After leading the UAB School of Optometry through its accreditation process for the second time, Roderick Fullard, BScOptom, Ph.D., associate professor, was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award.

He was presented the award, which recognizes exemplary leadership and service, at the School of Optometry's 44th Annual Convocation and Hooding Ceremony, held May 12 at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center on the UAB Campus.

Fullard served as chair of the School of Optometry's Accreditation Council on Optometric Education (ACOE) Self-Study Committee from 2016 to 2017. The ACOE is the accrediting body for schools and colleges of optometry.

Kelly K. Nichols, O.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., dean of the School of Optometry, said the award is given only when an individual rises to the occasion in an exceptional way.

“Dr. Fullard’s persistence and commitment to this tremendous task and to shepherding the school through the recent accreditation process has not gone unnoticed by leadership within and outside the School, his fellow faculty members, or his students,” said Nichols, as she presented Fullard with the award.

Fullard also served as chair of the Self-Study Committee from 2007 to 2009, and has served the School in other ways, including the director of the School of Optometry's Vision Science Graduate Program, the co-chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, chair of the Curriculum Committee from 1984 to 2016 and on the Admissions Committee.

He is a fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. While he was a member of the Association of Schools and Colleges in Optometry, he served as the chief academic officer for the School of Optometry.

He has received numerous teaching awards, including the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for the School of Optometry. On multiple occasions, he was named the recipient of the Basic Science Teaching Award and the Clinical Science Teaching Award by the UAB chapter of the American Optometric Student Association.

He joined the School of Optometry as a faculty member in 1983 after receiving his bachelor of science in optometry from the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia, where he also received a Ph.D. in biochemistry.