BOC Honors Former President, CEO

The Board for Orthotist/Prosthetist Certification (BOC) recently recognized former president and CEO Donald O. Fedder, DrPH, FAPhA, BOCO, as president emeritus, honoring his strong legacy and years of service to the field.

Fedder began his career as a community pharmacist in 1950 after graduating from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore. He developed an orthotic practice in the 1960s, becoming one of the first pharmacists to do so. In 1974 he joined the university's faculty as a clinical instructor and returned to school to earn a master's degree (1978) and doctoral degree (1982) in public health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Today he continues to teach at the University of Maryland, where he holds two senior faculty appointmentsone in the department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research in the School of Pharmacy and the other in the department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in the School of Medicine.

Fedder served the O&P profession initially as a consultant to, and then director of, the National Board for Orthotic Certification (NBOC), founded by the American Surgical Trade Association in the mid 1970s. He became BOC's chief executive officer in 1984, and served in that role through June 2006.

As president and CEO of BOC, he helped establish the principle that all practitioners should be required to pass comprehensive, psychometrically sound examinations to demonstrate competence, and, further, that eligibility to take exams should be based on job performance experience and not on non-job-related criteria. During his tenure, Fedder was instrumental in the development of many innovations, including the Video Practical Examinations, now a standard of BOC's testing process.

Fedder is a fellow of the American Pharmacists Association and the Society for Public Health Education. He also serves as a senior policy fellow at the Center on Drugs and Public Policy. Fedder is program director of ENABLE-MD: The Center for Community Outreach, a program to reach high-risk populations with chronic diseases and maintain control of their illness. In 2003, he was awarded the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Martin Luther King Diversity Recognition Award for his work with ENABLE-MD.

He has authored or co-authored numerous papers on community health topics such as diabetes, blood pressure, and drug therapies as treatment protocols with schizophrenic patients. He has also served on a variety of national task forces charged with developing health guidelines for areas such as lipid-lowering drug therapy and cholesterol education.

"The contributions Don Fedder has made to the O&P community are nothing short of extraordinary," said Teresa Alpert-Liebman, BOCO, CPed, chair of BOC's board of directors. "He is one of those remarkable and rare individuals who epitomize the term 'a gentleman and a scholar.' Don has given freely of his time and his talent to teach others and to lead them in serving their communities. In recognizing him, the board not only honors Don, but honors its past and builds a bridge to the OP&P future."

Fedder will join BOC president Greg Safko at the upcoming American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association (AOPA) 2007 National Assembly September 17-20 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"It's an excellent opportunity to meet practitioners and learn what their professional concerns and priorities are," Safko said. "I'm very pleased that Dr. Fedder will be part of it. His willingness to permit BOC to continue to tap into his skills and knowledge is a great asset to the organization."

James Newberry, BOCPO, LPO, a former BOC Board Chairman who served as BOC's interim executive director during the search for Fedder's successor, will also be at the AOPA Assembly. Newberry will make a presentation titled "Fabricate a Custom Spinal Orthosis without CAD/CAM or Negative Cast" on Wednesday, September 19.

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Pacific Rim Call for Abstracts

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O&P JOBS

Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist (CPO)

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