WO Voices
Welcome to WO Voices, a podcast series from Women In Optometry, featuring women ODs and others who talk about some aspect of practice, business, career choices, family, volunteer interests, leadership in the profession and more. Hosted by WO editor Marjolijn Bijlefeld, WO Voices is a chance to share ideas within the WO community and beyond. It’s another platform to bring women’s voices in the profession to the fore. If you’d like to join us on a podcast episode, we’d love to hear from you.
Episodes
145 episodes
Women's Leadership Conference Speakers Share How They Unleash Their Inner Leader
Three female ODs spoke at the Women In Optometry Leadership Conference, called "Leadership Unleashed," held during the American Academy of Optometry meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, in November 2024. Hear how Jade Coats, OD, FAAO; Essence J...
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20:26
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Dr. Kara Foster: Rx for Independence: Drop Insurance
In this episode, Kara Foster, OD, of EyeCare for You, in Apex, North Carolina, recounts how she made the decision two years into practice to stop accepting vision and medical insurance payments. Her direct-care model can serve as an illustratio...
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Season 5
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18:40
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Dr. Melissa Barnett and Amy Gallant Sullivan: How Old Is That Mascara?
Melissa Barnett, OD, FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA, and Amy Gallant Sullivan, founder of Eyes Are the Story optocosmetics, take a look at the habits that can undermine healthy eyes when it comes to skin care and cosmetics. Listen to their pra...
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Season 5
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21:39
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Liza Amlani: Strategies for Successful Retailing in an Optical
As the competition for eyewear stays hot, how can opticals rethink the patient experience and their marketing to stay competitive? Liza Amlani, principal and co-founder of Retail Strategy Group, talks about how to promoting individual br...
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18:47
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Dr. Michele Andrews and Dr. Jacquie Bowen: Doctors Share Myopia Management Practices
Jacquie Bowen, OD, FAAO, who will become president of the American Optometric Association at the next Optometry's Meeting in June 2025 in Minneapolis; and Michele Andrews, OD, VP of marketing and professional affairs at CooperVisi...
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Season 5
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23:14
Dr. Cheryl Chapman: Eyelid Hygiene Made Easy
Cheryl Chapman, OD, FIAOMC, FAAO, Dipl ABO, of Gretna Vision Source in Nebraska, explains how she and Chris Wolfe, OD, joined together to co-found Peeq Pro, an eyelid hygiene company that puts the doctor front and center on eyelid cleanser and ...
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Season 5
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24:17
Excellence With Kindness: New Berkeley Dean Readies Plans
Sharon A. Bentley, BScOptom, MOptom, PhD, MPH, FAAO, FACO, will become dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley, in February 2025. In this WO podcast, she talks with
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36:04
Dr. Roya Attar: AI Is Essentially the Next Industrial Revolution
Roya Attar, OD, MBA, DHA, of Jackson, Mississippi, has found that artificial intelligence (AI) has helped her tremendously in her personal and professional life. For example, AI gave her ideas for her son's graduation party and she uses i...
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Season 5
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21:32
Liza Amlani: Retailing and Marketing Your Optical
Opticals combine providing medically necessary eyewear and fashion. So WO turned to Liza Amlani, principal and founder of Retail Strategy Group, to ask if there are missed opportunities in retailing and marketing opticals. In the first o...
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Season 5
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16:18
Dr. Caitlin Reghetti: Supporting Patient Education With a Great Design
Several years ago, Caitlin Reghetti, OD, merged her interests in patient education with her skills for design and explaining things clearly. Believing that great design reinforces the quality content that doctors provide to patients, she...
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Season 5
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20:52
Dr. Sara Varghai: Cracking the Hiring Code
In this episode of WO Voices, Dr. Sara Varghai of Nova Optique + Eyecare in Arlington, Virginia, discusses how she finds the right staff fits for her practice, ensuring efficiency and collaboration between her entire team.
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Season 5
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22:04
Dr. Shira Kresch: A Specialty Lens Practice Start
Shira Kresch, OD, MS, FAAO, opened Michigan Contact Lens in Oak Park, Michigan, in the fall of 2023. Hear her explain how she determined there was a need for a contact lens specialty practice, how she discovered her passion for scleral lenses a...
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Season 5
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23:10
Dr. Janelle Davison: A Systematic Approach to Goal-Setting
Janelle Davison, OD, of Smyrna, Georgia, uses goal-setting as a tool to help her expand her bandwidth, make an impact, leave a legacy and, in the process, amplify her own voice and that of others. Hear how she combines visionary thinking with p...
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Season 5
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20:45
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Dr. Sally Halim: Feeling Sandwiched Between Tweens and Parents
Sally Halim, OD, of Woolwich, New Jersey, is feeling the squeeze between counting on her parents to help get her manage the hectic schedules of her tween children and also worrying about what they can do. Hear how she's organizing herself...
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Season 5
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24:10
Dr. Brenda Montecalvo: Helping Students - and Their Parents - Succeed in School
Brenda Montecalvo, OD, FCOVD, FAAO, FCSO, is an optometrist and vision therapist in Beaver Creek, Ohio. She's the author of Visual Secrets for School Success, and in this podcast, she explains methods she encourages chairside and in visio...
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Season 5
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19:57
Dr. Neda Gioia and Dr. Julie Poteet: Bringing Nutrition Into the Conversation With Every Patient
Dr. Neda Gioia and Dr. Julie Poteet talk about a new certification program to deliver much-wanted nutrition education to patients. The Certified Personalized Nutrition Certification is available at significant savings to members of the Ocular W...
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Season 5
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19:28
Dr. Melissa Barnett and Dr. Leslie O'Dell: 2023--The Year of Dry Eye
In this WO Voices podcast, Melissa Barnett, OD, FSAO, FSLS, FBCLA, talks with Leslie O'Dell, OD, FAAO, about the places where their careers have overlapped - particularly in dry eyes. Hear them talk about their work with the Intrepid Eye Societ...
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Season 5
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21:37
Dr. Kaitlyn Duran: New Grad's Time Management Skills Allow Her to Maximize Priorities
Kaitlyn Duran, OD, is a 2023 graduate of Indiana University School of Optometry, where she mastered time management skills that allowed her to focus on her studies, her competitive running and her husband. She details the apps and strate...
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Season 5
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22:09
Dr. Neda Gioia and Rebecca Treen: The Growing Interest Among Students and ODs on Nutrition and Wellness
In this episode, Neda Gioia, OD, CNS, FOWNS, CFMP, of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and the new president of the Ocular Wellness and Nutrition Society, talks with Rebecca Treen, an OD candidate with the class of 2026 at SUNY Colle...
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Season 5
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24:23
Dr. Kerry Giedd: Helping Patients Along Their Presbyopia Journey
Kerry Giedd, OD, of Eola Eyes in Orlando, Florida, talks about the opportunities with presbyopes and emerging presbyopes. With more treatment and contact lens options available today, there's more that optometrists can do for their patients.&nb...
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19:06
Dr. Maria Sampalis: Find Your Voice and Expand Your Influence
Maria Sampalis, OD, is founder of Corporate Optometry on Facebook and practices optometry in Cranston, Rhode Island. She talks with WO about how she began to fill an information gap for corporate-affiliated ODs and where that has taken her, as ...
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Season 5
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20:54
Carissa Dunphy: Maximize What Your Opticians Bring to the Practice
Carissa Dunphy, ABOC , founder of opticiannow.com and a marketing specialist at PECAA, brings her wealth of experience as an optician and a marketer to this podcast. Listen as she describes the important role that opticians can play as often th...
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Season 5
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23:22
Beth Lachance: How Could a Medical Virtual Assistant Help You?
Beth Lachance, chief executive officer of REVA Global Medical, talks about the increasing demand on her company to provide medical and optometric virtual medical assistants to help with front off...
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Season 5
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24:25
Dr. Melissa Barnett and Ukti Vora: Teleoptometry - From COVID Necessity to a Future Reality
In this episode, Melissa Barnett, OD, FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA, and optometrist Ukti Vora, MBA, MOptom, FAAO, talk about how teleoptometry and where it's going. Ukti Vora, host of the podcast Nerdy Optometrist, shares the experiences of doctors ...
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Season 5
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20:54
Dr. Ray Corbin-Simon: Relaxing Eye Misalignment With Contoured Prism
Ray Corbin-Simon, OD, of In Focus Vision Center & Eyecare in Piscataway, New Jersey, is on the Neurolens Advisory Board. Here, she talks about how contoured prism helps her own symptoms of headache and fatigue and the tools that ODs h...
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Season 5
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23:35