The Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS) has named the honorees for this year’s awards to be bestowed at the meeting in Las Vegas on Jan. 15-18, 2025.
Award of Excellence
Initiated in 2013, this award is given to distinguished clinicians, scholars, and/or scientists to recognize their lifelong achievements in the field of contact lenses, especially as they relate to specialty contact lenses. The honoree for 2025 is Loretta Szczotka-Flynn, OD, PhD. Dr. Szczotka-Flynn was chosen because of the vast work and research she has done in the areas of specialty lenses, keratoconus, irregular cornea, and corneal disease. According to the committee, she is the epitome of a clinician scholar.
Dr. Szczotka-Flynn is the Philip F. and Elizabeth G Searle - Suber Huang Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) with a secondary appointment in the Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences. She is also the director of the Vision Research Coordinating Center and the Contact Lens Service at the University Hospitals Eye Institute at University Hospitals of Cleveland and CWRU. She is the primary instructor for semester-long graduate-level course “Clinical Trials” at CWRU since 2019.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a Diplomate in the Academy’s Section on Cornea, Contact Lenses and Refractive Technologies, formerly chair of the section. She is a vice president of the International Society for Contact Lens Research, secretary-treasurer of the American Academy of Optometry Foundation, serves on the board of International Keratoconus Academy and the Eye and Contact Lens Association; and is an associate editor for Eye & Contact Lens.
Rising Star Award
This award is intended to recognize an emerging leader in the field of cornea and contact lenses. The awardee must demonstrate substantial contributions to the field, outside of what might normally be expected in this early phase of one’s career.
The recipient of the 2025 award is Kate Gifford, PhD, BAppSc(Optom)Hons. Dr. Gifford was chosen because of her far-reaching involvement in the myopia research and education community. Dr. Gifford is described as “being on fire” regarding myopia.
Dr. Gifford is an internationally renowned clinician-scientist optometrist and peer educator, and a visiting research fellow at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She holds a PhD in contact lens optics in myopia and four professional fellowships. Additionally, she has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed and professional publications and has presented more than 200 conference lectures.
Dr. Gifford is the chair of the clinical management guidelines committee of the International Myopia Institute. In 2016, Dr. Gifford and her optometrist husband, Paul Gifford, OD, co-founded Myopia Profile, an educational platform on childhood myopia management. After running her pediatric, contact lens, and myopia specialty practice in the Brisbane CBD for 13 years, she moved full time into peer education through Myopia Profile in 2020.