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Dr. Laura
Suppa
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SAMANTHA CART
Dr. Laura Suppa and her husband, Dr.
Shawn Sammons, met in Bloomington,
IN, in 2010 as students at Indiana Uni-
versity School of Optometry. While they
bonded over the labor-intensive nature of
the school’s professional program, their
true connection was much deeper—their
West Virginia roots.
The couple grew up only 90 min-
utes apart—Suppa in the South Hills of
Charleston and Sammons in Matewan—
but they had never met.
“Our connection to West Virginia and
the strong pull to return home to live
and practice brought us together,” says
Suppa, who now works as an optometrist
at Charleston Vision Source. “We were
married on West Virginia Day—June 20,
2015—and we had pepperoni rolls and
fiddle music played by Bobby Taylor on
a violin made by my grandfather, Harold
Hayslett, at our cocktail hour.”
While Suppa’s education presented her
with endless possibilities on where to go
after optometry school, her love for the
Mountain State made returning home
an easy choice.
“I always knew I would return home,”
she says. “Shawn and I wanted to be close
to our families, and now we each work
for two great businessmen who are help-
ing us grow as doctors and leaders in our
communities.”
Growing up in Charleston, Suppa spent
a lot of time with her grandparents at-
tending First Baptist Church of South
Charleston and later Christ Church United
Methodist, where her faith and family
inspired her to serve.
“It is important for me to give back
to our community because I know right
now it needs it,” she says. “Charleston
will always be a great place to live, but
the whole community needs to be all in.
I want to be part of the solution.”
Suppa is also inspired by her employer,
Dr. Alan Rada, who has been active in the
Charleston community for more than 30
years, particularly with the Kanawha City
Lions Club. “We know as doctors we have
the opportunity to become leaders in the
community through our small business
practices, our civic engagement and our
community development,” she says.
Suppa currently serves as president of
the Junior League of Charleston, through
which she has worked with the YWCA,
Davis Child Shelter, Mary C. Snow
Elementary School, Bob Burdette Center,
Inc. and Ronald McDonald House Char-
ities of Southern West Virginia, as well
as the organization’s Backpack Buddies
program, which provides weekly bags of
nonperishable supplemental food items
to 48 local kindergartners living below
the poverty line. She is also a member
of the steering committee for The 100, a
local women’s philanthropy group, where
she helps select and secure funding for
projects for eight local charities a year.
Professionally, Suppa gives back to the
community by providing free eye exams
and glasses for patients through the local
Lions Clubs and acting as Charleston
Vision Source’s primary provider of
InfantSEE exams, a public health program
that provides free first-of-life exams for
infants under 1 year old. She is also the
legislative chair of the West Virginia
Association of Optometric Physicians
(WVAOP). In 2017, she was named West
Virginia Young Optometric Physician of
the Year by the WVAOP, an honor re-
served for an optometrist who has been
in practice less than 10 years and has
shown leadership in the areas of service
to optometry and the visual welfare of
the public and has demonstrated a com-
mitment to public service.
“I have grown up appreciating all that
West Virginia has to offer and will con-
tinue to serve through as many outlets
as I can,” she says.
In 2018, Suppa graduated in the inau-
gural class of the WVAOP’s leadership
program and the Southern Council of
Optometry Young Leadership Program,
and she has no intention of slowing down.
“Will power, perseverance and the
ability to multitask have served me well
through school and my career,” she says.
“Working full time and volunteering for
multiple organizations sometimes gets a
little rough, but I couldn’t miss the op-
portunity to make a difference here at
home in West Virginia.”