By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, June 21, 2019 11:28 AM
Prevent Blindness is once again using its platform to promote eye safety, by declaring the month of June as Cataracts Awareness Month. As VMAIL previously
reported, the organization states that more than 25 million Americans are estimated to have cataract, a clouding of the eye's lens, which blocks or changes the passage of light into the eye. While cataracts are caused by changes related to aging, other factors can contribute to their formation.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, April 5, 2019 2:28 PM
Stephanie Doherty is a London-based optometrist whose main focus is special effects contact lenses. Doherty graduated from Cardiff University Wales in the summer of 2013, and went on to complete her pre-registration year, which in the U.K., means you work under a practicing optometrist for one year before taking the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and registering with the college of optometrists.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, March 29, 2019 3:07 PM
Shreya Bhandari and Lara Bregman are second year optometry students at the
Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry. The pair originates from Toronto and while both went to the University of Western Ontario for undergrad, it wasn’t until they moved to the States that they connected and became friends. “It’s kind of a funny story actually. Lara and I attended the University of Western Ontario but we did not know each other,” Bhandari explained. “We first met at our optometry school interview at Salus in Pennsylvania. We instantly connected and spent the entire interview day chatting. When Lara saw that I joined the Nova incoming class of 2021 Facebook group, she reached out to me and we have been best friends ever since.”
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, March 22, 2019 3:09 PM
The team here at
VM kicked off the week with our annual
Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit which took place at the Times Center this past Wednesday. This year’s program, titled "Decoding the Consumer: The New Science of Customer Behavior," focused on consumer trends and behavior. Those in attendance were presented with trends and tactics that are shaping business decision-making from top retail analysts, health care experts, data scientists and marketing innovators.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, March 15, 2019 11:39 AM
Lili Liang is a spunky, Taiwan-born optometrist who now resides in Vancouver. After moving to Canada at 13, Liang continued her education in the Great White North until she moved to Montreal to attend university. She later came to the U.S. and attended Salus University—Pennsylvania College of Optometry, where she graduated with a dual degree as a Doctor of Optometry and Master of Public Health in 2016. Post-graduation, she took it back home and started working at
Durant Sessions, which was a boutique optical store and she was brought into the optometry practice that same year.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Monday, March 11, 2019 12:30 AM
For Vady Khalil, a second-year optometry student at the Western University of Health Sciences—College of Optometry, his journey to the U.S. was not an easy one. Khalil came to the U.S. as a refugee in 2008 after having migrated within the Middle East for five years. His father, who was an employee at the United Nations in Iraq, was severely injured when his office building was bombed in August of 2003 and eventually had to be moved to Europe for treatment, causing Khalil to be separated from his family—his mother and two younger brothers moved to London to be with his father while he and his sister moved to Jordan.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, March 1, 2019 12:20 PM
Nishan Pressley is a third-year optometry student at the
Salus University—Pennsylvania College of Optometry. The first African-American candidate to be accepted into the Accelerated Scholars Optometry Program, (which allows students to get their doctorate in three years versus the traditional four-year program) she will officially be Doctor Pressley on May 23, 2019. Her Instagram page,
Nishvn, is a display of all aspects of her life—from her journey through optometry school, her relationship with her boyfriend and her love for travel.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, February 22, 2019 12:31 PM
Jennifer Centeno is a California-based optician who’s been practicing for four years. Her Instagram page,
Opticianista_LA is a hub of eyewear, inspirational quotes, tips on lash care and eye-related trinkets. Before becoming an optician, Centeno was a luxury retail manager and she has carried her love for the finer things in life into her practice as an optician. “Opticianista_LA is space for me to discuss my thoughts on topics ranging from frames, lens treatments, fashion, beauty, and day-to-day operations,” she said. “I love combining my experience in luxury retail, and optical because the two are really similar.”
By Stephanie Sengwe
Thursday, February 14, 2019 3:31 PM
With Valentine’s Day right in the middle of the month, February is, of course, known as the month of love and while there’s sure to be a perfect pair of frames for your loved one at your local eyecare practice, many practitioners are creating awareness for a different cause on social media. This month, ECPs are urging patients to show their eyes a little more love by drawing attention to the fact that February is age-related macular degeneration (AMD) awareness month.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Monday, February 11, 2019 12:45 AM
Doctor Eye Health is a 6-month-old educational YouTube Channel geared toward anyone who is interested in knowing more about the eyes, disease and vision products. Its creator, Joseph Allen, OD, is a graduate of the Rosenberg School of Optometry who did his residency in ocular disease and vision rehabilitation at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Though he has been working on Doctor Eye Health since January of last year, his first video didn’t launch until July 2018 due to the amount of research he wanted to conduct prior.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, February 8, 2019 12:18 PM
Dr. Athena Brasfield’s eponymous Instagram page,
drbrasfield, is a hub of color and scenery reflective of the woman who runs it. Brasfield launched the page in October of 2018, and today it stands at 4,066 followers. The aim was to create a space that showcased not just the clinical side of optometry, but also the more fun, fashionable and creative side of the science as well. “I used to want to work in the fashion industry when I was a young girl, but I wanted to do something with more meaning, such as helping communities and giving back to others,” she stated.
By Stephanie Sengwe
Friday, January 25, 2019 3:01 PM
Doctor Eye Health is a 6-month-old educational YouTube Channel geared toward anyone who is interested in knowing more about the eyes, disease and vision products. Its creator, Joseph Allen, OD, told
VMail Weekend, “I have always been a visual person. I grew up watching a lot of movies and playing video games.”
By Stephanie Sengwe, Contributing Editor
Monday, January 21, 2019 12:32 AM
Kimberly Chan, OD, fell in love with her profession when she got her first pair of contact lenses as a young girl. With contact lenses, Chan, who has had bad eyesight since she was six-years-old, felt as though a new world had opened up to her; suddenly, she didn’t feel restricted by her thick glasses and was able to explore her potential in sports and other hobbies with a new boost of confidence. Years later, she got her Doctor of Optometry Degree from the New England College of Optometry and currently practices in her home city of Toronto.
By Stephanie Sengwe, Contributing Editor
Monday, January 21, 2019 12:32 AM
The end of the year always seems to bring an atmosphere of reflection with it. We tend to look back on what we could have done better, what we wish we would have done and above all what we’ve learned and how those lessons can usher us into the coming year. On social media, people use the end of the year as an opportunity to connect a bit more by sharing personal anecdotes.