The 112th Annual AOA Congress & 39th Annual AOSA Conference

Opening General Session

Bob Woodruff is the keynote speaker for Optometry's Meeting<sup>®</sup> 2009.

Bob Woodruff is the keynote speaker for Optometry's Meeting^® 2009.

June 25 • 8:00am - 9:30am

Once again, Essilor is the generous sponsor of the Opening General Session which features keynote speaker Bob Woodruff, ABC’s World News Tonight former co-anchor. Woodruff joined ABC News in 1996 and has covered major stories throughout the country and around the world for the network. He was named co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight in December 2005. On January 29, 2006, while reporting on U.S. and Iraqi security forces, Woodruff was seriously injured by a roadside bomb that struck his vehicle near Taji, Iraq. Woodruff continues outpatient rehabilitation in the New York area and has returned to work at ABC News.

In February 2007, Woodruff and his wife, Lee, released In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love, Courage, and Healing, their personal memoir about his recovery after his attack in Iraq and the medical and family support that helped him heal.

In April 2008, Woodruff won a Peabody Award for Wounds of War - The Long Road Home for Our Nation’s Veterans, a series of reports that aired on ABC. He is also the recipient of theDaniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism. Previously the anchor of the weekend edition of World News Tonight and one of ABC News’ top correspondents, Woodruff has covered major stories both in the United States andoverseas. His reports from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina helped focus the nation’s attention on the building tragedy. He was ABC’s lead correspondent on the Asian Tsunami, reporting from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. Woodruff has covered the “axis of evil,” and the nuclear showdown in Iran. In June 2005, he was granted unprecedented access to the secretive country of North Korea. In the last presidential election, he reported on the campaign of Senator John Edwards. He has also reported extensively on the continuing unrest in Iraq from Baghdad, Najaf, Nassariya, and Basra. During the initial invasion, Woodruff reported from the front lines as an embedded journalist with the First Marine Division, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.

Before moving to New York in 2002, Woodruff worked out of ABC News’ London Bureau. After the September 11 attacks, he was among the first Western reporters in Pakistan and was one of ABC’s lead foreign correspondents during the war in Afghanistan, reporting from Kabul and Kandahar on the fall of the Taliban. His overseas reporting of the fallout from September 11 was part of ABC News’ coverage recognized with the Alfred I. duPont Award and the George Foster Peabody Award, the two highest honors in broadcast journalism. He wasalso a part of the ABC News team recognized with an Alfred I. duPont Award for live coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

Optometry's Meeting® is the official annual meeting of the American Optometric Association and the American Optometric Student Association.