Practice ownership doesn’t have to be your first career move.
Meet four ODs who spent time as associates before opening their own practices and creating careers on their own terms.
Laureen Waldron, OD, translated three decades of clinical experience—from big-box opticals to running a hospital red eye clinic in the U.S. Air Force—into a carefully composed space meant to calm patients and enable advanced care.
Monica Ma, OD, spent five years in a rural practice before opening her own. She and her husband, Jonathan Reynon, OD, now own two private practices and have since relocated—and totally renovated—both offices (without breaking the bank).
Jenessa Lock, OD, graduated from Illinois College of Optometry in 2006. She spent the next almost two decades working in her husband’s practice and homeschooling their five boys. In 2025, she decided she was ready to own a practice of her own.
Lezlie Jones, OD, bought the practice where she worked for more than a decade. She immediately started turning the dated, compartmentalized clinic into a colorful, pattern-forward space.
See other design stories here.
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