Breanne McGhee

Breanne McGhee OD, MEd, FAAO and an assistant professor and clinical adjunct at Pacific University College of Optometry. She is regarded as a leader in her field McGhee is also the creator and founder of E.Y.E.S - Elite Youth of Excellence and Service, a non-profit that aids disadvantaged members of her community by offering free comprehensive eye exams and eye glasses. which is affiliated with Southern College of Optometry. In 2017, she obtained a Fellowship with the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO).
Career
McGhee is a full-time optometrist specializing in ocular disease, pediatrics, and glaucoma and is currently working at multiple group practices in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. She is also involved with the Comprehensive Medical Mentoring Program (CMMP), an organization that promotes the advancement of minority students and enables them to combat healthcare disparities and inequities in their future careers.
Awards
Outside of winning numerous scholarships and grants, McGhee was awarded the American Optometric Student Association Award (AOSA) Student of the Year award at Pacific University in 2015 and in 2016, she also received the Dean's Award from the same institution for her volunteerism, academic scholarship, and leadership endeavors during her optometry school years.
In 2015, she completed her Masters of Education Thesis at Pacific University College of Optometry, which was published in the Optometry & Visual Performance Journal, and the title of which was, "An exploration of visual refractive statuses, perceptual abilities, and efficiency skills of high school credit recovery students and GED/HiSet participants." In this article, she found that academically at-risk individuals reported the visual skills required for challenging educational courses as "problem areas" and that over 70% of the 21 credit recovery and GED/HiSet students she surveyed had never had a full comprehensive visual examination. McGhee uses this paper to highlight how educators can recognize reduced academic performances as an intervention tool and to encourage these students to seek out optometric eye care and treatment.
McGhee also wrote the article, "Acting on an Epidemic: Approaching the clinical diagnosis and management of Epidemic Keratoconjunctivitis." with Richard Mangan in 2018 that was published in the Review of Optometry. This article describes the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of a patient with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC), a highly contagious ocular adenovirus. They discuss how EKC is challenging to diagnose and is often misidentified, thus "EKC should be a diagnosis of exclusion." She was forced to relocate to Baton Rouge, LA and to finish school at McKinley Senior High School. It was a harrowing time as there was a period where she did not know whether her family survived the wreckage. It was not until a month later that she was finally able to contact and reunite with her mother and grandmother. She cites her dedication to humanitarian work not only to the kindness and support that she and many others in her situation received after being temporarily displaced due to the hurricane, but also to the way she was raised, since her parents have always encouraged her to find joy in helping others.<ref name=":2" />

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu