Nina Palomba, CO, COA won the 2015 Richard G. Scobee Memorial Award. This national recognition is given to the orthoptist, and training program, who received the highest written and oral scores on that year’s board certification.

Ms. Palomba joined Children’s Eye Care in 2011 as an ophthalmic tech-trainee a year after completing her BS in child development at Central Michigan University. In 2013, she became a student of Children’s Eye Care’s Orthoptic training program. This training program consists of didactic and clinical instruction by staff orthoptists and pediatric ophthalmologists. After completing a two year internship, the student is then eligible to take the AACO national certification written and practical examinations.

Children’s Eye Care’s training program is led by certified orthoptists Judy Petrunak, CO, COT and Mary DeYoung-Smith, CO, COMT with the assistance of pediatric ophthalmologists Alexandra O. Apkarian, MD, John D. Baker, MD, Lisa Bohra, MD, Elena M. Gianfermi, MD, Rajesh C. Rao, MD, John D. Roarty, MD and Leemor B. Rotberg, MD.

Ms. Palomba is the second student of Children’s Eye Care’s training program. During her training, she worked extremely hard learning this field. She always started and ended every day with a smile and laugh, and she loved motivating everyone to have a very elaborate Halloween theme. She is now working at Boston Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, as a staff orthoptist.