MEET THE DEANS
With the addition of Michael Bacigalupi, O.D., M.S., FAAO, dean of the Kentucky College of Optometry, and Dana C. Shaffer, D.O., FACOFP dist., FAOGME, dean of the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine, UPIKE’s health professional schools are thriving with innovative and skilled leadership. By Mark Baggett
KYCO Dean Michael Bacigalupi, O.D., sees UPIKE’s mission embedded in its students Michael Bacigalupi grew up admiring all of the complicated instruments in an optometrist’s office in South Florida where his mother was office manager. “I was quite near-sighted,” he said, “and I was always trying out the newest contact lenses with my optometrist.” Those early years, when he admired the optometrist in that office as a role model, prepared the adult Bacigalupi for a career in optometry that recently culminated in his being named dean of the University of Pikeville-Kentucky College of Optometry (KYCO). He came to Pikeville after 13 years at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) College of Optometry in Florida where he was the assistant dean for student affairs and admissions. In 2015, when it was announced that KYCO was being founded at UPIKE, he “kept an eye on it” because a school in Kentucky in an underserved area would have amazing potential. Pikeville appealed to Bacigalupi from his first visit. He got a taste of its history and culture in a “community interview” that was part of the search process. “This community reminds me of where we lived in Texas,” he
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UPIKE MAGAZINE | FALL 2018
said, “ ... the gentle, kind nature of the people. I felt very comfortable right away.” The new dean and college are now joined in an exciting prospect of furthering optometric education. Many students are from small towns and immediately buy into the college’s mission of serving the medically-underserved in rural Appalachia. At the same time, because they are in Kentucky, they are able to use their training to the fullest extent of optometric care. “Kentucky has some of the most progressive optometry practice laws in the country,” Bacigalupi says. “It allows optometrists to practice a very medical style of optometry — using lasers, for instance, and performing minor surgical procedures such as incising styes of the eyelid. “In my opinion, our school is leading optometric education in the right direction. Our students are highly-skilled and well-trained. They want to serve the traditionally-underserved rural communities, who really need optometrists to provide a wider scope of care. At KYCO, we are allowing the students to practice to the full scope of their profession while carrying out our mission.”
