Optometry Times names new chief optometric editor

North Olmsted, OH-Benjamin P. Casella, OD, FAAO, has been named as chief optometric editor of Optometry Times. He succeeds Ernest L. Bowling, OD, FAAO, who held the position for five years.

Dr. Bowling will finish his term on October 31, 2017. He will remain a member of the publication’s Editorial Advisory Board. Dr. Casella will begin his role on November 1, 2017.

“I am grateful to Dr. Bowling for his dedication to Optometry Times,” says Gretchyn M. Bailey, NCLC, FAAO, editor in chief and content channel director. “He has offered sage advice, promoted the publication to the profession, and helped to shape its content. He has been a wonderful adviser, and I am thankful he will remain on the Editorial Advisory Board.”

Moving forward

Dr. Casella is a third-generation optometrist in private practice in Augusta, GA. He received his Doctor of Optometry in 2007 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Optometry, and he completed a residency in ocular disease at the State University of New York College of Optometry in 2008.

“I am looking forward to continuing Optometry Times’ mission of engaging the clinician with tangible and useful chairside advice,” says Dr. Casella. “I cannot begin to thank Dr. Bowling and the people behind this publication for entrusting me with this task, and I am eager to hit the ground running.”

Dr. Casella is immediate past president of Georgia Optometric Association. He is a member of the American Optometric Association’s evidence-based optometry committee and of Beta Sigma Kappa International Optometric Honor Society. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Optometry, the 2014 recipient  of Southeastern Congress of Optometry's (SECO) Young OD of the South award, and the 2012 recipient of the Georgia Optometric Association’s Young OD of the Year award.

Looking back

“It has been one of the greatest honors of my professional career to serve in this role with Optometry Times,” says Dr. Bowling. “Thank you for reading, and thank you for writing. Dr. Ben Casella is the perfect choice to lead this magazine forward. He is one of the finest young clinicians in practice. All you have to do is read his regular glaucoma columns in these pages to recognize his acumen.”

Dr. Bowling is in private practice in Gadsden, AL. He received his Doctor of Optometry from the UAB School of Optometry. He is a diplomate in the Comprehensive Eye Care Section of the American Academy of Optometry and serves as the section’s chair. He is a former associate professor and director of the primary care service at UAB School of Optometry and served as center director for a comanagement surgical referral center.

He is a past recipient of the Georgia Optometric Association’s Bernard Kahn Memorial Award for outstanding service to the optometric profession. His first novel will soon be available on Amazon.