 3rd Edition (2011), both with her mentor, the late Raymond A. Mohl, PhD. While at the Birmingham Museum of Art, she edited the publications The Collectors Circle for Contemporary Art at Twenty (2012) and Etched in Collective History (2013), to which she also contributed an essay. She has also edited numerous fiction books, theses, and dissertations, and is currently working on her first novel.

She holds multiple certifications in Scrum, the Agile project management methodology, as well as certificates in DE&I from the University of South Florida and Business Applications Professional from Microsoft. A lifelong learner and serial volunteer, she is organizer emerita of TEDxBirmingham and founder of F*ckUp Nights Birmingham, a member of Leadership Birmingham (2017), a graduate of Columbia University’s Developing Leaders for Nonprofits program and of Co.Starters, a member of the inaugural cohort for the Birmingham Entrepreneurship Academy, and a speaking coach for events and private entrepreneurial clients. Rebecca later turned this coaching experience into half-day workshops on how to talk about ideas and time management. Additionally, she recently helped a local professional development and Agile education platform earn B Labs Certified B Corp status.

Rebecca serves on the Entrepreneur and Practitioner Advisory Board for the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, on the Board of Directors for Innovate Birmingham and the Communications Chair for Leadership Birmingham’s Members Council.

She can be reached via email at rdobrinski@opted.org.

Welcome Rebecca!