Woo University

The concept of Woo University (Woo U) began during conversations with good friends during March 2020. Since the world was at a standstill with the COVID pandemic, I had a lot of time to think. I had recently opened up my new optometry practice, Contact Lens Institute of Nevada, about a month prior to the pandemic. Like everyone else in the world, I had to close the office for about 2 months. During this time, I was able to think about the trajectory of my career. As much as I love patient care, education and teaching has always been important to me as well. In fact, during college, my major was Science Education. I even completed a semester of student teaching prior to graduating college. Even though teaching science to 7th greaders was fun, I knew I wanted to further my education. This led me to optometry school and eventually owning three private practices in Arizona and California. I began lecturing and teaching optometrists right away. During my cornea and contact lens residency, I was involved with teaching optometry students in the clinic and in the lab. Right after my residency, I began my optometric career at a private practice in Arizona. I also taught scleral lens workshops and seminars to many different doctors and staff members around the US. From workshops at Academy, AOA, and other local society meetings to online webinars, I’ve had the honor of educating thousands of practitioners from around the world about scleral contact lenses. Over the last 10 years, I have delivered over 100 hours of educational lectures on the subject of specialty contact lenses and anterior segment eye disease. I’ve also led many different scleral lens workshops and written articles for publications on a variety of topics. I knew that education was going to be a part of my career forever.