Throughout Dr. Julie Tyler’s career as an optometrist and an educator, she has found one insight in particular reaffirmed over and over: When she was met with the resistance of a new challenge, it was almost always worth it because it resulted in opportunities for personal growth.
“I have always embraced the idea that you should try to do something every day that scares you,” she says. And while teaching at MBKU’s Southern California College of Optometry doesn’t itself qualify as a “terrifying” prospect, it has certainly been a welcome challenge and an exciting time of growth for Dr. Tyler.
New School, Same Values
After two decades of teaching at the College of Optometry at Nova Southeastern University, Dr. Tyler and her husband moved their lives across the country so that she could join the faculty of SCCO and that he could have a closer base from which to travel to Alaska, where he spends a portion of the year as an optometrist serving remote Native Alaskan communities.
At MBKU, Dr. Tyler is proud that the strong values of the institution reflect her own, which for her are rooted in the best of her upbringing. “My heart is grounded in the Midwestern values of my youth,” she says. “Being hard-working, well-intentioned, and living a life of service to others.” Both of Dr. Tyler’s parents were teachers, and she originally planned to follow in their footsteps. This plan’s first snag occurred when she was just a kid; commissioned into the role of assisting with children who were younger than she was, Dr. Tyler quickly realized elementary educator was not in the cards. A little after that, however, she attended a camp called College for Kids, and there she discovered the eyeball. Specifically, a cow’s, which she dissected, and which introduced her to a passion for the complexity and beauty of the eye.
“I found that optometry very naturally reflected my interests,” she says. “I have a passion for helping others, and I loved science. Optometry gives one the potential to forge relationships with patients and provide devices that enhance their quality of life.” After doing her residency at a teaching institution, Dr. Tyler finally found her demographic: “grownup students” – that is, aspiring doctors of optometry. And so, she did end up following in her parents’ footsteps.
A Warm Welcome
At MBKU, one of the things she most appreciates, as she and her colleagues navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 world, is the way that the collaboration so essential to an interprofessional institution extends to the development of new strategies for reaching students. This spirit of camaraderie and the welcoming, family atmosphere where she knows her skills and experience are highly valued, has made her arrival at MBKU a welcome challenge indeed.