The concept of Woo University (Woo U) began during conversations with good friends during March 2020. Since the world was at a standstill with the COVID pandemic, I had a lot of time to think. I had recently opened up my new optometry practice, Contact Lens Institute of Nevada, about a month prior to the pandemic. Like everyone else in the world, I had to close the office for about 2 months.

During this time, I was able to think about the trajectory of my career. As much as I love patient care, education and teaching has always been important to me as well. In fact, during college, my major was Science Education. I even completed a semester of student teaching prior to graduating college. Even though teaching science to 7th greaders was fun, I knew I wanted to further my education. This led me to optometry school and eventually owning three private practices in Arizona and California.

I began lecturing and teaching optometrists right away. During my cornea and contact lens residency, I was involved with teaching optometry students in the clinic and in the lab. Right after my residency, I began my optometric career at a private practice in Arizona. I also taught scleral lens workshops and seminars to many different doctors and staff members around the US. From workshops at Academy, AOA, and other local society meetings to online webinars, I’ve had the honor of educating thousands of practitioners from around the world about scleral contact lenses.

Over the last 10 years, I have delivered over 170 hours of educational lectures on the subject of specialty contact lenses and anterior segment eye disease. I’ve also led many different scleral lens workshops and written articles for publications on a variety of topics. I knew that education was going to be a part of my career forever.

In March of 2020, I pitched a few new ideas to a good friend, Craig Norman. I explained to him my desire to grow my educational platform. After a few phone calls, Craig coined the name Woo U, and an idea was born. Woo U has been dedicated to providing high quality educational resources to optometrists, staff members, students, and others within the optometric industry.

Woo U started with a few inspiring, educational interviews with some of the experts in our industry and quickly gained steam. The first webinars were more casual, and I started receiving requests for CE courses. Taylor (my office coordinator) and I became COPE administrators so that we could ensure high quality events that met the highest standards.

We also had an idea of delivering COPE approved education to optometrists for low or no cost. The COVID pandemic has negatively impacted many optometrists financially. Every year or two years, optometrists are required to earn a certain amount of continuing education credits. Most continuing education events cost money, and many of them require traveling to another city or state, which further increases the cost.

Low cost or free events have helped many optometrists overcome the financial burden of spending money on continuing education. Many of the events are online, which also helps optometrists who are unable or unwilling to travel during this difficult time. These events have helped thousands of optometrists earn CE credits without worrying about how they are going to be able to afford CE to maintain their license. I am so proud of the sponsors who have made these events possible. Without them, we would not be able to provide such high quality, free events. We have over 15,000 eye care professionals in our network, and we’ve delivered over 100,000 continuing education certificates to practitioners all around the world.

I am incredibly excited to see what the future holds for Woo U! I will continue to organize and host valuable events, through the help of our amazing supporters. Thank you to my friends, colleagues, and sponsors for supporting the Woo U vision!

Sincerely,

Dr. Stephanie Woo