Morris Berman Bio
Morris S. Berman, OD, MS
Dr. Morris Berman was appointed Dean of School of Optometry at MCPHS in Worcester, Massachusetts in August 2016. He previously served as Provost at Marshall B. Ketchum University in Fullerton, California as well as Senior Vice President for Administration at the University where his responsibilities included institutional research and outcomes assessment, professional and regional accreditation, and planning the expansion of university facilities to accommodate new interprofessional programs. Dr. Berman served for 28 years as Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs at the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO). Prior to joining SCCO in 1985, he was the Assistant Dean for Education at the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago and also served as a faculty member at the University of Houston, College of Optometry.
A second generation optometrist, Dr. Berman received his optometric education in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1967. He completed a residency program at the Optometric Center of New York in 1968 and earned the degrees Doctor of Optometry (OD) and Master of Science in Physiological Optics (MS) at the University of Houston, College of Optometry. He has taught strabismus/amblyopia, electro-diagnosis, and ocular physiology; current teaching interests include courses in Professional Ethics.
Dr. Berman has published more than 30 papers on clinical topics and co-authored the Dictionary of Visual Sciences and Related Clinical Terms. Dr. Berman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and Chaired the AAO Education Program Committee (formerly Ellerbrock Memorial CE Committee) in 2001-02. He has served as the Chair, Academic Affairs Committee of the ASCO, and as editor of ASCO’s newsletter Eye on Education. Dr. Berman also chaired a national conference on the Optometry Curriculum Model in 1992 which formed part of the Summit in Optometric Education series. He also chaired the AAO Nominating Committee and the AOA Ethics and Values Committee. Dr. Berman has served on the Task Force on Para-optometric continuing education of the California Optometric Association (COA) in 1987-88, as well as the TPA Study Committee of the COA in 1996-97. Since 2005, Dr. Berman has been a member and chair of the AOA Ethics and Values Committee. In July 2016 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from ASCO.
