Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Gregory.
Hi Mary, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I always knew I wanted to help people. I love brainstorming, researching and learning as well as people and knew I needed to find a career that allowed me to do this. In high school I took a personality test with our guidance counselor to determine some options and optometry was on that list and caught my “eye”! I was one of the first in my extended family to attend college and graduate level school, so this journey was scary and new. However, once I got started, I knew it was the right path for me. After graduation from optometry school, I pursued options that allowed me to be independent in order to create something that felt right for me and enable me to help people the way I felt was needed. This led me to joining Dr Elaine Happ in Monticello at Uptown Eye Care. I quickly became a partner and have since bought out her share upon her retirement. Uptown Eye Care strives to be the best eye care clinic in the nation. We do this through superior eye care, latest technology, best products and excellent customer service. We work on these qualities every single day and discuss them daily in the office. We have expanded to having 5 doctors who specialize in all areas of eyecare in order to be at the top of the knowledge in all areas. I have chosen to invest in the top of the line instrumentation in order to be able to detect and treat any type of eye concern and disease. This makes our clinic unique compared to many clinics. My next endeavor was to help the children I was seeing who were struggling with vision or in school with learning and behaviors. I was already interested in specializing in pediatric care through my college years and this was intensified once actually in practice. I decided to spend the time to educate myself on all areas of vision development and pediatric conditions. This took a few years and hundreds of hours of additional education. During this process I felt I could really help these children more than what I could do in an eye exam. I then decided to open a second clinic, Omni Vision & Learning Center, also in Monticello MN. This clinic does not do eye exams but instead does visual therapy and rehabilitation. We work with people of all ages who have struggles relating to a crossed eye (strabismus), lazy eye (amblyopia), reading issues with speed or comprehension and visual processing struggles. After being open around 5 years I also started to recognize that there were another group of people that were needing help and were underserved. This is a group of those with concussions and/or mild or traumatic brain injuries of all kinds. Starting in around 2014 we began incorporating eye exams for this specialty at Uptown Eye Care and also started working with them in therapy at Omni Vision & Learning Center to improve the quality of their lives. I currently have 5 doctors working at Uptown Eye Care and there are 3 of us working with pediatrics and brain injury patients. I am the only doctor at Omni Vision but have 6 therapists who do light therapy (syntonics) and vision rehabilitation. We stay busy changing lives every day at both locations! I have a strong faith and my husband and I both feel it is our faith that has driven us to continue to dream big, take risks and move forward with a plan. We are so fortunate that despite the challenges, we have been able to help our community through our two clinics.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggles for me were navigating my way without a mentor. I’ve tried to mentor as many people as I can because of how hard and lonely it was for me, especially in the beginning. It would have been great to have someone to guide me more on the profession, the college experience but also navigating being a small business owner in an area of specialty that is very unique. I’ve learned so much along this journey and want to share what I can in order to empower others to live out their dreams. I’ve always thought that we (medical professionals and business owners) all grow stronger and work smarter when working together instead of competing with each other.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m very proud of the work our team does in both clinics. I try to encourage a environment where no one is afraid to ask questions and instead be free to think outside of the box. I think we are our best selves when we can be secure in our trust of a supportive and positive environment. I want to encourage our teams to recognize how they make a positive difference in the lives of everyone they encounter every day. Sometimes this is a simple smile and other times it is a life altering change in detecting a vision threatening disease or helping someone learn to read and focus in school. It is a goal we have to constantly be discussing and working towards in order to create a culture of positivity, unity and going above and beyond. Our therapy clinic, Omni, has been a passion project and I won’t lie, it’s been tough. This is a type of clinic and service that is not common in the Midwest, and we have to constantly be educating people on who we are and what we do. It takes a lot of effort for my entire team but the rewards are so great!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I am a risk taker and I wouldn’t have either office if I did not take these risks. I risked leaving a corporate eye clinic with a stable income to join a small business optometry clinic in a community where no one knew me. I needed to build my own patient list and essentially market myself in the community. I went to preschools, MOPS meetings, senior groups and did education and presentations. Once my schedule was a little busier and I had a more steady income, then I took another risk to open Omni Vision & Learning Center. This was a big risk and my husband was a great partner and mentor for me in making that decision. It was scary for a few years as we took quite a big loan against our home in order to start Omni and the early years were really up and down. We had small children, still paying off college debt and working hard! At the end of each day, we knew that we had been given the talent and ability to help others and our faith in God would help us to share those talents as much and as long as we could. I additionally took another big risk when I took over more space and completely renovated Uptown Eye Care when my partner retired. This was a big project and big financial endeavor. My motivation was to create a space with a comfortable and relaxing environment. Our waiting room looks and feels like a living room with a couch and fireplace. I added a second waiting room enclosed in glass on the opposite side of the office for children. I wanted families to feel free to bring their children in and not worry about them touching everything or be too loud. We have a quiet waiting room and a children’s waiting room which allows all our patients to feel comfortable. I also designed two exam rooms specifically for children and larger families. It can be scary to go to a doctors appointment and I wanted everyone to feel relaxed and taken care of in our clinic. At the same time as the remodel, I also invested in the latest instrumentation required to diagnose and manage any eye condition and disease. This was also a risk for a number of reasons, not only did I need to hire more staff, but insurance reimbursement hasn’t increased in years, for some insurances it’s been decades since our reimbursement has changed. Again, I knew I needed to continue to try to create an environment that took the best care of our community and in a comfortable and safe space. The risk has been worth it and we continue to use the gifts and talents we have been given to provide high quality health care to our community.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.uptowneyecare.com
- Instagram: www.omnivisioncenter.com
