I grew up in a small town in downstate Illinois, just outside Effingham. I have been back in the area since 2010. A few years after that, I adopted my dog, Thor, from a rescue. There is a solid chance you’ve seen us out and about on the streets of Naperville. He’s my family, and we do a lot together!

Well, that’s a bit of a winding path, as many are, but I’ll give you the short version. I stayed close to home for my undergrad degree and went to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. After graduation, it was time for an adventure, so I decided to get my optometry degree at the University of California at Berkeley, and then an MBA at the University of Colorado in Denver where I was working at the time. I moved back to the area in 2010 when my sisters started having kids. I wanted to be closer to home as they grew up. I opened my practice in downtown Naperville shortly after that.

My business is called Couture Vision. It is an optical and optometry practice, located right in downtown Naperville. I went into optometry because my eyes are terrible! I still remember getting my first pair of glasses and being able to see the leaves on the trees for the first time. It was impactful, and I wanted to be a part of that.

That’s a loaded question if I ever heard one! I think it’s easy to say our frame selection, our use of technology, the fact that we only work with the highest quality materials, etc., but what really sets us apart from other private practices are the specialized services we have developed over the years. We have a Myopia Management Clinic to slow or even halt the progression of nearsightedness in our pediatric patients. We have a full Dry Eye Clinic that can often eradicate patients’ needs for eyedrops entirely, significantly improving their quality of life. We also provide medical aesthetic services with our Anti-Aging Clinic to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, droopy eyelids, bags under the eyes, redness from rosacea and other inflammatory conditions, and more. All with zero downtime, and without the use of needles or lasers.

I hesitate to say it, because it’s just the world we live in today, but computers and devices are not your eyes’ friends. Our eyes typically blink about 22 times a minute when reading a book. When at a device, that drops down to 6 times a minute on average. Studies that have come out in the past couple of years are showing that the sensitive glands in our eyelids have started to atrophy because of the changes to the way we use our eyes. Without treatment, this atrophy can be permanent. On the plus side, we have the equipment to halt or even reverse this atrophy in our Dry Eye Clinic. It’s safe, effective, and long-lasting.

My office is a lot of fun! I know it sounds a little strange to think of an eye doctor’s office as being fun, but we genuinely enjoy each other’s company and like what we do. I think that translates over to the patient experience, at least I hope it does. If you’re curious, even just a little, I invite you to drop in and try on frames. That should give you a good feel for what we are all about. Also, please don’t judge our current website too harshly, it’s under construction at the moment and should be much better soon!