March 2009 eNewsletter
Rene Soltis to be honored by the OWA with the Tenth Annual Pleiades Award

NEW YORK - The OWA will honor Rene Soltis, Director of Training and Education for The Vision Council with the tenth Annual Pleiades Award at a cocktail and award reception on Friday, March 27th. The event will be held during the weekend of International Vision Expo East in the Marchon Eyewear Showroom located at 8 West 40th Street in New York. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served at 6 p.m. The award presentation will begin at 6:45 p.m.

Rene Soltis is the Director of Training and Education for The Vision Council, the trade association that represents the vision industry. In this role, she designs and delivers customized sales training and motivational keynote addresses for eye care professionals and leading national sales teams from major optical companies.

Rene serves as an industry spokesperson, conducting media interviews and is noted for her engaging seminars on sales, marketing, business and communications as well as a variety of other topics.

Rene has conducted numerous interviews on eyecare, eyewear, and eye health issues with leading consumer magazines such as: Wall Street Journal, Consumer Reports, "O", Parenting, Health, Golf Digest, Glamour, and In Style to name a few. In addition, Rene has been the eyecare/eyewear expert interviewed live on several national TV network news shows, including CBS morning shows. She has appeared as the expert for eyewear fashion segments on numerous talk-news shows including the Today Show, the Early Show, Fox Dayside and WB11.

As a certified optician and speaker with more than 32 years experience, Rene has developed and implemented numerous consumer education, practice building, fashion, sales and communications programs. Rene serves as a liaison to the Conference Advisory Board of International Vision Expo and lectures extensively at the national level. For several years, Rene has also been a featured speaker on eyewear fashion and trends at MIDO, the Italian Eyewear tradeshow. She is a fellow member of the Opticians Association of America and the National Academy of Opticianry and past-president of the Optical Woman's Association. In 2004, she was selected and honored as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Optical.

Throughout her career she has been a leader in the field, a mentor and coach to her colleagues and friends, with a dedication to the ongoing development of women in leadership positions. It is with gratitude that the OWA honors Rene Soltis with the 10th annual Pleaides Award.

The Pleiades Award spotlights an individual who has shown a commitment to the mission of the OWA by fostering the growth of women in the industry. The Pleiades Award is named for the star cluster Pleiades in the Taurus constellation. The Pleiades is also known as the "Seven Sisters" — referring to the seven brightest stars in the cluster. The cluster was named for Atlas' seven daughters, whom Zeus turned into stars. Pleiades Award winners have a star named after them and receive a star map and certificate as part of their recognition. Prior recipients have included Dana R. Weeks, Optical Services International (OSI); Carene S. Kunkler, Sight Resource Corporation; Andrea Gluck, Eyewear Designs, Inc.; Tom Styers, Essilor; Charles "Pat" Patterson, Walman Optical; Mimi Friedfeld, ClearVision Optical; Janet Callif, Luxottica, LLC; Deborah Malakoff, The Vision Council; and Steph DeLong, EyeCare Business.

OWA would like to thank its sponsors for their belief in, and generous support of our mission to advance and promote the leadership role of women in the Optical industry.

A special thank you to Marchon Eyewear for providing the venue for this event.

The OWA would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support and belief in our mission to advance and promote the leadership role of women in the Optical industry.