Australia’s Professor Sharon Bentley has been selected to serve as the new Dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University College (UC) of Berkeley.
Prof Bentley is currently Professor of Optometry, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health, and Director of the Centre for Vision and Eye Research at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.
Commencing the new role in February 2025, she will oversee the school’s academic programs, research initiatives, and community outreach.
Announcing the appointment, UC Berkeley acknowledged Prof Bentley’s extensive background in strategic planning and program management, her commitment to being culturally responsive, and her research focussed on the effects of vision impairment on daily living and on the provision of lowvision services.
GROWING THE LEGACY
Prof Bentley told mivision she was “honoured” by the opportunity to “create the conditions that allow great people to do great work and develop tomorrow’s leaders in every facet of optometry and vison science”.
“The optometry profession has felt like a family to me… I want to ensure future students feel this sense of belonging to the profession. Belonging begins with the culture of a school and creating great experiences, with lifelong opportunities to reconnect, learn together, and achieve positive change together.”
She said during her training at the University of Melbourne, her professors “related numerous stories about the prestige of UC Berkeley”.
“No doubt this was in part motivated by the pride they felt that Professor Tony Adams, an Australian, was the Dean at the time. I certainly have big shoes to fill, not only with regard to Tony, but incredible leaders like Dean Dennis Levi and Dean John Flanagan who followed him.”
She said she hoped to “continue and to further grow the legacy” of those who went before her.
“Optometry in the US has led the rest of the world with expanding scope of practice. With the rapid explosion of technology, including generative AI, there has never been a more exciting time to consider how optometry should further evolve.
“Furthermore, with the escalating demand for eye care services globally, there is a greater need to collaborate with colleagues from many other disciplines to work in interprofessional teams.”
Prof Bentley said while the health care system was “still littered with examples of racism and inequity”, UC Berkeley’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging matched her own desire to reduce racism and inequity “through the education of students who provide eye care that is culturally safe to all communities”.
PROVEN TRACK RECORD
UC Berkeley said Prof Bentley has “extensive executive management and corporate governance experience”.
She established the Leaders in Indigenous Optometry Education Network, involving heads of optometry schools from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, professional organisations, regulatory authorities, and Indigenous health groups. Her leadership in integrating Indigenous health into the optometry curriculum at QUT has “set a benchmark for culturally safe education practices”, UC Berkeley said.
She has served for years as a Board Director of Vision Australia, has been named one of the ‘Women Research Pioneers in Australian Optometry’, and received the Australian College of Optometry’s Honorary Life Membership.