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When Amanda Legge, OD ‘12, was a pre-med student at Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, the program had a lot of connections which allowed its students plenty of shadowing opportunities with numerous local medical professionals.
Dr. Legge landed in an optometrist’s office with Carl Urbanski, OD ’82, and during her shadowing experience, a patient came in complaining of blurred vision. But, the patient’s visual acuity was a perfect 20/20 in each eye.
“As Dr. Urbanski was going through the exam, he diagnosed the patient with visual field loss. He explained he was concerned that she had a stroke in the occipital lobe of her brain,” said Dr. Legge. “I was fascinated and said, ‘Hold on, please explain this to me.’ Like most of the public, I thought optometry was mostly glasses and contact lenses. The eye-brain connection is what really got me interested in optometry.”
And, now, 12 years later, Dr. Legge has been named the Special Recognition Alumna of the Year from the Salus University Alumni Association. She and other Alumni of the Year awardees were honored at the Annual Recognition Reception on June 2, 2024, at Pinecrest Country Club in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. She was nominated for the award by her classmate, Nisha Patel, OD ‘12.
After graduating in 2008 from Wilkes University with a degree in biology and minors in neuroscience, chemistry, and theater arts, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) was at the top of Dr. Legge’s list. PCO has a good reputation for its neuro-optometry subspecialty and its overall optometry program and offers early clinical experience to its students.
“I’m a better hands-on learner than I am from a textbook and classroom setting. The more clinical experience I could get, I just knew that was better suited for my personality,” said Dr. Legge. “And, PCO was the most welcoming and friendly interview. It seemed more genuine. I had a wonderful conversation with the person who interviewed me and left feeling like it would be a home for me.”
While at PCO/Salus, Dr. Legge was involved in the Gold Key Honor Society and the American Optometric Student Association (ASOA). She also took advantage of the Advanced Studies program, which paired her and one other student with Carlo Pelino, OD ‘94, FAAO, assistant professor at PCO and chief of The Eye Institute (TEI) of Salus at Drexel University.
“As opposed to being in a large classroom, I learned so much in that tiny two-person setting that has served me well in 12 years of practice,” said Dr. Legge.
These days, Dr. Legge is now a partner at Wyomissing Optometric Center — with offices in Wyomissing, Douglassville, and Myerstown, Pennsylvania — along with Glenn Corbin, OD ‘82, who has trained more than 300 optometry interns from PCO/ and Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) and Kerry Burrell, OD ‘03. Dr. Corbin is a 2023 Presidential Medal of Honor awardee from Salus University.
Dr. Legge’s interest in macular degeneration, which started at PCO/ ultimately got her deep into the retina care world as a professional, where she lectures and teaches.
Moving forward, Dr. Legge wants to stay interested in the parts of optometry that are underserved by all eye care as a whole. That includes macular degeneration, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and inherited retina disease (IRD).
“My practice is ever evolving. When I started managing patients with IRD, I would send them to Scheie Eye Institute at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, or Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia because I wanted them to have the genetic testing to best understand their condition and hopefully give them access to a clinical trial if they became available at those large hospitals,” she said. “Now that I have the free IRD genetic testing at my disposal, my patients get a free one-hour session with a genetic counselor, then I can use the results to give a definite diagnosis and talk to them about what their prognosis is.”
When she’s not working, Dr. Legge enjoys spending time with her husband Jonathon, and being a mom to daughters Lucy, 10, and Violet, 4. It was Lucy who provided her with one of her proudest mom moments.
“When I bought into the practice, it was a great moment for me and my family,” said Dr. Legge. “When I told the kids, my 10-year-old said, ‘Mom, does that mean you don’t have a boss anymore?’ And, I said, ‘That’s right, I’m my own boss.’ And, she said, ‘That is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. I want to be my own boss someday, too.’”
