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Bay Area News
Bay Area Optometrist Gives Improved Sight to
Students
“There have been dozens of cases, but one middle school boy’s case sticks in
my mind,” says Dr. Melissa Sommers, owner of Nasa Vision in Webster, Texas.
Dr. Sommers recalls one of the students referred to her by Communities In
School-Bay Area (CIS-Bay Area).
“This student was so nearsighted that he could not see the big E on my
charts, and he had been trying to study like this for about six months
without glasses his parents couldn’t afford,” says Dr. Sommers.
Dr. Sommers has treated more than 350 children from the CIS-Bay Area program
over a 13-year period, seeing about 25-30 patients a year. Dr. Sommers
donates her services, and The Assistance League subsidizes the glasses
needed at cost.
CIS-Bay Area is a dropout prevention program that helps students stay in
school and prepare for life. The program serves about 1,200 students
directly and 10,000 students with special programs in Clear Creek
Independent School District and Dickinson Independent School District.
Since beginning her work with CIS-Bay Area students, Dr. Sommers has served
on the program’s Board of Directors for the last nine years and was
president of the board in 2003 and 2004. “I believe in the power of
education, and by making students see this is an opportunity to change
lives,” Dr. Sommers says.
Dr. Sommers started her business in June 1981 and has been at the same
location in Webster for 26 years. She received her optometry training at
Pacific University College of Optometry and her B.S. degree in physiology
from the University of California at Davis.
Her husband, Kevin Katz, is also an optometrist with a practice in
Galveston. They have two children – Seth, age 24, and Chase, age 22.
Dr. Sommers is a charter member of the Association of Business and
Professional Women but donates most of her time and energy to CIS-Bay Area.
“I know that I have the life I do because of education which is why I
believe so strongly in Communities In Schools-Bay Area. I’d rather pay to
keep a kid in school than to pay to incarcerate them later,” Dr. Sommers
concluded.
For more information about CIS-Bay Area, visit
www.cisba.org .
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