NEXTGEN
DON’T FEAR INNOVATION
By Jody Johnson-Pettit
An interest in
optometry has
flourished into a
successful career for
Dr. Jessica St. Pierre
Street.
Dr. St. Pierre Street is an optometrist
and sole owner of Petrolia Optometry
in Petrolia, Ontario.
“I chose optometry as my field of
study when I was in Grade 12. My
interest was piqued when I heard that
the optometry program at the Univer-
sity of Waterloo was an extremely
competitive program to be admitted
to,” says Dr. St. Pierre Street. “A bit of
research confirmed that a career in
optometry would appeal to my com-
bined love of math, physics, biology
and human pathology.”
34 OPTICAL PRISM | July 2018
“PATIENT
EXPERIENCE IS
EVERYTHING.”
Dr. St. Pierre Street says her passion
for this career really developed when
she became a practice owner and be-
came involved in practice management.
“That’s when my
‘detail-oriented’
personality and my
love for display and
fashion really
began to flourish as
I took on benchmarking, marketing,
social media and office design tasks.”
Dr. St. Pierre Street attended the
University of Waterloo for both her
undergrad program and the optometry
program. Upon graduation, she began
work as an associate optometrist for
a local ophthalmologist.
“Patient experience is everything.” As
the sole owner of her practice, Dr. St.
Pierre Street has a few ideas that she
believes led to her success.