Distinguished Alumni 2022

Each year NECO proudly awards the Distinguished Alumni title to several deserving graduates who have exemplified excellence, embraced their role as compassionate caregivers, exhibited an unwavering dedication to the field of optometry, and made a profound impact on the world. It is with pride we recognize and pay tribute to these talented professionals and truly outstanding individuals.

Dr. Sally Dang graduated from NECO in 1994. She holds a Master of Public Health from Salus University and has completed a California Healthcare Leadership Fellowship at University of California San Francisco. Dr. Dang has dedicated her career to treating and advocating for those with visual impairments to improve their quality of life. Her interest in visual impairments and vision rehabilitation was sparked by personal experience, her father’s sudden loss of vision during her high school years.

In 1999, Dr. Dang moved to Southern California and built two private practices with her late husband, Rob Soltes, Jr. NECO OD ’94. After years in private practice, Dr. Dang transitioned to the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2011. She joined VA Long Beach Healthcare System as the first optometrist on staff and was named Chief of Optometry Services. She also helped to open the Major Charles Robert Soltes, Jr. Blind Rehabilitation Center in 2012 to honor her late husband and to serve individuals in need of vision rehabilitation.

Through her relentless efforts, Dr. Dang established and expanded the VA Long Beach Healthcare System Optometry department to provide a comprehensive continuum of care, including primary care services, low vision assistance, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation. Dr. Dang’s commitment to education and training led to VA training programs that include a primary care and low vision residency program, a two-year polytrauma TBI optometry fellowship, four externship affiliations, and an occupational therapy externship program for vision rehabilitation.

Dr. Dang is currently the Branch Chief at the Vision Center of Excellence (VCE), where her role is to bridge collaborative efforts between the Department of Defense (DoD) and VA to address the prevention, diagnosis, mitigation, treatment, and rehabilitation of eye injuries and vision dysfunction in servicemembers and veterans.

Colonel Donovan Green, USA, Retired, OD was the first African American Optometrist to obtain the rank of Colonel in the United States Army Medical Department. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he obtained a BS in Psychology from Stony Brook University, an MBA from Touro University, and his OD from NECO in 1992. Colonel Green served in the Army for three decades and held a wide array of impressive assignments throughout his career.

He was the Chief, Optometry Service at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE); Chief, Division Optometrist, Camp Casey South Korea; Chief, Division Optometrist, Hanau, Germany; Chief, Optical Laboratory, Pirmasens, Germany; Chief, EENT/Optometry Clinic, McDonald Army Community Hospital, Newport News, VA; and Director of Ancillary Services, DiLorenzo Pentagon Health Clinic. He held the position of Chief, Optometry Services at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the only military medical center supporting Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and European Regional Medical Command Optometry Consultant.

Colonel Green served as Commander at the SHAPE HealthCare Facility and the Brussels Army Health Clinic from 2013 until 2015 as the first African American and non-physician to command the SHAPE Healthcare Facility since 1967. He was the Deputy Commander for Patient Support Services at Carl R. Darnall Medical Center in Texas, and the Chief of Optometry. Before retirement, he was the Refractive Surgery Optometrist at the Carl R. Darnall Medical Center Ophthalmology Clinic.

Colonel Green earned many military medals and honors including being named a member of the prestigious Order of Military Medical Merit and attaining the highest level of professional accomplishment within the Army Medical Department, the “A” proficiency designator awarded by the Army Surgeon General for exceptional professional ability and national prominence in his field. Today, Colonel Green is practicing at First Eye Care Central Texas.

Dr. Thomas Little was a 2008 graduate of the NECO Advanced Standing International Program (ASIP). He arrived at NECO having already treated raging ocular infections in Afghanistan, where he and his wife, Libby, had lived since the 1970’s and where they had raised their three daughters.

Little spent more than thirty years with the people of Afghanistan practicing the skills his father, an ophthalmologist, had taught him years prior. His aim in completing the intensive NECO ASIP degree program was to bring more effective and tactical clinical eyecare skills to Afghanistan by organizing and managing eye clinics and ophthalmic workshops throughout the country. In July 2010 Little was in communication with former NECO President, Dr. Clifford Scott, to discuss establishing a long-distance education program between NECO and Kabul.

Dr. Thomas Little was killed in August of 2010 along with other members of his team while returning from Nuristan where they had spent two weeks traveling between remote villages on foot to provide medical care. Dr. Little was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and was recognized posthumously as the 2010 International Optometrist of the Year by the World Council of Optometrists.
Libby Little said, “Tom Little was a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and that’s why he lived in Afghanistan. God called him to give his life away in service to others. He didn’t impose his faith on others: he simply lived it out in their midst.”

He was known by many as Dr. Tom. He learned their language and culture. He set up hospitals and clinics, he trained and recruited the staff, from custodians to surgeons. He served as the manager of the International Assistance Mission’s (IAM) National Organization for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation (NOOR) program. In 2023, IAM remains committed to serving the people of Afghanistan.