VM Global Leadership Summit Speakers

Dr. Matthew Alpert graduated with clinical honors from the New England College of Optometry, in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Alpert earned the prestigious California Optometric Association’s Young Optometrist of the Year Award in 2002 and has served as a delegate to the California Optometric Association’s Congress and President’s Council. He is the past president of the San Fernando Valley Optometric Society and was a board member for over 12 years. Dr. Alpert was featured on the Emmy award winning television program The Doctors. The American Optometric Association chose Dr. Alpert to be the liaison for the “Eye on Nutrition” awareness campaign, where he was featured on national television, discussing the role of nutrition and ocular health. Dr. Alpert served on the founding advisory board for the TLC laser eye center in Encino, California. Currently, Dr. Alpert is serving on the board of directors of VSP Global, the largest managed vision care company in the United States. As chairman of optometric innovation Dr. Alpert connects emerging technologies in the vision care industry to VSP’s 30,000 panel doctors and 70,000,000 members. Dr. Alpert worked intimately with Google on professional education and retail distribution of Google Glass. He recently returned from his second trip to Soweto, South Africa, where he helped to develop the We See Child Health Project, a program that provides critical eyecare services to underserved children.

Stephanie founded Red Havas’ Arizona office in 2015. She has also supervised clients including the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, Luminance Recovery, One Young World, Revelator Coffee, and Sauce Pizza & Wine. In addition to media and influencer relations, she undertakes dozens of openings and launches for clients each year and provides creative and strategic thinking. Under Stephanie’s leadership, Havas PR was named the No. 1 big PR agency in Phoenix by Arizona Foothills magazine, and her campaign for Risas Dental and Braces was shortlisted in the PRWeek awards. In her first year at Havas PR, Stephanie was named to PR News’ Rising PR Stars 30 & Under and was named a PR Champion by the Council of PR Firms. Stephanie sits on the St. Vincent de Paul Advisory Board in Phoenix, lending her PR and marketing expertise to the organization.

John is the Founder and CEO of CivicScience, a next-generation survey and data company based in Pittsburgh. He has spent most of his career as an entrepreneur with a particular focus on new business formation, business development, marketing and communications. He is a frequent speaker at the Carnegie Mellon University Don Jones Center of Entrepreneurship, regular contributor to AdAge, the HuffingtonPost, and Forbes and has appeared on Good Morning America, the AXS TV Network, Cheddar, Yahoo Business, and as a speaker at numerous conferences and thought-leadership events. He is also the lead singer of Moscow Mule, a hard rock cover band, and winner of the esteemed Jefferson Award for their philanthropic activities. He is a proud alumni of Rollins College and an even prouder member of Tau Kappa Epsilon - Zeta Phi.

No one is more passionate about the transformative powers of eyewear than Ruth, co-founder of 10/10 Optics and eyewear consultant extraordinaire. Ruth has a strong eyewear fashion sensibility and is known for  originating the retail concept of curating luxury. eyewear collections from independent designers around the world. Her positive energy and eyewear expertise is a key force behind the success of 10/10 Optics, and a reason why her patients have been coming back for more than 30 years.

Julia Gogosha is the founder and owner of Gogosha Optique, a high-end, service-and design-driven optical boutique located in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. Gogosha Optique features high-end international eyewear and sunglass collections from designers such as Anne et Valentin, Barton Parreira, Cutler and Gross, Derome Brenner, Kirk Originals and Oliver Goldsmith, and a wide selection of vintage frames. Julia helps facilitate the connection between the eyewear wearer and the designer.

Dr. Solomon Gould is a professional speaker, practice management consultant, author and practice owner of two private practices in the Twin Cities. As a 4th generation optometrist with over 14 years of consulting experience for both the private and public sectors, Dr. Gould brings an unforeseen depth of knowledge, experience and insight to the industry. To date, Dr. Gould has helped elevate over 40 practices and large-scale private equity-based firms in the ophthalmic industry to their fullest potential. When not serving his patients or presenting, Dr. Gould enjoys writing articles on Practice Management for various business and clinical platforms.

Dr. Gould completed his undergraduate training at Luther College in Decorah, IA where he triple majored in Biology, Chemistry and Spanish. Dr. Gould then completed his Doctorate of Optometry at the New England College of Optometry in Boston, MA. To further cement his passion for business, Dr. Gould completed his M.B.A. at Southern New Hampshire University with an emphasis in Health Care Administration.

With a contagious positive energy, Dr. Gould takes his audience members on a joy ride with his self-proclaimed ‘comical’ humor, industry analytics, knowledge and foresight. Be careful, as he is known to stroll into the crowd and even sit next to audience members if warranted in order to captivate the audience.

During his spare time, Dr. Gould enjoys participating in Spartan competitions nationwide, learning new languages, spending time with his family, travel, and being out on the many wonderful lakes of Minnesota.

As the child, niece and grandchild of eye doctors, Mollie Tavel Kaback has worked on and off in optical throughout her life. She has realized her passion for vision and eyewear as a young adult during stints in the lab, reception and dispensing for the Dr. Tavel group of 22 Indiana eyecare offices. After college she moved into health care marketing and public relations, supporting sight-related pharmaceuticals and consumer education initiatives, counting Transitions Optical and Essilor of America as clients.

 

Tavel Kaback was then recruited by Essilor to support Transitions lenses and broader product initiatives, followed by her current role at Dr. Tavel where she melds communications expertise and optical insight.

Her responsibilities include creating community-focused partnerships throughout Indiana to help Hoosiers see better, and directing Dr. Tavel’s internal and external communications including their “Eyes on Safety” initiative, which promotes ways to keep eyecare practices and their patients safe during the COVID era. Colleague Kent Iglehart calls Tavel Kaback’s efforts to drive culture and engagement “essential to our organization’s success,” highlighting her use of social media to build meaningful connections with other influential thinkers.

Tavel Kaback, a Transitions Change Agent and member of The Vision Council’s Emerging Optical Leaders committee, excels at developing synergistic relationships and empowering others to bring their visions to life. She was honored as one of Vision Monday’s Most Influential Women. She continuously seeks opportunities to build upon the 80-year reputation established by the three Doctors Tavel, with effectual projects that serve the greater good: “As the third generation in the family business, I aspire to make an impact at least as great as theirs.”

Destry is deeply familiar with the decidedly human motivations that drive health behaviors and aren’t always aligned to what medical science would recommend. His career has focused on helping patients and doctors make better decisions to improve their health experiences and live their best lives.

With a focus on OCT research, Destry has over 20 peer-reviewed publications. In 2019 he was named one of MM&M’s Top 10 Innovation Catalysts. In a volunteer capacity, he served as a Board Director at the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions and currently serves on the CUNY’s School of Public Health’s Foundation Board, as well as teaching Healthcare Marketing and Communications at NYU.

Destry is a seasoned eyecare marketer with a background in ophthalmology research. During his medical training at Tufts School of Medicine he published a series of peer-reviewed articles on Optical Coherence Tomography to diagnose and track retinal disorders including Age-Related Macular Degeneration (wet & dry), Diabetic Macular Edema, & Glaucoma; and also corneal thickness in LASIK surgeries. Afterwards, Destry was hired by Zeiss Humphrey to lead OCT global marketing efforts targeting retina specialists, glaucoma experts, and cornea specialists. Since then he has consulted with many manufacturers including Genentech during the launch of Lucentis in the US and Bausch on their Crystalens AO.

In his marketing leadership roles he has had a long-standing interest in digital health and improving the overall healthcare experience to be on par with what we all enjoy from our favorite brands. As such, he spearheaded behavioral science research into what healthcare brands can learn from consumer packaged goods, hospitality and leisure brands, and in 2019 he presented findings at the American Telemedicine Association.