Farewell Dean Flanagan!

John Flanagan will step down as the dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science on February 11, 2025 after an exceptionally successful ten and a half years leading the school. Dr. Flanagan will continue to serve as a professor of optometry and vision science at Berkeley – focusing on research related to basic mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease, with a focus on human glaucoma. In particular, his lab works on the role of glia in neuroinflammation and potential therapies for neuroprotection.

We’d like to recognize and thank Dean Flanagan for his wise, thoughtful, and dynamic guidance of our school. He has exemplified remarkable leadership skills throughout his tenure as dean. In the early years of his deanship, he successfully resolved the school’s financial deficit through careful management, increased philanthropy and negotiating higher insurance reimbursements rates with VSP, the optometry clinic’s largest insurance provider. With clinical revenues on an upward trajectory, he recognized the ongoing need to prioritize staffing and the building’s infrastructure. Previously eliminated clinical staff appointments were reinstated, investments in clinical equipment increased and capital projects to renovate student spaces, including Minor Hall 3rd floor and the pre-clinic teaching lab, were launched. The school also established partnerships with Stanford and UCSF ophthalmology, including a joint clinic at Berkely Outpatient, and expanded its partnerships with community clinics. In addition, he recruited astonishingly talented faculty to replace the large number of retirements. As everything continued to fall into place nicely, we were soon confronted with one crisis after another. This included massive wildfires, power outages, the unimaginable COVID-19 pandemic and the national outcry for social justice.

Through these tumultuous times, John’s leadership promoted self-care, healing and transparency. He introduced various town halls to strengthen our small community. They served as a platform for collaboration, receiving and providing feedback and instilling trust in the community during these uncertain times. In addition, he held national leadership positions at the height of the pandemic in particular as President of ASCO, where he introduced national support programs, and key DEIBJ initiatives.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, John advocated on behalf of our students to continue clinical training. He established COVID-19 protocols that complied with city county, state, and national mandates, and also adhered to recommendations by UC Health, peer programs, and the UC Berkeley campus. To that end, the Doctor of Optometry program was the only academic program that remained active, on campus and in person, throughout the pandemic. In addition to providing clinical training to our students, the school continued to provide eye care to the community, including urgent care, which helped to ease the burden on emergency rooms during the height of the pandemic.

John successfully secured and negotiated a $50 million naming gift from the Wertheim Family Foundation, the single largest gift ever to an optometry school. The terms of the donation are a catalyst for maintaining the school’s prestige and leadership in optometry and vision science. The transformational gift includes plans, which are now underway, to build a satellite campus in Emeryville, CA that will feature a new outpatient clinic that will nearly double campus clinical capacity, expand opportunities for world-class education and research, and advance an exciting new model for integrated optometric care. In addition, John led our centennial celebrations with enthusiasm and a clear love for the school and respect for its distinguished history, a history to which he has clearly contributed.

On January 22, Dean Flanagan was recognized by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin with a Berkeley Citation. The citation is awarded to distinguished individuals whose contributions to UC Berkeley go beyond the call of duty and whose achievements exceed the standards of excellence in their fields.

Of his tenure at the school, Dr. Flanagan has described his deanship as “one of the most demanding, enjoyable, fulfilling and inspiring periods of my career.” In his “Final Reflections” editorial published in the 2024 edition of the Berkeley Optometry Magazine, he wrote, “What makes Berkeley so special? It is our people, our community; it is you. Thank you for your talents, your partnership, your time and your friendship. Whether you are a student, staff, faculty or alum, you are the heartbeat, the extraordinary pulse, the life that courses through our buildings. You provide exemplary care for our patients, you excel at learning, you revel in discovery, you celebrate invention, you teach with passion, and you thrive in collective achievement. You are the leaders of the profession and in the world of research, and you will be our future leaders.”