“I grew up in Southern California surrounded by Optometry! Both my parents and sister are practicing optometrists, so I was fortunate to have the opportunity to watch them provide exceptional patient care and grew to love the profession from a young age. As a teenager and young adult, I worked at their office, however, was still unsure if Optometry was the field I wanted to pursue as a career. While working alongside my mother one day, I witnessed her diagnose a patient with a visual field defect. The patient was able to seek urgent neurological evaluation, and was later diagnosed with a brain mass that was operable and able to be resected safely. The patient returned to the office overwhelmed with gratitude as she explained to my mother that because of her thorough exam, her diagnosis not only saved her eyesight, but her life. It was in that moment that I realized this profession was what I wanted as my career so I too could provide exceptional eye and healthcare to all of my patients. After graduating from UCLA, I moved to Indiana to obtain my doctorate and further my training. While In school, I developed a specific interest in anterior segment disease and dry eye and thus completed my residency in Boston in corneal disease management. Throughout my time working in hospitals alongside Ophthalmology during my residency, I developed a passion for working with surgery patients and moved to South Carolina to work at a hospital assisting in pre and post-operative care. When my husband and I decided to later move to Florida, I knew I wanted to continue working in a surgical setting, and am excited to have the opportunity to continue treating and managing patients with the utmost compassion and attention to detail.I greatly enjoy assisting in restoring sight through refractive and cataract surgery and am excited for the opportunity to provide all of my patients with quality and compassionate eye and healthcare alongside the exceptional team at Filutowski Eye Institute!”