The 2025 Women In Optometry Women’s Leadership Conference returned for the seventh year in Boston with the theme “Leadership in Motion: Lead with vision, inspire with action.” The day brought together practicing clinicians, educators and industry partners for conversations about how leaders define success, align priorities and turn vision into action. Sessions explored personal turning points, reclaiming control where you can and sustaining energy and purpose in and out of the office.
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Serial entrepreneur and TV personality Laura Gassner Otting opened with a moving keynote, sharing the hard-won lessons that have helped her achieve both success and happiness. Otting spoke about a major turning point—a diagnosis of a rare autoimmune disease in 2020—that forced her to do things differently and reconsider commonly accepted measures of achievement.
She challenged the audience to create their own scorecards of success rather that adopting others’, warning, “You can’t be insatiably hungry for someone else’s goals.” Her blunt counsel to “screw the Joneses” urged attendees to make space for their own standards of success and reject limiting beliefs that stifle action.
Otting named some of those internal narratives as “lies we tell ourselves” and proposed practical alternatives: define what matters, protect the time and energy needed for it and surround yourself with close supporters—the “framily” who know who you are and hold you accountable. As a final note, Otting reassured the room that “you don’t have to become limitless because you already are,” a refreshing reminder amid a room of always-on, hardworking women.
OD PERSPECTIVES ON CALLING, CONNECTION AND CONTRIBUTION
Following Otting’s keynote, a panel of three optometrists featured a discussion of transformative moments that reshaped their leadership—all centering on calling, connection, contribution and control—and how those lessons guide their careers and priorities.
Camille Cohen, OD, FAAO, described a sense of calling shaped by a personal crisis. While preparing for her optometry school exam, her mother suffered a severe car accident. Dr. Cohen stopped studying and failed the exam three times, weighed down by negativity from both herself and others, until a friend challenged her mindset, saying, “You’ll never pass if you keep thinking you can’t.” Dr. Cohen said that moment proved that “impossible” goals are within reach but only when you believe in yourself.
Meagan Herring, OD, FAAO, CHHP, spoke about connection. Living and practicing in Kodiak, Alaska, she described how she builds deep ties with her patients by meeting them where they live—both literally and culturally—and using that context to explain integrative eye care and a holistic approach.
Anney Joseph, OD, FAAO, reflected on contribution and career reinvention. She described a toxic first job in Boston and how a chance dinner with fellow female ODs opened doors into academia. After having two children, she stepped back from full-time work, repeatedly questioning whether her career still fit the life she was building. Then a colleague introduced her to tele-optometry, expanded her sense of what was possible. Today, Dr. Joseph sees patients in person one day a week and devotes the rest of her time to administrative and program work, a structure that feels more aligned with her priorities. “It took 20 years to get there,” she told the room, noting the long arc of effort and adjustment behind the change.
Control ran through all three accounts. Panelists urged reframing constraints, leaning on mentorship and making intentional choices about time and contribution as practical levers for leading with vision. As a military spouse, Dr. Herring said that she lacks control over her broader circumstances, but she’s learned to reframe what she can influence. She closed with a Kodiak maxim, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear,” encouraging the audience to carry that mindset in their careers and personal lives.
BALANCING HUSTLE AND PURPOSE
During the platinum sponsor panel, Marcy DeWalt, Executive Director, Professional Relations, AbbVie U.S. Eye Care, and Kristin Anderson, OD, FNAP, FAAO, Director of Professional Education, U.S. Vision Care & Dry Eye, Alcon, explored the challenge of hustling harder while staying in alignment with your professional and personal values. DeWalt and Dr. Anderson spoke about moments when pressure cost them their purpose—and how they got it back.
Thank you to the sponsors of the 2025 Women’s Leadership Conference: founding platinum sponsor, AbbVie; platinum sponsor, Alcon; gold sponsor EssilorLuxottica; and supporting sponsors, Astellas and Tarsus.
Did you attend the Women’s Leadership Conference in Boston? We’d love to hear from you. Share your experience here.
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