AUSTIN, Texas – McAllen optometrist Fred Farias has been named 2015 Texas Optometric Association Optometrist of the Year.
The group said the award is presented to an optometrist in recognition of years of outstanding and meritorious service to the profession of Optometry in the State of Texas. Dr. Farias, chief Executive Officer of 20/20 Vision Care, is the first optometrist from South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley to be awarded this honor.
Dr. Farias is the immediate past president of the Texas Optometric Association (TOA) where he has been an active member since 1988. He is a former president of the Rio Grande Valley Optometric Society and an active member of the American Optometric Association as well as an American Academy of Optometry Fellow.
In February 2015, Governor Greg Abbott appointed Dr. Farias to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The Coordinating Board is responsible for promoting access, quality, and cost efficiency in the state’s institutions of higher education.
In 2001, Governor Rick Perry appointed Dr. Farias to the Texas Optometry Board where he served for seven years, in part as chair of the Licensing and Administration Committee. Farias has served on The University of Texas (UT) System Chancellor’s Executive Committee, the UT College of Communication Advisory Council, the University of Texas Longhorn Athletic Advisory Council, and co‐founded the University of Texas Hispanic Alumni Committee of the Texas Exes in 2001. Dr. Farias received the Texas Young Optometrist of the Year Award in 1998 by the Texas Optometric Association and received the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award by The University of Texas at Austin Alumni Association in 2002.
Dr. Farias graduated from The University of Texas‐Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications. Then he graduated from Southern College of Optometry (SCO) in Memphis, Tennessee with a Doctorate of Optometry degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a Minor in Physics. He serves on the Alumni Council for SCO as well as the Advisory Council for the University of the Incarnate Word – Rosenberg School of Optometry in San Antonio. In 2014, he was named the University of Houston College of Optometry’s Volunteer of the Year.
Dr. Farias is also active in the McAllen community, serving on the McAllen Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and chairing the Chamber’s Governmental Affairs Council. He previously served on the Vannie E. Cook Cancer Center Board of Directors as well as the Rio Grande Valley Arthritis Foundation Board.
