Dr. Kimberly Rock is originally from Warsaw, Ohio where she attended River View High School. She then attended Hiram College and graduate magna cum laude with a B.A. in Biomedical Humanities. Dr. Rock next attended The Ohio State University College of Optometry. She completed the combined OD/MS program and graduated with her Optometry Degree (cum laude) and a Master’s in Vision Science concurrently in 2017.
During optometry school, Dr. Rock was a member of College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) and the American Optometric Student Association (AOSA). She was a four-year member of Beta Sigma Kappa Optometric Honor Society and was president during her fourth year. She was also a member of Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (SVOSH), served as secretary for two terms and participated in a service trip to Lima, Peru in 2015.
Dr. Rock’s master’s thesis involved research on the correlation between refractive errors and academic success in students where she got to work with the OneSight Vision Clinic at Oyler School in Cincinnati, OH. As an optometry student, she presented her research twice at the annual American Academy of Optometry meeting. After optometry school, Dr. Rock was able to expand on her research and completed her Fellowship with the American Academy of Optometry in November 2018.
Dr. Rock is currently a member of the American Optometric Association (AOA), the Ohio Optometric Association (OOA), the American Academy of Optometry (AAO), and the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD). She is excited to practice full scope optometry, diagnosing and treating a variety of ocular disorders and diseases in patients of all ages, but has a special interest in pediatrics, binocular vision, brain injury patients and special needs patients. Dr. Rock is an InfantSee provider to those under 1 year of age and she’s an active RealEyes presenter to local elementary schools.
Dr. Rock and her husband. Daeylin, love spending time with their two adorable cats, Lavender and Lilah, traveling, and making crafts. One of Dr. Rock’s greatest achievements is winning first place in a Harry Potter trivia night!
Did you know Dr. Rock is one of our pediatric optometrists? Read her full interview here.
How did you decide to become a pediatric and binocular vision optometrist?
I knew many years before wanting to become an optometrist that I wanted to focus on pediatric healthcare in some capacity. In high school, I was a vision therapy patient myself and saw the ways it greatly benefited my quality of life and my school work and became hooked on the idea of becoming an optometrist to help kids that were just like me. My desire to become a pediatric OD was further solidified during optometry school while I worked part time as a vision therapist for 3 years and participated in kindergarten and preschool vision screenings across Columbus.
What do you enjoy about being a pediatric and binocular vision optometrist?
I love being able to help children succeed! Providing children with their first pair of glasses to improve vision for school, their first contact lenses to provide them greater freedom in sports and getting them in vision therapy to improve binocular vision skills and quality of life, bring me so much joy.
I love being an advocate for children and their vision. Many times children and their parents do not know the child needs glasses. Their child may not have complained about difficulty with vision because the way they see now may have been the way they've always seen the world. With a comprehensive vision examination we are able to provide the child with an accurate prescription even at a very young age and provide them with clear vision that will help them succeed in the classroom and in sports!
Vision therapy isn't just for kids! I have seen many adults succeed in our program and have a reduction in symptoms following a traumatic brain injury, concussion, or lifelong struggles with eye strain and headaches. It is so rewarding to see these patients improve week after week and see a reduction in their symptoms.