Distinguished Alumni 2025

Each year NECO proudly awards the Distinguished Alumni title to deserving graduates who have exemplified excellence, embraced their role as compassionate caregivers, exhibited an unwavering dedication to the field of optometry, and made a profound impact on their communities. These are the Distinguished Alumni that we celebrated in 2025-26:

Maureen Hanley, OD ’81

Dr. Hanley, a beloved educator, clinician, and mentor, passed away on March 8, 2025, at the age of 69. A native of Lincoln, RI, she joined the NECO faculty in 1984 and devoted more than four decades to educating and inspiring generations of optometrists throughout New England and beyond.

Guang-Ji Wang, OD ’92

Dr. Wang has been a central figure in the establishment of optometric education programs in China. He has also been instrumental in building and sustaining NECO’s longstanding relationship with Wenzhou Medical University (WMU) in China.