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MEMOIR SIU G. WONG OD, MPH

SIU G. WONG, OD, MPH: A PIONEERING CAREER IN Siu G. Wong, O.D., M.P.H., D.O.S. CAPT Public Health Service (Ret) Albuquerque, NM [email protected] doi 10.14434/hindsight.v51i2.30282

ABSTRACT This memoir, written by Dr. Siu G. Wong, chronicles her early influences and , and profiles her first career as a public health optometrist and her second career as a community activist and public historian. Dr. Wong graduated from the of California, Berkeley with her in optometry in 1970 and received her master's in Siu Wong, O.D., M.P.H., 2019 public health in 1973. Her first position as an educator at the University of (UH) included pioneering an interdisciplinary community health program in a low-income neighborhood as well as coordinating the first externship program for UH optometry students with the United States Public Health Service-Indian Health Service (USPHS-IHS). Dr. Wong joined the USPHS in 1978 where she was the first female commissioned officer assigned to the Indian Health Service (IHS), the first chief optometrist of an administrative region, and eventually the first woman to hold the position of chief optometric consultant to the IHS. During her tenure, she spearheaded quality assurance programs and was active in both the American Optometric Association (AOA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA), serving in leadership roles in the AOA's Council on Clinical Optometric Care, Privileges Committee, the QA Committee, and the Multidisciplinary Practice Section. She also became a member of the APHA's Vision Care Section and the Armed Forces Optometric Society. After retirement, Dr. Wong continued her role in public service, serving as the Clinical Director for the Special Olympics Opening Eyes program and as a clnical consultant. She became active also in public , joining the Chinese American Citizens Alliance where she works to raise awareness of the contributions of Chinese Americans to American history. This article was annotated by Kirsten Hebert. KEYWORDS Siu G. Wong; United States Public Health Service; Indian Health Service; public health; optometry history; University of California Berkeley; University of Houston; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Quality Assurance; Asian-American history; Chinese-American history; American Optometric Association A Tradition of Service engineering from The and a master of degree from Penn State University in 1930. Though When President John F. Kennedy, said: "Ask not what your unusual for the time, my mother, who came from a wealthy, country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” educated family, also received an education and was an this statement resonated with me. In the 1960s, altruism propelled elementary school prior to her marriage. My parents lived many individuals to enter the health . Truthfully, this in Shanghai under Japanese occupation (1937-1941) before and was an easy way to meet one’s moral obligation to help others, to during the Second World War (1941-1945). As American citizens, give back to the community, and to make a difference in people’s my family resided in the American concession—one of several lives. Since childhood, I planned to help others and a career in areas within the city reserved for foreign nationals. My father or was always an option. My maternal worked for General Electric Company, and my mother was in grand-uncle was a physician, my maternal grandfather was a lay- charge of the household. At the end of World War II in 1945, they minister, and my parents supported me and were pragmatic in were repatriated to United States on a troop ship and settled in encouraging me to pursue a career that could support me. California.1 (See Figure 1, page 54) My father was bilingual and well-educated and the role My three brothers and two sisters were born in Shanghai. as patriarch of our extended family fell on his shoulders. He With my birth in San Francisco, CA, our family of six children took this role seriously with the goal of helping his family and was complete. My parents planned to return to China and help community. He was active in the Sacramento, CA Chinese- rebuild the country after the devastation of the war, but eventually American community as president of the Wong Family Benevolent decided to remain in the United States, settling in Sacramento, CA. Association during the late 1960s, and was the chair of the Unfortunately, we were “dirt” poor because we had lost everything, campaign to build the Wong Center, a low-income housing but the Chinese culture values education, and so it was instilled complex. While not preached, it was demonstrated that our in all the children that college was the only way to change our life would be happier and more fulfilling if we gave back to our lives. In our high school, there was one track for college-bound community. students, and other tracks for those who were not. All six of us My parents were born in China in the early twentieth century. children went to college—a target that was unquestioned and My father came to the United States in 1914 to attend school. In understood, but rather unique for the 1950s and 1960s. the 1928, he received a degree in ceramic

HINDSIGHT: Journal of Optometry History 53 MEMOIR SIU G. WONG, OD, MPH

I began pursuing my at University of a handful in the nation.4 I thought I would enter academia and California at Berkeley in 1964, a radical time of the Free Speech was offered three teaching positions. I accepted the offer from the Movement. In my sophomore year, I went to the counseling University of Houston (UH) College of Optometry and started as center and decided to become a social worker, but by in my an assistant in charge of public health and the external sophmore year I had changed my major to optometry since community clinical programs.5 At UH, one of my teaching goals there was a school on campus and was told this would be a great was to provide quality clinical rotations which had a racially for a woman. A bonus was that I could be licensed to diverse patient population, multiple clinical conditions and practice independently, and not be reliant on referrals or orders numerous patients. I was able to do this by developing the first from another professional. United States Public Health Service-Indian Health Service (USPHS- I received a bachelor of science in physiological in IHS) externship for the college. 1968 and my doctorate of optometry in 1970. My class at Because of my public health background, another one of my Berkeley was the first to receive the of optometry (O.D.) goals was to institute an interdisciplinary health care class. It was degree—previous graduates received a degree. important to have optometry students interact with students My class had fewer than 50 students, which included eight studying other health care professions, since the traditional women. Attrition was about 15 %, which would make women teaching model, including optometry, was to educate students approximately 20% of the class, a rather high percentage in the in these programs in isolation from one another. I was awarded a 1960s. All the women graduated, and all went into practice.2 grant from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to (Figure 2) have optometry, nursing and students in a joint class where they collaborated to design a community project in the Houston Heights neighborhood.6 After five years at UH, I decided to join the USPHS-IHS. Fortunately, I had had the foresight to invite Lester Caplan, O.D., the first optometric consultant to the IHS, to speak to my public health class—little did I know that I would need his service as he was the recruiter for the IHS! I was hired and assigned to the Albuquerque Area Office in 1978, which is the administrative office for New Mexico, Colorado and part of Utah and . This clinical region is also identified as the Albuquerque Area (AA). I was the first USPHS female commissioned officer to be assigned to the IHS and the first to become chief optometrist of an administrative region. In the 1990s, I became the first woman to hold the position Fig. 2. The first class to graduate from the University of California, of chief optometric consultant to the IHS, which is equivalent to 7 Berkeley School of Optometry with the O.D. as the terminal the chief optometrist of IHS. (Figure 3) in optometry. Image courtesy the author. The optometry program was in its infancy when I was recruited. My responsibilities were broad with emphasis on program and policy development with some clinical care. Throughout my IHS I do not recall being treated differently than my male colleagues. career, I was fortunate to have supervisors who trusted me to do We had a dress code which required women to wear dresses my job with minimal oversight. Early on my guiding principles for and men to wear a tie when examining patients and attending the IHS optometry program were to develop programs that were classes. We also had a project for our doctor of optometry degree, good for patients (delivered quality eye and vision care) and good and since it was the 1960s, my project was on L.S.D. (lysergic acid 3 for optometry (position optometrists as primary care providers diethylamide) on eye movements! After graduation, I took six who delivered care commensurate with their training and clinical months off and traveled through , and when I returned I was not able to find a job but did not want to start my own practice. As they say ”When you can’t find a job, return to school”!

Community and Public Health: Providing Quality Care for the Under-Served This turned out to be the best decision of my life. I decided to study for a master's in public health degree (M.P.H.) The M.P.H. was a great degree—while optometry was too focused, the M.P.H. allowed me to expand my understanding of health care and how it is affected by multiple social determinants: environment, education, culture, crime, housing, politics, etc. Fig. 3. Children wait for an eye exam, Albuquerque Area IHS Optometry I graduated in 1973, when doctors of optometry with a M.P.H. , circa 1970. Image from Lester Caplan Papers, MSS 501.4.10. were still unique. This opened doors for me and being a woman Located at: The Archives & Museum of Optometry, St. Louis, MO. with these two degrees was unusual—there were perhaps only

54 Volume 51, Number 2, April 2020 MEMOIR SIU G. WONG, OD, MPH privileges). Using these guiding principles, it was my job to build a robust, comprehensive eye and vision program that eventually As American citizens the Wongs were allowed to repatriate after the became the foundation of the IHS optometry program. war, but other Chinese people fleeing the devastation of war were not welcomed into the U.S. Even after the 1943 repeal of the Chinese From the start, I knew patients did not know what quality Exclusion Act of 1882, new immigration of ethnic Chinese people was optometric care was. Patients expected good care, but how restricted to 105 persons per year regardless of country of origin.1 would they know they were receiving it? When I started in the Albuquerque Area, there were 20 frames available: five for men, five for women, five for girls, and five for boys. While it may be difficult for patients to know if the doctor is providing good care, patients know if they like their . Therefore, a quick and easy improvement which patients could immediately appreciate was increasing the selection to almost 100 different styles.8 One of the first programs I initiated in the early 1980s was the IHS Optometry Quality Assurance (QA) program, which may have been the first system-wide governmental QA optometry program in the nation. At that time, quality assurance programs were neither common nor popular. Who wants someone looking over your shoulder and telling you what to do? Nevertheless, QA was my strategic tool to improve the delivery of optometric care. If optometric care was compromised, QA provided the leverage needed to correct the deficiencies. There was power in using the term “quality assurance.“9 For example, one of the optometry was in a tin shack located on mound of dirt. When the winds blew, which was constant, dirt and sand collected on the instruments, the chair, the clinical equipment and throughout the office. In another clinic, the grey, metal government chair was used instead of a proper ophthalmic exam chair. If a child was the patient, telephone books were used as a booster seat to allow the child to see through the . These deficiencies underscored the challenges facing the optometry program, and the neglect the program had faced over the years from lack of funding.10 The QA program was primarily conducted through survey and audit—first generation QA. The IHS were surveyed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital (JCAHO), but optometry’s non-binding accrediting body was American Optometric Association (AOA) Council on Clinical Optometric Care (CCOC, now defunct), as JCAHO did not survey optometry clinics. I requested CCOC survey the Albuquerque Area optometry clinics with the objective of having structural and clinical deficiencies identified and eventually corrected. Another arm of the QA program was the audit of doctors’ records. At an American Public Health Association (APHA) meeting, I attended a birth control QA lecture and then adapted a birth control audit form to create an optometric audit form. The Albuquerque Area optometrists determined by consensus the procedures and clinical guidelines deemed to assure a quality exam. Audits were a critical element of the QA program, and it was clear that it changed the behavior of the doctors—one doctor of optometry even posted the audit form above the desk so it was easy to view! Fig 1. Act of December 17, 1943, Public 78-199, 57 STAT The IHS was a primary care health delivery system and so 600, to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts, and for other doctors of optometry were primary care providers. We provided purposes. school screenings, exams and treatment either with glasses, Image Courtesy the National Archives. General Records of the United States monitoring or drugs or a combination. All the optometrists, Government, Record Group 11. Available at: https://www.docsteach.org/ employed or contracted, were credentialed to use therapeutic documents/document/act-of-december-17-1943-public-law-78199-57- pharmaceutical agents (TPAs) and their privileges were stat-600-to-repeal-the-chinese-exclusion-acts-and-for-other-purposes.

HINDSIGHT: Journal of Optometry History 55 MEMOIR SIU G. WONG, OD, MPH determined by QA audit findings and training. The IHS primary care model was ideal for optometry to flourish. There were very few ophthalmologists in the IHS, and patients were referred to the private sector if needed. Consequently, optometrists were credentialed to examine and treat the majority of patients, assuring doctors of optometry were providing primary eye care. The practice of optometry in the IHS also helped optometry in the private sector. In the 1980s in Colorado, the IHS contracted with a private optometrist to provide care in a small, remote clinic at the same time that Colorado optometrists were seeking to expand their by gaining privileges to use TPAs. Our contractor was able to testify before the Colorado legislature that he was credentialed to use drugs in the IHS clinic, but in his own private practice a few miles away, he was denied this treatment modality. Was he a different doctor? No—and this was 11 clearly understood by the Colorado state legislators. Fig 5. USPHS-IHS Meeting, Albuquerque, NM,1989. L-R: William Jones, O.D.; The IHS was the first to require doctors of optometry to have Albuquerque Area Director, Admiral Josephine Waconda; Surgeon General C. Everett hospital clinical privileges. While the JCAHO does not credential Koop, and Captain Siu G. Wong, O.D. Image courtesy the author. and grant clinical privileges for optometrists, the IHS developed a credentialing program grounded in JCAHO principles but tailored as primary care providers, with the AOA. For example, IHS for optometry. I also introduced this program to the AOA, and optometrists work at the intersection of interdisciplinary care and one of the first AOA hospital privileges handbooks included IHS clinical privileges in the treatment and monitoring of diabetic credentialing requirements.12 (Figure 4) patients. The high numbers of diabetic patients in this population require many follow-up visits from numerous providers, including In 1973, I joined the American Public Health Association (APHA), optometrists who are necessary to provide education and a great career development monitoring of eye and vision changes due to . It was organization for me. The APHA the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) that proved the annual meetings were attended by value of optometrists as primary care providers, and we became thousands of APHA members with indispensable members of the healthcare team.14 (Figure 5) over 100 competing, concurrent, diverse sessions. The APHA was also one of the first organizations From Public Health to Public History that welcomed optometrists with My career as an optometrist and Public Health Service officer open arms in the mid-twentieth prepared me for my next career as a community activist. I didn’t century. In the 1970s, the AOA think this would be my second focus (no pun intended) in life, but decided to become more involved after a number of volunteer efforts, I was drawn to the intersection in public health and encouraged between historic preservation and social justice. In fact, my life more doctors of optometry to after optometry has been quite exhilarating with unexpected join the APHA. To ensure a seat challenges which, at times, seemed daunting and made me aware at the table, the AOA strategy of how unprepared I was for my next career. was to establish an independent Upon retirement, I volunteered for a number of organizations, section within the APHA. I was Fig. 4. For her groundbreaking work some based on personal or professional interests, and others one of two optometrists involved with the IHS, Dr. Wong received the based on my activism. I continued to practice optometry in a in defending and debating 1989 USPHS Meritorious Service limited way. For example, I was the New Mexico Clinical Director the approval of the Vision Care Award and the 2005 APHA Vision Care Section Distinguished Service for Special Olympics Opening Eyes program for ten years and Section on the floor of the APHA. award Image courtesy AOA News, continued to provide QA consulting and auditing service for Davis The APHA and the AOA were my 15 May 1989. p. 2.. Vision. I also became a for the city-owned Albuquerque Art primary professional organizations, and History Museum. and I served on a number committees that were not optometry- centric. Being the first optometrist on these committees helped While busy with my optometry career and living in New Mexico, broaden my interest and knowledge in health care.2,13 a state with a diverse ethnic population, it was easy not to see the racism that continued to exist in United States. However, upon Concurrently, I was also member the New Mexico Optometric retirement in 2006, I was inspired by book written by Helen Zia, Association and the Armed Forces Optometric Society and I was Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People (New active in the AOA volunteer structure. I served as an officer and York: 2000). This book transformed the second chapter of my life. member of committees that aligned with my professional work Zia wrote about racism against Asians in the twentieth century, in the IHS, including the Multidisciplinary Practice Section, the which continues today. Consequently, my interests gravitated to Quality Assurance Committee, the Hospital Privileges Committee researching and educating the public about Chinese Americans in and the Council on Clinical Optometric Care. This work allowed me New Mexico and the nation. This community activism also reflects to share the IHS model of optometry, which treats optometrists my heritage and family social consciousness instilled in me by my parents. 56 Volume 51, Number 2, April 2020 MEMOIR SIU G. WONG, OD, MPH

My activist platform is the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (C.A.C.A.), Albuquerque Lodge. The C.A.C.A. is the oldest Asian civil rights organization in the United States, established in 1895. One of C.A.C.A.’s goals is to educate, correct and update American historiography to reflect and include the numerous contributions Chinese Americans have made to American life and society. For example, Chinese Americans were approximately 80% of the workforce on the Central Pacific Railroad, which was the western line of the Transcontinental Railroad in the nineteenth century, but the story of the Chinese people who built the railroad is often overlooked or discounted in the classroom and public history. When I started researching Chinese Americans in New Mexico, there was scant information. The research typically covered Chinese Americans in California, Arizona and Texas. I knew this was incorrect—because of a truism I heard in my twenties: ”where there is water, there are Chinese.” Fig 7. 2016 Dedication Ceremony of the Plaque to Commemorate the Chinese Americans who Established Albuquerque, NM. Dr. Wong at center-right in red. Carolyn Chan, AOA Auxiliary past-president, at center-left in purple. Image courtesy the author. entitled the Invisible to Visible: the Chinese American Experience in Albuquerque at the Albuquerque Art and History Museum, and the first ABQ Chinese American Film Festival (ACAFF), now in its fourth year. I was also part of the C.A.CA.'s lobbying effort to secure a Congressional Gold Medal for Chinese-American Veterans of World War II, to be bestowed in 2020.

Lessons Learned by Looking Back There is a connection between the organizational skills I learned at the AOA and from my optometry career: the C.A.C.A. Advocacy Program was modeled after the AOA's legislative advocacy Fig 6. Cheryll Leo-Gwin and Stewart Wong’s illustration of “View From program. The C.A.C.A. Past National President, Carolyn Chan, was Gold Mountain,” a monument installed in downtown Albuquerque. also the president of the AOA Auxiliary in 1978, and her husband NM to commemorate 1882 court case. Image courtesy the author. Tony Chan, O.D. was the first Asian-American AOA Trustee.17 Because of the success and the grass roots elements of the AOA My original idea was to gain recognition of a significant New Lobbying program, Ms. Chan modeled the C.A.C.A Advocacy Mexico Chinese American building, event, or incident. With the program after the AOA program. Another lesson I have learned help of a local public , Eileen O’ Connell, I was able to during my career in optometry is to recognize and embrace identify a forgotten landmark civil rights case that commemorated positive change. The profession was on the cusp of a revolution a decision by the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court.15 In the when I began my career. The huge influx of optometrists trained case Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun (1882) the Court allowed under the GI Bill after World War II were willing to expand the the testimony of Chinese Americans to testify, challenging scope of optometric practice, especially in the monitoring and the prevailing legal doctrine of the time which disallowed treatment of eye disease. When I started college and optometry Chinese testimonies in civil and criminal cases. This case was a school in the 1960s, optometrists detected eye diseases and breakthrough in the developing relationship between race and referred patients to ophthalmologists, we did not diagnose and law in the United States, establishing a precedent for other states. treat disease. Optometrists in the private sector and in the IHS With the help of my husband, William L. Jones, O.D., we raised were eager to move forward and to provide the best care to $275,000 of public funding to create a monument. (Figure 6) patients. As it turned out, what was good for the patient is also Today, the monument has evolved to highlight and celebrate good for the profession. I was lucky to be part of the evolution the inclusion of people of color in the American ideal of ”liberty, of optometric clinical training, and to fulfill the mandate that justice and equality for all.” The monument was dedicated January optometrists become members of interdisciplinary health care 11, 202016 and is located at the Bernalillo County Courthouse in teams. downtown Albuquerque. My career also spanned the second wave of the feminist The monument project was the first of a number of other movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. One of the consequences projects which gave me and other Chinese Americans living in of the movement was the idea that we could become New Mexico an opportunity to share our remarkable history with "superwomen" who could multitask and "do it all." While this was New Mexico residents. These projects include a plaque invigorating, sharing the workload is superior to shouldering all to honor the Chinese American pioneers who helped settle and of the work. My only advice for women optometrists today is to build Albuquerque in the nineteenth century (Figure 7), an exhibit

HINDSIGHT: Journal of Optometry History 57 MEMOIR SIU G. WONG, OD, MPH balance your personal and professional lives. You can’t do it all, and created a "Public Health Optometry Division." See: AOA Annual you don't have to! Report, 1971-72. St. Louis, MO: American Optometric Association, 1972. Located at: The Archives & Museum of Optometry, St. Louis, MO; RG 100, Series 5, Box 1. In 1972, Dale Dannenburg issued a call Annotations for more optometrists to attain M.P.H. degrees and encouraged 1. The Japanese occupied Shanghai from 1937 until 1945. The an interdisciplinary approach to practice in his article for the AOA concessions where foreign nationals resided were protected to journal: Optometry–A Research Profession. (J Am Optom Assoc some degree from the brutality of the Japanese occupation until 1972;43(8): 836). The AOA introduced a pamphlet entitled Take A 1941 after the attack of Pearl Harbor. For an overview of military Closer Look at the Optometrist at an APHA meeting in 1972 to raise the cooperation between the United States and Chinese during the profile of optometry among public health professionals (J Am Opt war see: Bishop DM. The United States and China During World Assoc 1972; 43(13):1321). In 2012, Dr. Melvin Shipp became the only War II: An Operational Outline. [Internet]. 2005 [cited 2020 April 04]. optometrist to ever serve as president of the APHA. For an overview Beijing: U.S. Embassy and Consulates in China. Available from: https:// of the AOA's involvement with the APHA see: Caplan L. Optometry china.usembassy-china.org.cn/our-relationship/policy-history/io/ and the American Public Health Association. J Am Optom Assoc. shared-sacrifice-u-s-china-cooperation-world-war-ii/united-states- 1999;70(11):703-14, and Hatch, S, McAlister, WH, Whitener, J, Block, china-world-war-ii-operational-outline/. For a more in-depth study S. Optometric Care Within the Public Health Community. Old Post of life in occupied Shanghai see: Henriot C., Yeh, W-H. In the shadow Publishing, Cadyville, NY, 2009. These efforts, combined with minority of the rising sun: Shanghai Under Japanese Occupation. Cambridge: recruitment programs increased the number of non-white women Cambridge University Press, 2009. For personal reminisciences of entering optometry. life in Shanghai within the context of Chinese history see: Zia H. Last 5. After acquiring her M.P.H., Dr. Wong was a at the Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's St. Louis University School of , Department of Community Revolution. New York: Ballantine Books, 2019. For more about the Medicine and vision care analyst under the vice president's office 1943 Act (Figure 1), see: Office of the Historian. Repeal of the Chinese of the St. Louis University Medical Center-—positions that provided Exclusion Act, 1943. [Internet.] 2016 [cited 2020 April 04]. Foreign experience she would later apply at the University of Houston. Service Institute, United States Department of State. Available from: See also: Wong SG. Continuing education for independent health https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/chinese-exclusion- professions. J Am Optom Assoc 1973;44(5): 503. She also earned act-repeal. a Doctor of Ocular Science degree from Southern College of 2. The Regents of the University of California approved the granting Optometry in 1995. of the terminal professional degree, Doctor of Optometry, on June 6. Dr. Wong wrote a series of articles for the J Am Optom Assoc under 18, 1965 (Morgan MW, Peters HB. Optometry at the University the 1975 DHEW Special Project Award grant #07-D-000105-01 of California. J Am Optom Assoc 1965;36(12):1059.) Admission and 02: Interdisciplinary health care: Part I. (JAOA 1978;49(7): 803), to the new four-year doctorate of optometry program began Part II (JAOA 1978;49(8): 895); and Part III (JAOA 1978;49(9): 1001). in 1966. Recent graduates of the Master of Optometry (MOpt) The series discusses the rationale and plan for the interdisciplinary program as well as current students were allowed to complete training pilot prgram at UH beginning with the interdisciplinary additional requirements to obtain the "O.D." See: Fiorillo J. Berkeley project team, the pilot program and the community study in 1974 Optometry—A History. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkley,: as well as the development of elective courses on Interdisciplinary 2010: 739 p. health teams in 1975 with optometry, pharmacy, nursing, theology, 3. Original paper copies of the project papers produced by optometry and allied health students. In the first year, students did both students are held at the University of Caifornia, Berkeley Optometry traditional didactic coursework and field work. In the second year, and Health Library in the series RE14.02 entitled "O.D. the program expanded to include social work and dietetics. In Papers" 1969-1972. For access see: http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/ recognition for this work Dr. Wong received a U.S. Public Health record=b12912681~S1 Service Traineeship Award 1971-72, Beta Sigma Kappa Noteworthy Practioner Award in 1977, and was named Diplomate by the National 4. The push for doctors of optometry to enter public health was Board of Examiners in Optometry. strong at this time. In 1972 there were only 12 optometrists who held dual O.D./M.P.H. degrees and only four optometrists enrolled in 7. Ed Hamilton, O.D., M.P.H. was Optometry Chief of Service, 1975-1982; M.P.H. programs. See Rosenthal J, King A. Optometry and the New Lester Caplan, O.D., M.P.H. held the position 1983-1984 and Dr. Wong Breed. J Am Optom Assoc 1972;43(7): 749. Women optometrists in held the position 1985-1991. particular were attracted to the dual O.D./M.P.H. track and to public 8. Dr. Lester Caplan also noted the poor selection of frames available to health in general. Women began earning the majority of degrees people served by the IHS and believed that the unattractive frames in public health in the 1970s, growing from 51% in 1979 to 73% in made children in particular unwilling to wear corrective . 2018. Asian Americans continue to represent the largest percentage Caplan, Lester, interview by Kirsten Hebert and John Amos, O.D. April of non-whites to earn degrees in public health, growing for 6% to 24, 2014, Archives & Museum of Optometry, St. Louis, MO.OH 507. 14% of graduates between 1975-2018. See: Leider JP et al. Trends in the Conferral of Graduate Public Health Degrees: A Triangulated 9. For a look an evaluation of optometric care provided by the IHS Approach. Public Health Reports. 2018, Vol. 133(6) 729-737. DOI: Albuquerque Area at the beginning of Dr. Wong's tenure see: 10.1177/0033354918791542. The Women's Educational Equity Act Toya JL. Reid KL. Evaluation of the Albuquerque Area Indian (WEEA) passed in 1965 funneled money into educational program Health Service Optometric services provided to 19 Pueblo Indian targeted at women, increasing funding for public health training communities. Indian Health Service, Staff Office of Planning, and degree programs. See: Women's Educational Equity Act of 1974, Evaluation and Research, Rockville, MD 20857 (E-30). 1979. Pub. L. 93-380, Secion 408 88 Stat.1974 (Aug. 21, 1974): 554.The AOA Available from: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent. began to actively encourage the practice of public health optometry cgi?article=1004&context=nhd. While QA was welcomed within the after the passage of national healthcare legislation in the late 1960s. IHS, acceptance by private practitioners was harder to win. Dr. Wong As part of the AOA reorganization commenced in 1969, the AOA continued to promoted QA to those in group practice in her capacity as a member of the Multidisciplinary Practice Section (JAOA 1992; 63(4): 276. 58 Volume 51, Number 2, April 2020 MEMOIR SIU G. WONG, OD, MPH

10. The IHS optometry programs were chronically under-funded, with 14. Dr. Wong joined the AOA's Multidisciplinary Section in 1977, per-patient expenditures a fraction of the average spent for other serving as chair in 1979-1980 (JAOA 1977; 48(10): 1313; JAOA 1978; Americans. For an in-depth history of the politics behind IHS funding 49(11):1320; JAOA 1980;51(9): 818). In that year she also began see: Bergman A., Grossman D., Erdrich A., Todd J., & Forquera R. A working as a referee and on the editorial board of the JAOA. During Political History of the Indian Health Service. 1999 Milbank Quarterly; the 1980s, she often presented to AOA members about acquiring 77(4), 571-604. Available from www.jstor.org/stable/3350575 hospital privileges and served on panels discussing hospital-based care at AOA meetings (JAOA 1985;56(4): 327). See: Wong SG. 11. Colorado passed legislation allowing doctors of optometry to Historical perspective of optometrists' and other health professionals' use Diagnostic Pharmaceutical Agents in 1983 and Therapeutic involvement in hospitals Volume 59, Number 8,8/88 594-597). Pharmaceutical Agents in 1988. See: Brazil H. Bill 12-152, The Definition of Optometry Amendment Act. District of Columbia 15. For more information about the case, see: Wunder, John R. Territory (DC): Council of the District of Columbia; 1998 Feb 24. Report of of New Mexico v. Yee Shun (1882): A Turning Point in Chinese Legal Committee on Consumer Regulatory Affairs. Available from: http:// Relationships in the Trans- Mississippi West. New Mexico Hist Rev. lims.dccouncil.us/Download/5806/B12-0152-CommitteeReport1.pdf 1990;65: 305–18. 12. Wong S, Blackman G., Fisher G. Hospital Privileges. St, Louis, MO: 16. To read more about the monument and dedication see: Constante American Optometric Association, 1988. Also see American A. New monument highlights landmark case that allowed Chinese Optometric Association. Optometric Hospital Privileges. Saint Louis, to testify in U.S. courts. NBC News; Asian America [Internet]; 2020 Jan MO: American Optometric Association, 1997. Available from: https:// 17 [cited 2020 Apr 22]. Available from: https://www.nbcnews.com/ www.aoa.org/Documents/optometrists/optometric-hospital- news/asian-america/new-monument-highlights-landmark-case- privileges-complete.pdf. allowed-chinese-testify-u-s-n1117221 13. In 1978, Dr. Wong was elected to the APHA's governing Council of 17. Dr. Tony Chan is a 2020 inductee to the National Optometry Hall of the Medical Care Section (Potpourri. JAOA 1978; 49(1): 102). In 2005 Fame. She received the APHA Vision Care Section Distinguished Service award.

HINDSIGHT: Journal of Optometry History 59