Public Health Leader Marshall OD of Year   The Indiana Optometric Association’s Edwin C. Marshall, O.D., MPH, has been named the AOA 2007 Optometrist of the Year.  Dr. Marshall is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Optometry. He serves in roles as an educator, administrator, clinician, and public servant.   He has more than 35 years of service to optometry, aligning with its mission to protect and advance the health of the public.  

A year after graduating, Dr. Marshall helped found the Indiana University School of Optometry’s first off-campus clinic designed to serve the vision and eye care needs of the community’s underserved population. He served as the first director of the clinic.   Dr. Marshall served for more than 20 years as an optometric representative on the National Institutes of Health’s National High Blood Pressure Education Program Coordinating Committee.   Dr. Marshall was appointed to a four-year term on the National Advisory Council on Health Professions Education by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1987.  

He is a founding member of both the Vision Care Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health.   In 2002, he was the first optometrist elected president of the Indiana Public Health Association. The following year, he became the first optometrist in the 132-year history of APHA to be elected chair of the Executive Board.   Dr. Marshall received an AOA Healthy Eyes Healthy People State Association Grant in 2005 to develop the Indiana Optometric Association-sponsored “Eye Card about my ABCs” program.   The following year, he was elected to the Prevent Blindness Indiana Board of Directors and named chair of the board’s Program Committee.  

Dr. Marshall is a past president of the Indiana Optometric Association (IOA) and the National Optometric Association (NOA). For more than 20 years, he served as executive director of the NOA.   He has served on numerous AOA committees and chaired the Information and Data Committee from 1986-1989.   He was named the 2006 IOA Optometrist of the Year. The IOA previously honored him with the Distinguished Service to Optometry Award in 1998.   In 2005, the Indiana governor named him a “Distinguished Hoosier,” the second-highest honor given by the state.  

In 2001, he received the State Health Commissioner Award for Excellence in Public Health.   The Indiana Public Health Foundation presented him with the Tony and Mary Hulman Health Achievement Award in Public Health and Preventative Medicine in 1999.

Dr. Marshall earned a MPH in Health Policy and Administration from UNC in 1982.