Appointment of Dr. Nancy Coletta, Dean of the MCPHS School of Optometry
Nancy Coletta, OD, PhD, FAAO, FARVO has been appointed permanent Dean of the MCPHS University School of Optometry, effective September 11, 2023. This permanent appointment follows Dr. Coletta’s most recent role as interim Dean of the School of Optometry since June 2022, and her prior appointment as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in 2019.
Dr. Coletta earned her Doctor of Optometry degree from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, and she holds a PhD in Physiological Optics from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed two years of post-doctoral training at the Center for Visual Science of the University of Rochester. She has held faculty positions at the University of Houston, School of Optometry, and at the New England College of Optometry, where she was the Chair of the Vision Science Department and Director of Graduate Studies. She joined the faculty at MCPHS School of Optometry as a Full Professor in July 2017. She teaches two first-year Optometry courses, Geometric & Physical Optics, and Visual Optics. Her primary research interests are the optical quality of the eye, ocular biometry and visual psychophysics. The overall focus of her research has been on the optical and retinal factors involved in vision with an emphasis on subjects with myopia. She has published extensively in this field.
Dr. Coletta is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry. She was awarded the status of Silver Fellow in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), and she was awarded the status of Fellow of the Optical Society of America (now Optica). She has served on the program committees for the annual meetings of ARVO and Optical Society of America. She serves as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health Neuro-technology and Vision NV12 study section and is currently a member of the Fellowship Admittance Committee of the American Academy of Optometry. At MCPHS, she has served on the Promotion Committee, the Institutional Review Board, and serves on the Institutional Assessment Committee.