Book with Panoptic Vision Optometrists - Lake Cathie

Jesse is an optometrist who has moved up from Sydney, and is excited for his work (and the beaches!) in the Mid-North Coast. He completed a Masters of Clinical Optometry at UNSW in 2020, and worked in full-scope and behavioural optometry practices in Sydney before moving up to Lake Cathie in 2022. During his time at university, he visited (and fell in love with) Panoptic Vision and the mid-north coast whilst on placement. That, combined with remote eye care trips to Outback NSW and Nepal, meant he knew he’d be leaving the city behind. He has a passion for children’s vision as he himself has needed glasses from a young age and spent many hours in the optometrist’s chair as a kid. He loves to make eye-tests fun and engaging for children of all ages so that no child misses out on the care they need. He is also a member of the Australian College of Behavioural Optometrists (ACBO) and is excited to bring his passion and knowledge of myopia, vision therapy and lazy eye along to the Panoptic team. He has lots of experience in wearing, fitting and teaching many types of contact lenses, including orthokeratology “night contacts” which he himself has been wearing since 2016. He believes that anyone can learn to use, and benefit from, contact lenses, whether young or old! He is therapeutically endorsed, meaning he is able to write prescriptions for medical eye drops and manage conditions such as glaucoma, diabetes and macular degeneration in conjunction with eye specialists. He also has an interest in dry eye, and loves to educate his patients on how to keep their eyes healthy and comfortable with both medicinal and non-medicinal therapies. During his time as a student he also worked as dispenser and optical assistant, meaning he has more than 5 years of experience in frame selection, lens designs and keeping up with the latest in optical technologies. He uses this knowledge to ensure he always prescribes the best spectacles for his patients. Jesse loves being an optometrist and living on the mid-north coast. In his spare time, he loves being at the beach, cooking all sorts of food, is a member of the Camden Haven concert band and attends a local church. He is keen to share his passion and provide great eye care for all his patients, no matter how big or small.

Behavioural Optometrist Growing up in Wagga, Natasha remembers many long trips up the Hume Highway to the Camden Haven in the summer holidays to spend time at a real beach! After completing an Optometry Degree with Honours from UNSW in 1993, Natasha went on to complete a research Masters in the neuroscience of vision development and specific learning disorders including dyslexia. Her interest in children’s vision had her make a trip across the Nullabor to Perth where she worked in specialty behavioural optometry and vision therapy practices for 10 years. During this time Natasha continued her study and in 2000 was awarded a Fellowship from ACBO ( Australasian College of Behavioural Optometry), the highest award offered by the organisation. She was also a founding member of a now well-established aid organisation called Equal Health, and travelled to India and Zimbabwe providing vision care to remote communities. In 2009, Natasha moved from Perth to Laurieton with her daughters to visit her parents who had made the Camden Haven home. This began an unexpected but happy move to the area. Natasha set up vision therapy services in both Laurieton and Lighthouse Plaza. In 2015, Natasha established her own Optometry practice at the Lake Cathie Health Complex. The practice offers the full range of optometry services for all ages. Natasha is passionate about ensuring that appropriate vision solutions, including vision therapy, are available to children, to address any vision related learning difficulties they may have. Outside work, Natasha is very involved with the regional music community. She is an accomplished pianist and flautist. She enjoys playing flute with Sinfonia MNC, as well as engagements with the Players Theatre Productions and Glasshouse lunchtime concerts. Her daughter Abi is a violinist and she keeps Natasha busy with piano accompanying and taxi services... Within her research area of vision development, Natasha is now looking at researching the specific visual/auditory processes behind learning to read English and learning to read music.

Craig has 35 years experience prescribing advanced lens designs and developing innovative vision therapy programmes to enhance the vision performance of infants, children and adults. He has completed Fellowship training and accreditation in Behavioural Optometry with both the Australasian College of Behavioural Optometrists (ACBO) and the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD) in the USA. During the 1990’s at Vision West, his optometry practice in Perth, Western Australia, he was one of the first optometrists in Australia to implement modern Orthokeratology procedures for myopia correction. Myopia is predicted to be the most prevalent vision problem worldwide in the current generation. From 2001 Craig was the Director of Professional Education for the Brien Holden Vision Institute based at the University of NSW. There he developed and implemented education programmes teaching advanced optometric prescribing techniques for people aged over 40, to eye care practitioners and educators at undergraduate teaching institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, China and India. Most recently a research project he supervised was published in the internationally distributed Clinical and Experimental Optometry journal, demonstrating how novice optometry students, who use computer simulations, increase their competency to accurately conduct eye examinations. He is excited to join Panoptic Vision to incorporate the newly emerging scientific principles of brain neuro-plasticity for improving vision-related brain functions. He will be working with our team to make these skills accessible for anyone interested to improve the way they see.