A Better Chance TV with host Dr. Monique S. Robinson
Educational Conversations with Scholars in Mind. "Our mission is to empower and uplift scholars pursuing higher education at HBCUs, ensuring they have the resources, support, and opportunities needed for a successful future. Through mentorship, scholarship programs, and community engagement, we strive to create a pathway to excellence, fostering academic achievement, leadership development, and a strong sense of cultural identity. Together, we are building a brighter future for young scholars, strengthening the legacy of HBCUs, and fueling positive change in our communities."
A Better Chance TV with host Dr. Monique S. Robinson
Eyesight Revolution: Black Women Optometrists Changing Healthcare
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Good evening and happy Monday. I know you have seen a lot of me between yesterday and today, but today I have a special edition of let's Talk About it Today. I'm overly excited. These ladies are very talented and very educated and, most important, they are HBCU graduates. They are all doctors and optometrists in various state cities and things like that. I will bring them on one by one and we are just going to talk about so many things and I don't want to share everything. So when they come on, please, please, please. If you hit that like share comment button, be engaged If you want to participate in the conversation. The instructions are scrolling across the bottom. So we have Dr Ngadi, hi, hi. We have Dr Tiffany Humes, hey, y'all. And our friend with the fabulous frames, as always, dr Johnson. Hello, welcome, ladies, I'm so glad that you are giving me your time on a Monday, a three-day weekend Monday. Happy to be here. Yes, as I shared in the introduction, I was like I'm not going to tell all their secrets, but let's introduce ourselves.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm going to start guys. Hello, and thank you so much, monique, and then Dr Johnson, for thinking about me for this program. I am always super, super excited to talk about my HBCU experience, of course, and then now getting to share with you all what it is that I do and my passion and all the stuff behind it. So, yes, as Monique said, I'm Dr Wamaka Ngadi. As Monique said, I'm Dr Wamaka Ngadi.
Speaker 3:I am a first-generation Nigerian-American and I was born and raised in Atlanta, georgia, where I currently reside now. I attended private school most of my life and then I had always thought, oh, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a doctor. And so I was encouraged by a family friend to go to Xavier University, which we know is one of the number one HBCUs for getting African-Americans into health-related schools. So I had the absolutely amazing opportunity to go to Xavier University in Louisiana and I like to say I grew up really in New Orleans, because I think college is when you really grow up right. So grew up a lot more in New Orleans and had an amazing, amazing experience with a lot of very intelligent people where I learned a lot of stuff, but I also had a lot of fun, and there is no other. I just don't. I don't even know how you can claim to have a better college experience If you didn't go to HBCU.
Speaker 2:My screen went out for a second but yeah, we had, we had a blast we had so much fun at Xavier.
Speaker 3:You, you would be surprised that people actually graduate and go on to health professional schools, but you can do it. And so after Xavier, I actually came back to Atlanta for a year. When I was in my senior year at Xavier, I took the MCAT, was trying to go to medical school, and that didn't go the way I thought it was going to go. And so I remember true story, y'all true story Tiffany, dr Humes, was one of my college roommates. We lived in this fabulous house off of St Charles Street in New Orleans and that was part of the good time. So that's a story for another day. But at any rate, I was riding down St Charles with Tiffany and I was telling her I didn't know what I was going to do. And Tiffany actually told me she was like girl, come over here and join me in optometry. You can be a primary care practitioner, you'll still have patients and you'll also be able to have a great work-life balance. And I was like, oh, that sounds dope. So I actually ended up doing a summer program and I restudied for the. I was still kind of trying to see if my little plan A was going to go the way I wanted it to go if I was going to be able to somehow sneak into medical school. And God just knew that I didn't need to be there because I ended up getting waitlisted when I retook the MCATs and reapplied to medical school.
Speaker 3:But I got into the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, which is where I completed my optometry degree and so got my doctorate in optometry. There, alongside these beautiful, fabulous women Tiffany was my big sister and I think Essence was Essence your big sister, I don't know. Yes, she was when this lifeline of women actually helped me float my way through that process, because it wasn't easy. But, baby, I did it and I got it done. So after optometry school, essence encouraged me to do a residency and so, guess what? I also am a residency trained optometrist and Essence actually did the same residency that I did. So she completed it two years Was it two years before me, in Atlanta Omni, I got my residency training at Omni Eye Services of Atlanta where inocular disease. So I had that exposure and after that happened, after those grueling 13 months as C they'll say, I have a moment of silence for those 13 months, that 13 month residency, which was a very transformative experience for me in a lot of ways right. So I got really good at very quickly diagnosing ocular disease and just being able to make very confident and comfortable decisions for my patients.
Speaker 3:But I also realized that I didn't want to do that, don't want to do it, I don't want to deliver this bad news to people. I like to be able to say at the end of exam your eyes look great and here is your prescription. And I like instant. I realized I like instant gratification, I like things to go well and I want them to just, you know, go well and go forward. We have words for this stuff.
Speaker 3:Now I guess people call themselves empaths, and that's who I am, so I digest so much energy. If things aren't going the way you know, I want them to go in a favorable outcome. So I wanted to get into a mode of practice where things are pretty much routine and I love it. I love it there. I feel that I'm able to deliver my patients a very good experience in a quick and concise manner get them in, get them out, but also educate them on what's going on. And then I feel that I'm in a great place because in that place, when I do see ocular emergencies or ocular emergencies, or ocular urgencies, sometimes, what we call them. Maybe you don't need to go right away, but you maybe need to go in a few days. I make very responsible referrals to either another optometrist or an ophthalmologist that may be able to handle or manage those conditions that I do not do in my office. So I have actually owned a practice.
Speaker 3:So after that, after that residency, I was like I'm not working for anybody else. So I started reaching out to some of my connects and I ended up getting a lease and becoming a leaseholder. So I optometry, in my opinion, is a super, super cool way that people can own businesses, because a lot of us have the opportunity to lease these spaces where we are the owner of the business, but we don't have as many investment, if you will. I didn't have to buy a building and I didn't have to do any of that stuff. I pay a lease and I rent equipment from them, and so I've had my own business I Totally Care LLC since 2013. And I've had a few different locations. I now currently have a lease in a retail location right here in Atlanta, georgia, where I am still providing amazing ocular service and education to my community. Love it. It's over in East Point Georgia, can y'all?
Speaker 3:see these comments, and so, yes, so yes, we're trying to do the thing down here in East Point, Georgia, and so in this process, or in my practice, I found that I had a lot of patients that were having difficulties finding frames that fit their faces. As we know well, I serve a large Black population in my area, and a lot of my patients would go out and they'd be like dang, dang. I didn't know that fits me, and so they'd be putting the women in men's frames, and so that is kind of where the inception for my line came. I knew that I wanted to do a line in optometry school, but I think a lot of us say that and we don't really know what that means. So as time went by, I would like try on. You know, I worked in all these opticals, so I would go out and try on all the glasses, and the glasses would be too short, they wouldn't hook over my ears, or as soon as I would smile, the glasses would go all the way up, like this. And so I was like I need something for me, and as the years went by, it just became more and more and more important for me to try to figure out how I can make this happen.
Speaker 3:So during COVID, or in the process of COVID, I did one of the most difficult things even more difficult than that residency and I created a frame line designed to fit Black and African features optimally. And so, yeah, I am going to be changing glasses throughout this production, just so y'all can see some of the line. I have eight different styles that all can go. They can be both sun lenses or sun frames and they are also prescription you can put prescriptions in them. So, yep, I'm going to be changing glasses. They said Essence did this last week and I'm going to do the same thing because it's fun. Who doesn't like to show off their frames? So I think I said everything as an introduction and I can't wait to see some of the questions that come up later, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that anyone has.
Speaker 1:Um, so yeah, that's me thank you, thank you, thank you, and I I love the frames. I was sitting here like, oh, I definitely love them. So we will hear from uh, dr Humes next.
Speaker 4:So hello everybody. Thank you to my Detroit sister, monique, as well as Dr Johnson, for the invitation to be here with y'all. It's such an honor. Um, I have known these two young women for a long time, but I took a more meandering path to my HBCU, which was also Xavier University of Louisiana.
Speaker 4:When I finished high school, um, in a small suburb outside of Detroit, I thought I wanted to go to the big PWI, and I went for two years and I absolutely hated it. It was too large, the class sizes were not conducive to really learning, and it wasn't the way that I was used to learning as well. I was not used to having professors that were not truly invested in me, and I wasn't used to having professors that didn't really care to know my name or get to know me as a person. And so, after my second year, I decided that I was going to transfer to a school that would invest in me if I did the work, would invest in me if I did the work, and I found Xavier University of Louisiana, which is the number one school in the country for putting Black students into medical school as well as other STEM fields, including optometry, and so I was 20 years old when I got to Xavier. I had to live in a freshman dorm. I was older than everyone else that was in the building, but I still was able to make new friends. I was able to find my place, and that place was at Xavier. I learned how to work hard and party harder, and it was an amazing experience to be around a whole bunch of people who are also trying to do the exact same thing that you are. Everyone in all of your bio pre-med classes is trying to go to med school or optometry school or dental school, and so you're literally surrounded by other minds who are just as focused as you are, and your professors are just as invested in making sure that you get to that end goal, whichever type of graduate program that is, and for me that was priceless.
Speaker 4:And so, at 20 years old, I left everything I knew from Detroit and I moved to New Orleans not knowing a soul. I'd actually never even been to Xavier before. I had certainly never been to New Orleans. I wasn't ready for the heat Orleans. I wasn't ready for the heat. I wasn't ready for the bugs. I wasn't ready for how lively New Orleans was. But, like Dr Ngadi said, I became who I am today as Xavier and I'll forever be eternally thankful. And while I was there I did also pledge Delta, sigma, theta, sorority Incorporated and the Gamma Alpha chapter, and my line sisters just took me in and helped form the building blocks of the Dr Tiffany Humes that I am today.
Speaker 4:And so when I finished at Xavier I knew I wanted to be an optometrist. I actually have a cousin who was also an optometrist Rare absolutely that there's another Black woman that I happen to be related to who is also an eye doctor, and so for me that was my saving grace. I actually worked in her practice every summer from high school all the way through college, and so I knew kind of early on that I wanted to be an eye doctor. And I knew where I wanted to go to school. I had left Detroit, which is the largest Black city in America. I moved to New Orleans, which is another large Black chocolate city, and I also did the same summer enrichment program that Dr Ngadi did, and that summer enrichment program essentially was just a two week course before the first day of classes and it essentially prepared you to kind of get into the rhythm of graduate school. It's completely different than college. You go from taking maybe 17 course hours per semester to like 35 course hours per semester and you're expected to keep up with all of those classes and as well as get in the clinic and learn how to be an eye doctor as well. So I was so thankful for the summer enrichment program. After four years I finished.
Speaker 4:While I was at Xavier I met Dr Johnson. She kind of took me under her wing. She was in the class above me. She went on to do a residency in Atlanta and convinced me that I should do a residency too, and so I did my residency back home in Detroit, because I knew I wanted to go back to Detroit. That was my final destination and I knew that from the very beginning. Thanks, dr Glover. And so I went back to Detroit and I did my residency actually in Jackson, michigan, which is kind of in the middle of the state, and I drove every day. I drove an hour to my residency in Jackson while living at home with my parents. Every day I drove an hour to my residency in Jackson while living at home with my parents, and that absolutely is the most transformative experience of my optometry life to date. I also learned how to treat and manage and diagnose very, very quickly.
Speaker 4:My residency was primarily ophthalmologist. I was the only optometry resident and there was only one other optometrist who was my preceptor, and so I essentially was working with ophthalmologists all day long, and so I became very good at observing from the moment that I walk into the room. So there's so many things that we notice about you before we even sit down to talk to you, and so I was trained to look at a patient's gait, to look at how they view the world, and so we're looking at how you're looking around. We're looking at whether or not you notice things that are right next to you, because that can very quickly tell us if you have what we call a visual field deficit, so if you're missing either the upper or the lower or the side portion of your vision. I learned very quickly to get to the point with my patients. But also make sure that you feel that I'm compassionately listening to what is going on with your eyes, because I found that the most important portion for me of patient care is that connection, is that making sure that you know that I am just as invested in your health as I hope that you are invested in your health. We'll answer Dr Glover's question in a few minutes. So essentially, I learned to.
Speaker 4:Although I do my work quickly, I learned to take my time so that my patients can understand what's going on with their eyes In ocular disease. Most of the time our patients are very sick. So our patients may have diabetes and hypertension and high cholesterol, many all of which may not be under good control, and that is the reason that they're sitting in our chair. So they're sitting in our chair because they can't see, because there have been ocular side effects in their eyes from the diseases that are going on in their bodies. And so helping patients make that connection between the two that this metformin is important, because not only does it help and make sure that you don't have to go on dialysis, but also make sure that you continue to see well for the rest of your life. And so for that reason, I really have become what I would call a diabetes advocate.
Speaker 4:I spend much of my day talking about how patients can treat their bodies better so that we can make sure that your eyes are better, and actually part of the reason and I came back to Detroit so that I could work with my people. So I practice in Detroit, in downtown Detroit, at the largest nonprofit health system in the state, and I see our people all day. Every day, I am seeing patients who I treat like they're related to me, like you're my aunt, like you're my grandmother, like you're my uncle, and we have these candid conversations every single day because I need them to understand that I want you to see well, and the only way for you to see well is for you to treat your body well, and so we have full conversations about things that they may not think have anything to do with their eyes, but it is actually the most important information that they need. What else was I going to tell you guys?
Speaker 4:About Things that I do outside of work? I am involved in a number of different groups in our area Number one, I'm involved in the Black Eye Care Perspective with Dr Johnson, as well as what's called the National Optometric Association, which is the largest grouping of minority optometrists in the country, and that was started in 1969. And so what those groups do is they. We work to increase the number of Black people in optometry, as well as share the message about eye health with people who look just like us.
Speaker 1:Awesome, that was awesome.
Speaker 3:Y'all. Tiffany is my line sister and I forgot to mention that and that's really important yeah.
Speaker 1:Zamaka is my line sister. Yeah, that's very important.
Speaker 4:Also, she was my roommate in college.
Speaker 3:People need to know. Yes.
Speaker 4:That's how we ended up in the car together, riding down St Charles on to know. Yes, that's how we ended up in the car together, riding down St Charles on that fateful day, oh.
Speaker 1:Lord that has to be. You have me intrigued, Like what happened on St Charles.
Speaker 3:A lot of stuff happened on.
Speaker 1:St Charles on that day On a normal day.
Speaker 4:That is a story for another day.
Speaker 3:Dr Glover had a really good and important question and I think that, yeah, Essence, since you're up, you should explain that. I think you are the most eloquent out of this group, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I'll answer the question first before I go into my story on how an HBCU found me. But Dr Glover posed a good question what is the difference between optometry or becoming an optometrist and ophthalmology or becoming an ophthalmologist? While both are eye care professionals, they are trained in the diagnosis, treatment and management of the eye. People will more commonly associate ophthalmology with the surgical practices. So we are talking about removing cataracts. If you have glaucoma, there's particular surgeries with that, doing LASIK surgery. We talk a lot about diabetes. That's a big one. There's a lot of lasers and injections and procedures that go with that. While there are a few states where there are some optometrists that have some of those privileges, in general we are not doing those types of surgery or surgical types of things. We do do minor surgical procedures, though, too, as well, like removing a foreign body in the eye. I'll have a story about that when I get to my journey about all of the foreign bodies I have removed from someone's eye when I was doing a residency in Georgia. There are also some states that can do some laser procedures as well, but typically when you're going into these community health practices, these corporate optometry practices, private practices, you're probably seeing the optometrist who is checking your eyes, checking for any health conditions, prescribing you your glasses, cue new frame and also your contact lenses. But if your retina is detaching, leaking, bleeding, you have cataracts or other things, then you're going to go and see the ophthalmologist, or other things, then you're going to go and see the ophthalmologist. So, hello again everyone. Hello again Monique. I'm happy to be here with my optometry little sisters. We have three generations of optometry sisters here, so that's a very exciting time.
Speaker 2:I am Dr Essence Johnson, an HBCU-made residency trained community and correctional health optometrist. I had the wonderful experience and opportunity to graduate from Prairie View A&M University and I will say one thing that a lot of people probably do not know about me is that I'm originally a born and raised Californian and it was actually a phone call that I got from Dr Brown, who is still at Prairie View today. I was all set to go to my state school a PWI and I received a phone call one day and the person on the other end was like hey, can I speak to Essence? We have a scholarship for you. And I was like a scholarship, not just any scholarship, a full-ride, four-year presidential scholarship. So Dr Brown had called my house and told me that he was offering mea scholarship to go to Prairie View study biology, which he knew I was interested in, and invited me to come and visit the campus. So, me and my dad, we had got into my best friend's car hey, raquel, she just celebrated a birthday, she had relocated to Texas to be closer to her family and I remember, me and my dad, we drove her car down there so that she could have it her senior year. And then we went into the campus of Prairie View A&M University and, for me, I absolutely fell in love with the campus culture, with the people, with the biology or the new science building is what they called it at the time with the program and everything. I absolutely knew that I could not pass up on the opportunity to go to college for absolutely free. It has been the biggest blessing that could have ever been bestowed upon me. So thank you, dr Brown, for giving me that opportunity.
Speaker 2:I personally am a product of summer program after summer program Dr Humes alluded to one that I'll talk more about but when I went to Prairie View, I got to be part of the Pre-Medical Concepts Institute, or PCI, which allowed you to come to school a couple of weeks earlier, before everyone started classes. For me it was literally leaving California the day after I graduated and getting on a plane to Prairie View, texas, which, like Dr Humes, I never had ever been to the state of Texas, let alone to the city of Prairie View. So for me it was a huge culture shock. I think a lot of people ask how was it going to an HBCU? It was amazing. But even being amongst so many people that look like you does not eradicate having any type of obstacles or problems or challenges, and for me, originally culturally trying to adapt from going from the West Coast to the South and just learning all of the Southern colloquialisms and culture, it was a challenge at first for me. But once I got into the groove, found a good roommate, then everything was amazing. Like Tiffany and Amaka, or Dr Humes and Dr Ngadi, I also pledged a sorority, so I'm a member of Sigma, gamma Rho Sorority, incorporated Delta Alpha Chapter, and from there that's where kind of all of my professionalisms began to take foot.
Speaker 2:I was a part of the Pre-Optometry Professional Society at Prairie View and Dr Howard Lee Block did an amazing job of taking people like myself and Dr Hintz and others to just the University of Houston College of Optometry to the Capitol. We did a lot of work with prevent blindness and things like that. So just a lot of things to immerse ourselves in just everything optometry. So I knew going into undergrad that I was going to major in the sciences and that I was going to pursue a degree in optometry afterwards. So every step that I kind of took and every class that I took was help geared to getting all those prerequisite classes done so that I can apply well, so that I could take the OAT, which is the optometry admissions test my junior year, and then also apply to optometry school as well. So during that process you guys have seen a lot of comments from Dr Jacoby Cleaver. That's where I picked him up and met him.
Speaker 2:We did a lot during our time in undergrad going to two kind of neighboring schools and learning about optometry. But we also got accepted into the Texacop program, which was the Texas Careers Opportunity Program at the University of Houston College of Optometry, which is another opportunity to again immerse yourself in all things optometry. Immerse yourself in all things optometry. We got to go to the clinic, examine patients, learn cases, just be amongst a lot of like-minded people. So that was summer program number two for me.
Speaker 2:Then, as I was graduating from Prairie View and applying to optometry school, I ultimately decided to attend the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salish University to complete my degree in Philadelphia, pennsylvania, and I was invited to participate in the summer enrichment program as well. So summer program number three and that's where we picked up Dr Daryl Glover, who you guys see in the comments as well. So just from those three summer programs alone I was able to one meet a lot of friends but, more importantly, also surround myself with like-minded people, which is very important in this journey, because sometimes it can seem very alienating or very isolating. But when you have good friends, who give you good peer pressure, who are good role models, who let you cry on their shoulder in one minute, but they're also your hype girls and men, it really makes this journey very enjoyable. So I went to the Pennsylvania College of Optometry president. All four years had the opportunity to be immersed in the National Optometric Student Association, which is the student version of the National Optometric Association that Dr Humes had mentioned. We did a lot of screenings with the Lions Club and things of that nature too as well.
Speaker 2:And then after graduating, I did do a residency in ocular disease at Omni Eye Services of Atlanta, where it was just another opportunity. I think always when I do this to be that big sister but also to be a mentor and to be an example. So, yes, like Dr Humes and Dr Ngadi said, they were like Dr Johnson told me or, at that time, dr Robinson, yes, I am always rooting for everyone who is black. But I tell all of my optometry little brothers and sisters like, hey, you know, this is, this is, this is game. You know, you want to definitely help and pull other people along. You definitely want to give them the ins and outs and the do's and don'ts, them the ins and outs and the do's and don'ts. And I'm very happy that Dr Ngaddi and Dr Humes kind of followed my advice, or followed in my footsteps too, to say that we are all residency trained optometrists and we all have an affinity to ocular disease which really impacts our minority communities. And for us that means that we are a little more dedicated to ongoing education, that we're always making sure that we have the most recent information and treatments when it comes to things like the three silent killers glaucoma, hypertension and diabetes as well, From leaving that residency.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you my residency story about foreign bodies. So I always have a memorable case and I think last time I shared about breast cancer going to the eye for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But one of my most memorable patients when I was at Omni was the young boy who decided to shoot an aluminum can with a BB gun from point blank range and every single piece of that aluminum can then became embedded into the front of his eye or his cornea. Now, as the patient, it is horrible. As the young doctor who do a residency because you want new and exciting things, you want to be challenged, you want to see everything that's in our optometry Bible known as the Will's eye or the Massachusetts eye or the Kansky I was super excited that I had the pleasure and opportunity to remove probably what seemed like a million pieces of aluminum from the front of this young boy's cornea. It kind of reminded me back of a time when I was in school and we literally had a cow eye that I feel like they just stick in all the metal shards so you can practice this technique and here I had the real live version to sit there and meticulously remove every little piece of aluminum from the front of his eye. So I say that to share.
Speaker 2:You know your eyes are your biggest asset. Protect them. Try not to do anything irresponsible, but if you are out there and your eyes can be of injury, make sure you wear your safety glasses. There's a lot of foreign body trauma that we see on a regular basis and most of it probably could have been prevented if people had on their safety glasses. That's including shooting, welding, even mowing the lawn. I probably have more foreign bodies from grass, debris or other things that I always ask did you have on safety glasses or any glasses, sunglasses, and? And more often than not the answer is no.
Speaker 2:So I really enjoyed my time at Omni because it gave me exposure to all of the conditions, all of the types of people. Like Dr Hines was saying, you really learn how to think on your feet. You also really learn how to think on your feet. You also really learn how to look at the whole person. And I really learned during my residency one how I, kind of you, play one role as a detective. You play one role as, like, the psychologist and the educator and teacher, but you also play the role, I feel like, as a magician.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it is very magical, like Dr Ngadi alluded to, when you're able to deliver good news, when you're able to bring someone from a place of not being able to see to seeing. It's a very magical experience. It's also a very magical experience, too, when patients may not disclose everything about their conditions too. When patients may not disclose everything about their conditions and one look at them, or definitely one look inside the eye, and you can pretty much tell someone hey, you have diabetes and I would like to guess, to think, that you've had it longer than five years, and let me go out on a limb and your A1C is probably not seven. And patients are really taken aback when you're able to apply that clinical knowledge and break it down to them and they're like oh, the eyes really are the window to the soul or to my health. We are considered, you know, the gatekeepers that there are things that we tend to diagnose even before primary care physician would, or even before someone got the test done with it or the scans or the things of that nature. So that is one of my favorite parts of being a doctor of optometry is that ability to see things before any other provider can. The other part that I like about it is when you look inside the eye. It's one of the only places in the body where you get to see live active blood vessels moving and going, and I think that that is always a fun fact to go off of.
Speaker 2:After I finished my residency, I worked in several modes of practices but eventually I had the calling thanks to Dr Cleaver again to relocate to Dallas, texas and begin working in a community health setting. So I work for the Dallas County Health and Hospital System. I work in one of their community outpatient clinics. I also provide services at the county jail to patients. So it just really shows me how diverse optometry is. Really. All of us we represent so many different modes of practices, many different ways you can practice Some of these ways. You can practice multiple ways at the same time and multiple modes at different times, and I think that that's very amazing, how flexible the profession is and how much variety that you have in the profession.
Speaker 2:The other part that I like about optometry is that ability to not only educate my patients about ocular conditions that may affect them, but just to educate them on my journey in general and hope to influence or inspire other people to pursue a career in optometry and, even if optometry is not the field for you, to encourage everyone to get their eyes examined. That is one of our missions, especially with the National Optometric Association, with Black Eye Care Perspective, with a lot of our optometric organizations, is spreading that message on the importance of at least annual eye exams, letting people know that you don't have to wait till a certain age to get your eyes examined. Many of us who were diagnosed in middle school probably could have started wearing glasses even sooner than that. I have patients all the time that say they want to wait till their child is in kindergarten or a school age before getting their eyes examined. There are thousands of professionals that are able to examine your children from birth. I brought both of my children for their first eye exam between three and six months old, which is really when it's recommended to get your eyes examined, if not even sooner than that. So if anyone is thinking like, oh, is anyone too young, you're never too young or too old to get an eye examination.
Speaker 2:I, like Dr Humes, I also practice in a setting that is predominantly African American and Hispanic. It provides me the opportunity to practice my Spanish, connect with the community and my patients and also help invoke that trust in a group of people that may not always have access to eye care or healthcare in general or may not always be able to prioritize it. But I definitely see daily firsthand the difference of having patients that look like you and having those patients be able to identify with the provider that is providing them care. There is a level of trust, there is a level of understanding. There are things at times I know that I can break down and have them understand a little bit differently, because I, too am a person of color and that I'm drawing not only from my clinical expertise and knowledge but also from personal lived experiences, which really helps people connect to something like diabetes that we may always minimalize to just the sugars, but the sugars is a very serious condition, not only affecting your body, not only affecting your arms and legs, but affecting your eyes, and a lot of times, when diabetes is affecting the eyes, it's almost too late. So we definitely want to make sure.
Speaker 2:I encourage everyone out there if you are a patient with diabetes and you have not had your eyes examined, get yourself a dilated meaning that they put the drops in your eyes, eye examination so that they can look at the back, the retina, and examine your blood vessels and check for any leaking or bleeding, because there are a lot of things that, even though you see perfectly with or without your glasses, could be going on on the inside of your eye. And that is what we, as doctors of optometry, are trained to do and help you manage, treat if we need to, but also prevent anything that happens. So we would love, you know, for optometry to be part of your self-care, to be part of your healthcare and to be part of your preventative care. So I definitely encourage everyone, if you have not had your eyes examined, go and get your eyes examined.
Speaker 1:Wow, you have truly taken me to school. I was like, wait a minute, that's what they mean. So I am, I mean, I guess that's what they mean, that's so I am. I mean I guess that's why they they said, okay, she's going last because she's going to bring this whole talk home all together, like everything, even to the point of um. You did express the importance of the eye exam. I go, but like I um, I always tell you when I talk to it's like sometimes she speaks foreign to me and I get frustrated. I'm like, ok, I'm done, I got the. You did the things. My eyes hurt. You set me in this dark room. I'm ready to go, but this is until you talk about. I'm like, ok, now, that's what. That was that way so. But you did have a couple of comments and I think I might have lost it. You did have one from Ms Norwood and I'm just, you know, she's an awesome soror.
Speaker 4:Hey, Dr Norwood.
Speaker 1:And then she also wanted everybody to know she is from the Jackson State University.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 1:So, yes, you are like I'm that. So, yes, you all like I'm speechless. And people watching that usually watch are probably like what? You got hurt. She don't have anything to say. But your paths are so like and your journey line story is so amazing. You know, especially with you two. I didn't even know us talking. He's like that was my roommate. I'm like wait a minute, I'm thinking we just. Then he's like well, no, she's my girl.
Speaker 3:Yes yes.
Speaker 3:I think there are a few big ones for me when it comes to HBCU. I think in this life I really think network is just such a big deal. Think network is just such a big deal and I think that it has just I mean just it has literally shaped my life in so many ways at every stage. People think this is funny and you know things happen. They're like Maka, you keep in touch. I know a lot of people, I've been a lot of places, I've done a lot of things Right, and there's most of the time when I get somewhere there's a story of like there was a connecting bridge that kind of got me there and I don't want to. You know I do the work Right, I do the work, you got to do the work. But a lot of the times when you network with people and you don't, you know there's no way to fake network Like there's. You know you, you got people either want to deal with you or they don't.
Speaker 3:And I think that the benefit of me going to the HBCU is that I was able to form a lot of very genuine relationships at a young age. I've never experienced like undergrad at a PWI. I didn't have any semesters. There are any real experiences with that. But, like education wise, I went to a Catholic private school, majority white, it was only 10% black at that school.
Speaker 3:And then I went to the hbcu and then I went to pco and I can just really just attest to the fact that that hbcu experience created such an interweb, you know, with, with, with us, and then and then the other piece is that when you then get out to other places, you start connecting with other persons who have similar stories, which is, I don't know how Essence and Tiffany got connected, but then Tiffany connected me with Essence and Essence would cook dinner for us and we'd be over there eating. We'd be over there eating and hanging out and we used to do community service together and I think that that was a big part. A big thing that I got from my HBCU experience was just that I mean the way we would leave Canal Street, wake up at five and six in the morning, do community service, find a nap, then hit some sorority stuff and then start it all over again and then people would actually go to the church. Xavier's a Catholic, Xavier's a Catholic.
Speaker 1:I wasn't going to say that it is, and I'm a Catholic girl, but I was churched out by the time I got to college.
Speaker 3:And I would go right past that church, but everybody else was going. People would go. They would sing in the choir.
Speaker 4:I'd go right past that church and go to Piccadilly.
Speaker 3:There was studying in between there.
Speaker 4:They would get home at 2 am. They would go to sleep, they would get up, they would study for a couple of hours. They would either go to church or have some breakfast, get home from church, study some more. I feel like our HBCU was the breeding ground for learning how to manage our time. You will learn how to manage your time. You will learn time management there. You learn how to manage your time because you want to do everything and you can't if you manage your time.
Speaker 1:Right, that was one of my main things. She says she stayed out later than the street sweepers. Now I've been to New Orleans a couple times. I feel like we went.
Speaker 3:I don't.
Speaker 2:You can't argue me on this one.
Speaker 3:New Orleans is just one of the funnest cities in this country. It's just an amazing place. So I love that I got to experience undergrad in that city, because it wasn't just college, it was the culture right. We got to do Mardi Gras. There's nothing like it, like, if you haven't been, you have to go. So it was an amazing experience. And then I I love that you know we would do sorority events in in um Philadelphia. So she is an SG row and we're deltas, but she'd be like all right, we're doing this over here and we're in and we connected. Yeah, so it's just, it's a bond that I love for us. Yeah, so it's just it's a bond that I love for us and I'm so, I'm so happy and grateful for it.
Speaker 1:Being, you know being a part of my life. So thank you, I love it because you all just gel together and I'm like wait a minute. They didn't tell me that before we went on.
Speaker 4:Graduated first, and then the year after that, and then Dr Ngadi the year after that. There are still other little brothers and sisters after that. All graduated from PCO.
Speaker 3:And I think it's important too. I actually had an interesting conversation because you know, this is upbeat, this is positive, this is great and I love it. But I did have a conversation with a graduate. I've had two conversations like this this year, believe it or not, where people have experienced different roadblocks in their career or in their education pathway and they need somebody to reach out to, that can advocate for them or talk to them about something or just help them kind of normalize what happened or figure out if there's really some toxic things that happen that need to be, you know, discussed further. And so when you have or create those kinds of networks, you can reach back and you're not by yourself in this situation. So the network for me, it's the network for me girls, I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it too. I've been meeting many people and I guess that's getting me out of my comfort zone, truthfully, because I'm not like one of those outgoing and hey, how are you? But I think that's the way God is pushing me, because every day somebody new I'm meeting'm like okay, well, let me connect you with this person, so it works. But I don't understand. Tiffany rose comments that's me. No, no, it's a, it's on the screen. Tiffany rose, that's you. Oh girl, I'm like, who is that?
Speaker 3:okay, well, no, but elaborate on that point, because I have patients that tell me I'm pre-diabetic.
Speaker 4:Well, no, well, okay.
Speaker 3:So good point, cool story.
Speaker 4:The American Diabetes Association has, over time, changed the guidelines for what it means to be diabetic versus pre-diabetic, guidelines for what it means to be diabetic versus pre-diabetic. But just because they changed the guidelines does not mean that your A1C at 6.1, as pre-diabetic, is not causing changes inside your body, because it is, and so we get stuck on the concept of these numbers. But, truly, if your A1C is not normal, then you have diabetes, like you are developing insulin resistance and your body is not properly metabolizing sugars, and so you are beginning to have issues all over the place inside your body, even if you never get to the quote, unquote number that doctors consider to be actually diabetic, which I think at this point is now seven. But if you're between 5.8 and seven, you are still having abnormal processes occur inside your body, and you can have an A1C of 6.5 and have diabetic retinopathy and have diabetic retinopathy. So I want everyone to understand that, yes, these numbers may not necessarily Uh-oh, sorry, there are still abnormal processes happening inside your body and that that is a continuum and that we need to just aim for 5.7 instead of being, oh, my A1C is under seven, no, no, no, your A1C needs to be under six, because that's really what the goal is. And so part of I think for patients and this is conversations I have every day is advocating for yourself with your primary care physician, because if you come into your doctor and you've had your blood work and they tell you that you're good, but you don't know what good is.
Speaker 4:So know your numbers. Know what your A1C is. Know what your blood pressure number goal is. Know what your high cholesterol number is. Know that your LDLs need to be under 200 is what they say, but really they should be under 150 if you're trying to prevent coronary artery disease. Know that your blood pressure should really be under 120 over 80 if you're trying to prevent yourself from having disease. Know that your blood pressure should really be under 120 over 80 if you're trying to prevent yourself from having a stroke. So when you do go in to see your primary care physician, ask the actual numbers and write them down so that you can have an understanding of what's happening inside your body and then you can make changes, simple changes sometimes, like don't drink Coke five times a day, just maybe drink it once or don't drink it at all.
Speaker 4:There are people who only drink pop. We call it pop in Michigan. There are people who only drink soda. They don't drink any water.
Speaker 4:Stop drinking soda and you might see huge changes in your body, and these are things that a care physician may never have said huge changes in your body and these are things a care physician may never have said, but they're really very simple things.
Speaker 4:Know that every insurance company in the United States covers diabetes education classes. They're free with your insurance. If you have been diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes and you have never had a diabetes education class, call your primary care physician tomorrow and get signed up for a class. They are put on by the American Diabetic Association and they you should have that information and they should have given you that resource, because only you can make your healthcare change. We here can do all the things inside the exam room, but if you don't step outside that door and door and make changes inside your lifestyle, then everything we do is in vain and we can be so invested in making sure that you see well for the rest of your life, but if you don't walk outside that door and make a better choice every time you eat, then everything we do doesn't matter. That's good.
Speaker 3:One of our. I think it was my memory may be failing me, but somebody said checking eyes and saving lives, or something like that. Was that Daryl? Yeah, was that Dr Glover? That is one of my favorite phrases. I actually think it to myself quite often, and I've never told this story out loud, but a lot of people really do fear going blind, right? So you, there are silent killers. Dr Johnson touched on it for two seconds, right, I've seen not one, not two, not three.
Speaker 3:Right, because, remember, I'm in the. I'm in an area where I just want to prescribe glasses, right? But I see these things because people come in the street and they say, well, I can't read anymore and that's what brought you here. Cool, no problem, you've never. You, you're someone that we call a hyper open, so you didn't need glasses most of your life. But now, here you are at 40 and you need glasses.
Speaker 3:But then, when I look in the back of your eyes because I always look right I always check the back of the eyes. That's a full exam. Okay, that's not. Refractions are not the whole exam, but I do check the back of the eyes and then I see full blown glaucoma, you know, which is slowly but surely robbing you of your sight, you know. Then we have to do something about it and it becomes very urgent, very serious. We have to take all these drastic measures when we could have seen this 20 years ago if people were getting routine eye exams. So you know, I think we have very cool jobs, I think most people are going to come and we get them in and out and you know we get them what they need. But what I really want to see is more education on the importance of the routine eye exams and on this field, because even before I went to optometry school, I've been wearing glasses since I was eight and I was never dilated.
Speaker 4:So, dr Ngadi, you make a good point and that's part of the reason I think we have to change our wording. I think we need to use the word comprehensive, like patients need to understand. You have not had a comprehensive eye exam unless the doctor checked you for glasses but also dilated your eyes and or with these other photo technologies that they have, you may not have to get dilated but someone should make thorough. Look at your retina.
Speaker 3:I'll say this, I mean.
Speaker 4:I'm a fun person I like to keep things
Speaker 3:upbeat. I like to keep things fun and sometimes there are people who are like, oh, you know, you don't go by your title, doc. And people are so uptight. But what I want to do, do you know what I've found is I want to relate with people, right, so that when I'm saying these things, I, I say it, I keep, I keep the same speech and my, my exam looks the exact same.
Speaker 3:And so right now, we're gonna um check your refraction, which is where I determine what prescription you need, and right now we're gonna check the health of your eyes. I want to check and see if you have this. And I start to say these words so and I hear this, not, you know, I hear this all the time it's the best eye exam I ever had, you know. But it's like people are just kind of going and not telling people the stuff, or so if you tell them, oh, hey, this picture costs this much money or this and that and that, no-transcript, you get the comprehensive eye exam. And I do not just do refractions. I know I'm casual and I make jokes about it, but they know me, you know, and I, I, I am okay with people thinking like, hey, this girl is, like you know, laid back.
Speaker 3:But the other thing that I want people to know is that I care. I care about what's happening with your vision. I want things to be well with you. You know, and I want to you know people to ultimately have good outcomes and they have to take an active participation in their healthcare, as Dr Humes mentioned, if they want to have positive outcomes. It's not on the doctor to make that happen, like they have to be in partnership with you. You can diagnose and check all day, but they have to be, you know, a part of the partnership to kind of want that good outcome.
Speaker 2:But I would also add that's been like the crazy part with this whole pandemic that you know, early on, you know we weren't deemed essential enough to keep our practices open and because of those couple of months that people that optometry was not essential, or dentistry or the other allied health profession, I will say, after seven years of working at the hospital, this has been the saddest year for me. Patients patients that people may think too because they're in a minority community oh, it would have happened anyway. No, because optometry services, dental services, other services were shut down to prioritize for taking care of patients during the pandemic. Nothing's wrong with that, but what is incorrect about it is that even more people no longer had access to care. Now we are scrambling and struggling to get our practices back up, not only from the business standpoint but on the patient management standpoint. I had people that could literally walk into my door and now they're being wheeled in. Now they have no arms and legs, now they have no vision and because they aren't getting the education for it, they're literally looking up at me like Dr Johnson. What are we going to do? And sadly I have to tell them we are already at the end of the road. We are at end stage. I am referring you for rehabilitative services and devices because I was unable to take care of my patients even in a hospital setting. So we are already making a larger disparity, where people already have problems with access to care and then when government and other agencies are deeming what's important and what's not. Here we are now dealing with the after effects, and these after effects are physical, they're emotional, they're mental, they're psychological. I, yeah, my managers the other day this is the equivalent to being in the cancer ward and people dying of cancer.
Speaker 2:For us, when we now have patients that were pretty healthy or that we had their conditions under good control, and they are losing vision and, you know, inevitably going blind, that is heartbreaking, because optometrist is a very compassionate profession. It is a very personal profession. I think a lot of people, once they do go to the eye doctor, they enjoy the experience. It's not as scary as some of the other chairs and lights of other professionals. They also, you know, appreciate that we're able to spend some very direct one-on-one time with them.
Speaker 2:So I encourage you all you know, to get those eyes examined. If you've been putting it off because our services were shut down, know that it was not our fault, but many of us are back up and running and we are happy and excited to see you. To all of my fellow doctors points it's the role and responsibility to unify our messages and to improve the marketing of our profession, not only from a patient care standpoint like come and see us but also from a public and public health standpoint. You know we need people to know about optometry. This is going to get me on my soapbox.
Speaker 3:Good segue. Yeah good segue let's tell them why we're wearing these shirts.
Speaker 2:Yes, Anything from diabetes to diversity. And now here is the diversity. I love putting the I, the E-Y-E in diversity, but this is why we have Impact HBCU. We want to touch other Black students like ourselves, especially those that are historically Black colleges and universities, but really at any school anywhere. We want you guys to know about the profession of optometry.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow we will be going live and I will be hosting our second annual MPAC HBCU event, where we're going to highlight two other phenomenal black doctors so you can hear about their modes of practice, so you can learn about how they intertwine their personal passions with their professional aspirations and practice patterns. We will also highlight our alma mater. The Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University will be there, and all of our wonderful industry partners, like America's Best Eye Contacts and Eyeglasses, my eye doctor and Warby Parker. But we do this because we want to give optometry a voice. We want to also change the face of optometry as well. We don't want to be everybody's first introduction to a black doctor. While it is flattering, many of us are only like 10 or 11 optometry years old and we hear almost daily how we are people's first eye exam, how we are people's first introduction to black eye doctors. We have more than 10 years of black eye doctors out there, you guys. But we know that we have to put ourselves out there in front of the world and that is what this event intends to do.
Speaker 2:We also have our Black Eye Care Perspective Pre-Optometry Club that will meet on the 13th of this month. We meet on the 13th of every month because 13 signifies the number of Black and African-American people in the United States according to the census, but sadly, optometry does not reflect that. We have less than 3% of students that identify as Black and African-American that are attending school. Even less than that closer to 1.8% are actually practicing optometrists. So me, dr Hoons, dr Nagati, we are that 1.8%. There's more fat and milk than there is Black optometrists in this world and we are definitely redefining the color of the eye care industry, 1% at a time, by being more visible, by being more vocal, by improving our messaging and our marketing efforts and providing a place for community.
Speaker 2:We all talked about how networking is king or queen in this life, especially in this profession, is king or queen in this life, especially in this profession. And with Black Eye Care Perspective and the Black Eye Care Perspective Pre-Optometry Club, it is a community, it is a place, so you don't have to go through this journey by yourself. We talk about our affinity, our friendship. I know you guys see it from the screen, but we were able to do it because of each other. We are literally three generations of big sister, little sisters and we continue to keep pulling each other along, even a decade later. So that is our space for other future optometrists, other future black or brown optometrists, to know other people who are on this journey in all parts of the nation and help pull each other along so we can not only survive but thrive, thrive baby.
Speaker 3:Survival is no, survival is not the goal. No prospering is what we're trying to do Prosper- Amen, and you all are truly.
Speaker 1:I've been like excited the whole time. There has never been a time that I have sat here and just been like speechless, because you all are like educating me and I am one. I will honestly say I'm gonna be real transparent. I'm honestly one of the ones that hate to get dropped. Anytime I go to the eye doctor, I feel like it take a whole day and they sit me in here and I mean I guess you know, like you said you, you have the fear, fear of either losing your eye or something, and I used to rub my eyes a lot. I learned that that was not the thing to do. Like a year ago I rubbed it so bad that I did something I wasn't supposed to do and I had to go to like an eye specialist. I was like I said, but I just rub my eye, I don't want to go. I mean because the lady, she had all these different machines. I was scared. You know, I had like a bag of nothing but eye drops and I was like I don't want to do this.
Speaker 2:You can really rub your eye to the point that you're changing the shape of it. You could rub your eye to the point that you are injuring it or scarring it. As we know, more hands to the face can give you more infections, and things of that nature too.
Speaker 1:Oh Lord. Well, I learned the hard way. I guess you would say I learned the hard way when I came back with that bag of eye drops and couldn't see for a couple of days. I was like I won't rub my eye again any time. I just deal with the allergies of Texas.
Speaker 4:One of the most amazing things about what we do is that most of the things that happen, we can fix. Most of the things that happen in the front of the eye injuries, neutrons and things like that we can actually 100% heal you. And so that is one of the gratifying things about the work that we do is those people who do have those foreign bodies they'll maybe see in 2020, again in a couple of days, and that is absolutely miraculous If you think about how the body works to be able to see 2020 again after having aluminum shattered in your face.
Speaker 1:Right, because when Dr Johnson said that, I was like I don't know if I would be able to even look at that and try to pull anything out, she was like no, it was fun. I'm like that is fun.
Speaker 3:Somebody. My first foreign body at Omni. My first foreign body. It was at Omni as well. She was a dental assistant. She got plaster in her eye but the thing was it really was like almost on the edge of the cornea so it was almost going into like the sclera. So I'm like, is that you know? And it's Saturday? I was on call because things like this only happen on Saturday. It don't happen during my day.
Speaker 4:That means it's at the edge of the brown and the white part of your eye.
Speaker 3:Okay, so, yeah, so I couldn, okay, so, yeah, so I couldn't tell and I was new. I was new to the game, I didn't know what was going on. But I got was. I had to buckle down, I had to be confident, and then I was like, okay, this looks raised. And I plucked it out. And you know, the next day that lady sent me sherry's berries she was so grateful got some chocolate covered strawberries out of the that's amazing I mean it's crazy whether it's aluminum, it's plaster or even an eyelash just how being able to just bloop, bloop, bloop.
Speaker 2:And then I mean everyone is like, oh, how about that? There's literally been people who have had eyelashes and it's hard for them to get out and for days they're like my eye's been red and watery. You look inside the eye, you flip the eyelid and things like that. You're like it was literally just the hair.
Speaker 4:This is what was bothering you.
Speaker 3:Then you show it to them on a Q-tip.
Speaker 2:They're like look, that is something like that I can give it to you with your name on it and stuff like that. You can take it to you with your name on it and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Ladies, this was great.
Speaker 1:Yes, we have been an hour, but I don't. I do not want to want to leave until we talk about these frames. I know we talked about them offline, but I'm like in frame jealousy mode right now. I'm low key inside Like I'm about to just draw me some frames on the screen so I can match y'all stuff. But you have to tell us about these frames. You went into it but you didn't really tell us. I didn't go into it, okay.
Speaker 3:So again, I did not. I personally and had a lot of patients also had difficulties finding frames that fit um, and so people wanted stylish frames. Okay, they wanted to make a statement without speaking um, and they wanted frames that fit um their features. And so that's where the whole inceptivity is wearing some, and and then Essence is wearing my frame chain that I made. So frame accessories, because my brand is about making a statement without speaking, so people can see things and you can just feel good. I think some confidence comes out of wearing things that are beautiful, so that is important to me as well the aesthetic.
Speaker 3:But, yes, I have eight styles with different colors. Amweli is my middle name. It's an Igbo name and it means joy, so I am also dedicated to making eyewear a pure joy. The first collection that I put out is called the Royal Collection. It is named. The frames are named after members of my family and some of the traits that they exhibit. So this one right here, this is the Uche frame. It is named after my big sister.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's big sister.
Speaker 3:Uche. Fabulous and fancy and definitely a statement piece. These ones are named after my mama. This is the Ida frame. It also is that means first daughter In my language, so these are named after my mom, who is the queen. These ones are named after my niece. She's the newest member, but this is the Amara frame. Amara means grace, and it's also designed to be sassy and graceful. I wore these on my wedding day. I love them in ivory. This is the Azuka frame. This is my little brother's frame, so this actually is a really beautiful unisex frame.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 3:And I have several. Each of the frames have different colors, I'm not going to bore y'all with that. Um, this frame is just absolutely stunning. It looks great on men and women. Um, and then this frame is the igue frame. Igue in our language means king, and since my dad is the king, um, I named this frame after him. Who don't like a bad pair of aviators? Baby like who doesn't love a fabulous pair of aviators?
Speaker 3:I do but no, if you want to get a muck and smile, you know that's like your that's the thing, like I just you know when you smile and it doesn't push the glasses all the way up like this, it's just it's. It's a different world. Thank, thank you, daryl. Daryl, I got to show you the frames. We got to set up a virtual meeting, all right. And then the other two frames are named.
Speaker 3:This one is called Udo, which means peace, because y'all know that's my Y. Peace and joy are my Y. You know, people always ask me what are your Ys? Peace and joy are my Y. So this is the peace frame. And then this other, my last style, is called the infunia frame, which means love. So I got my family, I got peace, I got love and I got joy.
Speaker 3:And it's all good over here and it's a new brand, but I am looking to do wholesale so that people can go into their doctor's offices and try them on, and then also you can buy them direct to consumer right now online, and so just check out the line and if anyone wants to see anything, any other doctors want to look at it, or if you think your optometrist should be carrying the frame line, just let me know and I would be more than happy to connect with them. So yeah, and my friends have been super supportive, but I think what they know, maybe somebody else can speak to it there's a place for this in the industry, right? Because most frames are designed with European features in mind and they just are.
Speaker 3:So, now we're starting to have more and more diversity in eyewear and I found some diversity when I started looking. But as part of what we're saying, the marketing, the reach we have to change the reach of this. I mean it's not for everybody, but it certainly is for quite a few right, and so we want to represent, we want to be representative of ourselves and we want to see ourselves in these designs and in things that fit, Even think about almost like the plus size community. Facts, Hello, facts. You know, like you think about the way fashion has changed to include people. We even think about the way fashion has changed to not be super gender specific, to not be super like.
Speaker 3:You know that we are making things in accommodation so that we have a more inclusive world, and I think this is actually something that's very beautiful, that's going on right now in culture. Amidst some of the madness, amidst some of the craziness, I have started to see this idea of diversity and inclusion and just really creating a more inclusive world and a more inclusive universe. Our world is getting smaller and smaller. Our separation between cultures, races, everything is changing and I just love that we're being able to kind of, you know, diversify and let there be space for everyone.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, thank you for letting me talk about the frame line. I could talk about that all day.
Speaker 1:Yes, I had to because I've been sitting watching them change different frames all of you like in units and I'm like, okay, well, my poor little frames, I changed it too.
Speaker 3:Y'all looked at me like so well, no, I would like to say that we looked at you like I was excited about my I know we can, I know we can get you.
Speaker 4:San Antonio, that's what we gotta do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give me some hats. That's what I'm going to do Get you right together.
Speaker 2:Thank, you I can't wait.
Speaker 1:I am definitely going, but I truly, truly have enjoyed you all. It doesn't matter if we go over time, because I paid the Screamyard deal here. It's my platform, but I really, really appreciate you all bringing it. You know, addressing the elephant in the room as far as the diabetes, the silent killers that are within people's eyes, and you know people don't really look at that, you know. So I, I hope you know people are taking this serious, not taking it lightly. Yes, I, I know COVID has.
Speaker 1:We heard Dr Johnson passionately say how COVID has affected the eye community and I'm like, yeah, and she brought a lot of things to light that I know had me kind of sitting back there like, did I do that? Did I do this too? You know, I go get my eye exam but, like I said, it's never a person of color and a lot of times just being, you know, naming it for people. We don't usually trust everybody, especially people that don't look like us in dealing with health. You know, I'm just going to name that, and sometimes it's people that are either, you know, mid, mid Eastern, and the language barrier is there and we shut down, you know. So I'm glad you addressed that. Go get your eye exam and you know, please, and I just appreciate you all coming on here, even telling scholars, you know, because I know some of my scholars are watching because that's what I assigned them to do. Um, because they didn't believe me either, like you don't know, no, three women of color, I'm like they're some bad chicks, trust me, that we do, you know, and they are HBCU graduates would make me even more proud, you know.
Speaker 1:But the fact that you all came on here and each one of you are in your own different backgrounds, different barriers, different things, and each one of you all in your own different backgrounds, different barriers, different things, taught the lesson of perseverance and togetherness, which is something that we all know, is that a lot of people just try to. When we're in this close-knit field, they try to do things to divide us. But I'm like goodness they stuck together and they all said it for each other. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have graduated. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't graduate.
Speaker 1:And I think that message too, that you all brought tonight, you know, was really teaching me some, you know, taught me some things like, yes, it do exist, it do exist, and you all are displaying that for young people that are coming up behind you, like it takes all of us to work together to accomplish a goal, not being jealous of one another, not, you know, undercutting each other. It's sisters working together for the good. So I truly, truly appreciate y'all Anything I can do from the bottom of my heart, if I need to share, if I need to do an event for you, if you need me to model some frames, if you need me to do anything, I got you. I definitely have you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. It was wonderful meeting with you and speaking with you tonight. This awesome energy Truly appreciate the invite.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you, thank you and, as always, y'all like uh-oh, what she about to ask us to do. As always, I always like to end on a motivational note. So if each of you all, if you have a last push or something motivational that you would wanna share to a person that may want to pursue the field, because she said it's milk got more percent, I heard you. I heard you, dr Johnson, I heard you as a final push, because there are some high school students that are fearful and may want to go in that field but, like you know I shared with you earlier it's some teachers that are dream killers and we have to be there for our kids, and that's one thing I do advocate for. And they will tell you in a heartbeat. No, she will show up and show out when it comes to somebody telling us what we can't do.
Speaker 3:So, as a final moment, y'all like uh-oh, I'll do, I'll do. We can go in the order we started with, so I'll go first. Uh, my final comment is that, um, you can have the life that you want, period.
Speaker 4:Anything, anything you want to be, you can period back though um, I will say and this is actually a quote that I learned in optometry school goals are purely dreams, with deadlines literally. Never. Stop believing in the power of dreaming, keep dreaming hometown.
Speaker 1:if you ain't feel my bucket today, hey, detroit 313,.
Speaker 4:I'm in here, y'all.
Speaker 2:My final thought opportunities. I always speak about opportunities, Creating your own opportunities, taking advantage of all the opportunities. You have some great opportunities this week, tomorrow with Impact HBCU. So register at blackeyecareperspectivecom. That's your opportunity to virtually hang out with us and meet Black doctors. And if you guys are interested in the pre-optometry club, you have that opportunity on the 13th.
Speaker 2:I had extended to Ms Monique if she has any students who just want to pop in, say hey and just feel that energy, just be in that presence. I think that is the best gift that you can have. We survive because of the opportunities, because of the networks, because of the people that surround us. So if you are around those dream killers, get away from them, because there are thousands, millions, billions other cheerleaders who are there for you physically and virtually, and you have three new cheerleaders right here. There's one thing we like to do is cheer each other on and help bring up that next generation, because we now know we are the doctors that people want to shadow, see and meet and be, and we are here for y'all.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 1:Definitely, definitely and again, thank you. I will be there tomorrow cheering in the background, cheering for you. I will have my kids there as well, and thank you for coming on a monday for a special edition. Let's talk about it. I have truly enjoyed you all the energy, the lessons. I'm like I don't went to school, but I I will tell you all. You heard them. Don't rub your eye.
Speaker 3:I had the medicine to prove good night, ladies, good night, thank you, thank you so much, monique, thank you thank you.
