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Her father was an optometrist for the United States Army, but it wasn’t until her third year at Oakwood College — now called Oakwood University — in Huntsville, Alabama, that Gayle Daniels, OD ‘88, started to seriously consider a career in optometry.
While researching different optometry schools at that time, Dr. Daniels discovered the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) allowed students to attend after three years of undergraduate credits from specific institutions through articulation agreements. So she structured the classes her junior year at Oakwood to make sure she had the appropriate hours required to apply to PCO.
“I’m glad I got accepted because PCO had two things I didn’t really see as advantages until I got accepted: the (Robert E. Horne) Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) and The Eye Institute (the program’s on-campus clinical facility),” said Dr. Daniels, whose mother was a nurse. “Those were so impressive to me.”
The SEP — an attempt to increase the number of underrepresented individuals in optometry with people from all backgrounds who have been admitted to the Pennsylvania College of Optometry — provided Dr. Daniels the confidence to approach the rigorous coursework required by PCO.
“It gave me a step ahead. I needed that extra confidence booster, and I had colleagues who were in the same position that I was,” she said.
While at PCO, Dr. Daniels participated in the program’s Student Optometric Service to Humanity (SOSH), which planted something in her that didn’t germinate until later on in her career. After graduating from PCO and going into Air Force active duty for three years, stationed in Washington, D.C., Dr. Daniels joined Kaiser Permanente, an integrated managed care consortium, also in D.C.
But she wanted to open her own private practice, and that opportunity came about, which sent her to Fort Worth, Texas, where she bought an existing practice in 1998.
“I was doing the private practice thing, and I loved it until it got to the point that I didn’t love it so much,” said Dr. Daniels. “What I didn’t like was the business side of it. I felt like I was cheating myself from my love of optometry by having to deal with all the business aspects of it.”
That’s where her history with SOSH came in. Dr. Daniels had a group of professional friends who traveled internationally to offer health care to the underserved, but had never included an eye care provider on those trips. The group traveled to places like Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, South Africa, and Greece, among others.
That in turn laid the foundation for Dr. Daniels to realize there was still much work to do for the underserved in the U.S. As a result, she formed the nonprofit, Better Vision Better Hope, the goal of which is to offer underserved and under-insured people affordable vision care while also training students as upcoming optical professionals. She left her private practice to focus entirely on the nonprofit. Dr. Daniels uses portable optometry equipment to visit patients and also runs a walk-in clinic in a separate space next to her laboratory.
“This fulfills me completely. I am totally at peace with what I do and in love with my profession,” said Dr. Daniels. “We are doing everything I think community optometry should do, and I love it.”
Moving forward, Dr. Daniels hopes to find more optometrists and eye care providers who are willing to help her in the venture, and she has already enlisted some others from PCO. Agnes Kim, OD ‘14, and Kendrick Crawford II, OD ‘25, who are two other Fort Worth-area optometrists.
In addition, Dr. Daniels has also worked with other PCO graduates for the nonprofit in their respective states of Maryland and Oklahoma, including Stephanie Branch, OD ‘83; Cheryl Joseph-Sonceau, OD ‘90; Angela Pitts, OD ‘93; Rhonda Henry, OD ‘94; Ruby Young Cooper, OD ‘80; Caleen Burke, OD ‘97; and Robert Burke, OD ‘94.
“Anybody that’s a PCO grad living here in Texas, I’ve been trying to contact them,” said Dr. Daniels. “We’re rendering quality care, just in a different way. We spend a lot of time educating, so the patients don't feel intimidated by the white coats.”
When she has free time, Dr. Daniels would like to travel some more, going on cruises with family and friends. “I do find the time to have fun, even though people think I’m working all the time,” she said. “I don’t see it as a job because I’m doing exactly what I want to do and having fun doing it.”
Dr. Daniels emphasizes that there is still a lot of need out there to treat the underserved and under-insured and hopes optometrists will continue to help outside the traditional clinical setting.
“If people venture out and do a SOSH trip, if something is tugging at you, look into it,” she said. “Going on that SOSH trip my senior year at PCO really planted something in me that I didn’t know was going to germinate as it did.”
