Paul Harris

Dr. Paul Alan Harris is a 1979 Graduate of the State University of New York, State College of Optometry. He practiced in the greater Baltimore area for 30 years and then became a Professor at Southern College of Optometry (SCO) in 2010. He retired from SCO in 2023. Didactically he taught Amblyopia and Strabismus, Pediatrics, Vision Therapy, and Ocular Motility, and an elective which addresses Sports Vision and working with patients with ABI and TBI.  Clinically he was involved in Vision Therapy, Vision Rehabilitation and Hospital Based Care for ABI/TBI, Pediatrics and Electrodiagnostics.  He is also actively involved in research working on new ways to measure visual performance with innovative measures of visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, glare disability, visual fields, the effect of color on patients with TBI/ABI, migraine and seizure disorders, and with a team working on an objective measure of the degree of concussion. 

His accreditations include Fellowships in the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (1984), the Australasian College of Behavioral Optometry (1993), the American Academy of Optometry (1999) and the National Academies of Practice (2013).  He is a past President of the Optometric Extension Program Foundation (OEPF).

In 1991, Dr. Harris founded the Baltimore Academy for Behavioral Optometry (BABO) to help expand the quantity and quality of behavioral optometric care available to the public.  These courses are now part of the OEPF’s educational base and are known as the Clinical Curriculum, which provides hands-on small-group post-graduate clinical education in the field of behavioral vision care.  Over 1700 optometrists and vision therapists in the US and abroad have taken part in one or more of these courses.  He is a founding member of the OPSIS Education Foundation.