Dr. David Meltzer Named Interim Vice President of Clinical Operations
Dr. David Meltzer has been named the interim vice president of clinical operations, Salus at Drexel University, effective Feb. 17, 2025.
Dr. Meltzer will be responsible for the clinical operations of The Eye Institute (TEI), the William Feinbloom Low Vision Rehabilitation Center, the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) and the Speech-Language Institute (SLI). “My goal is to continue to offer quality health care to patients and excellent academic education to students,” said Dr. Meltzer.
He believes his Master of Business Administration will serve him well in his new role. And so far, so good. “I was in patient care five days a week, now it’s four days a week of administrative duties and meetings and one day a week of patient care. I’m still adjusting, but it’s going pretty well,” he said. “I don’t stay isolated in my office all day. I still like to walk around and talk to people. Because it’s a different role, I learn by talking to people.”
After graduating from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), Dr. Meltzer joined the U.S. Army and found himself in Iraq as part of the First Armored Division, embedded with the 47th Forward Support Battalion stationed at the Baghdad Airport during Operation Iraqi Freedom. A captain, Dr. Meltzer was one of 10 U.S. eye doctors stationed in Iraq at the time, responsible for treating U.S. soldiers and civilians that had been injured and prisoners of war captured by the Americans. One of the patients he treated in Iraq was the country’s former dictator, Saddam Hussein.
After his service in Iraq, Dr. Meltzer was stationed in Germany and Italy before returning to the states to complete a residency in San Antonio. By 2008, he was stationed at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Meltzer retired from the military on March 31, 2019. Prior to that, he had hosted externs from PCO while in the military. While attending the PCO/Salus externship expo in 2018, he was still trying to figure out what career path to take after his retirement. It was at that expo where a conversation with Dr. Satya Verma, the externship coordinator for PCO/Salus, helped Dr. Meltzer decide on his next career move. On Jan. 8, 2019, Dr. Meltzer, joined the PCO/Salus faculty as an assistant professor, clinical instructor and member of TEI’s professional staff.
Dr. Meltzer received his bachelor’s degree from Allegheny University of Health Sciences in 1998. He has worked as an adjunct assistant clinical professor at SUNY College of Optometry and was chief of optometry at Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, New York.