Rhonda Robinson
Past President of Women of Vision
Dr. Robinson
Dr. Robinson and her children while on vacation.
Optical area
Overview inside
Her practice
Reception
At her desk
Dr. Robinson communicating with a patient.
Dr. Robinson with Martha Stewart in June 2009 while appearing on the show to discuss the importance of eye care.
I am privileged and honored to be the first highlighted bio on the WOV website. My vision of WOV includes a network of women that interact with one another and what better way to network than to get to know each other. I'll go first and I hope many of you will follow and send your own bios that we can highlight on our website. You may find your next best friend or a mentor that can change your life.
I graduated from Indiana University School of Optometry in 1982. I went to work for my father, an OD in his own practice in Indianapolis, IN. You might say I was very lucky to have a dad in the biz, but sometimes family businesses can be difficult. In my case, I was extremely lucky, since my dad gave me free rein to jump in and do my own thing. He taught me a lot, in particular his shortcut for balancing during refraction and his true concern for patients. To this day, not a day goes by that someone doesn't ask about him.
I had been working for my dad about 2-3 years when my husband was offered a job in Pittsburgh, PA. We moved and of course I didn't have a license or a job. While waiting to take the board exam, I went to work for an ophthalmologist who shared a waiting room with a group of optometrists with a true contact lens specialty. The MD specialized in refractive surgery (RK) and glaucoma. I worked for both sides of the waiting room and learned so much that it was like a residency program. Once I received my Pennsylvania license, I looked for a new job. It wasn't that I was so unhappy, but the OD group didn't have an opening for a full time position and the MD had me traveling all over the city to satellite offices which I didn't enjoy after so many hours of sitting in big city traffic. I next found myself working at a Pearle Vision Center in one of the Pittsburgh suburbs. I enjoyed being a full service optometrist again and the location kept me busy. It wasn't long before our first child was born...our daughter Courtney.
The birth of our first child changed some of our priorities and we moved back home to Indiana to be near both sets of grandparents. My father welcomed me back to his practice as he was ready to slow down and take the winters off. I took charge and built the practice little by little into the largest practice on the Westside of Indianapolis. Child number two was born during this time, our son, Jordan. Balancing family and career is possible. When my father finally retired, I added another OD to the office and Bausch and Lomb came calling. I was lucky to be asked to lecture on behalf of B and L and before long I became an academic consultant which takes me to all the Optometry schools in North America to do contact lens lectures and workshops.
In 1999, a colleague across town asked if I wanted to join him in expanding his optometric organization across the city. I jumped at the chance since my traveling was starting to interfere with running the business. Joining a large group would free up that responsibility, so now 10 years later, there are 12 locations in our group and I continue to see patients, lecture, and teach.
It's been an interesting and challenging 27 years since I graduated from optometry school. Private practice, employee/group practice, commercial optometric practice, industry and academia, all while raising 2 exceptional children. I would love to share my experiences so others can learn from my mistakes, know that they're not alone out there, and give back to the profession that's been so great to me. I was lucky to have my father help me along the way, but I see so many students in my travels that don't have that family support system to help them. I think that's one of the reasons I wanted to get WOV off the ground. The summer of 2004, I got together (with the generous support of B and L) 10 women optometrists in differing stages of their careers to see if they also felt a mentoring/networking organization for women optometrists was something worth pursuing. Never say, "One person cannot make a difference". There were 10 of us, but still...Look where we are today! Please contact me if I can help you in any way....we're all in this together.
