Here's Looking at You

“We get a glimpse at your blood vessels and your optic nerves,” said Jann, an optometrist at Concord Family Vision in New Hampshire and a former Quinnipiac women’s basketball team member (2008–11).

“We can spot conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, anemia and autoimmune disease based on what we see in the back of your eyes,” she said, explaining that a patient might come in to get fitted for contact lenses and leave with potentially life-saving information about an underlying health condition.

Jann also specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of primary open-angle glaucoma, the most common form of glaucoma in the United States and one that threatens the sight of many older adults. “A lot of times, it goes undiagnosed if you don’t go to your eye doctor because it has no symptoms,” Jann said.

The silent danger, she explained, is increased pressure in the eye due to malfunctioning of the internal drainage system. Without treatment, irreversible vision loss and optic nerve damage can follow.

Jann is in her fourth year as one of three optometrists at Concord Family Vision in New Hampshire. At Quinnipiac, she double-majored in health science studies and marketing after transferring from another school. While sitting out a season per NCAA transfer rules, Jann excelled in the classroom, a pattern she continued throughout her academic career.

“I did the pre-med requirements because I knew I was going to do something medical. I just wasn’t sure what yet,” she said. “While I was a junior, I was able to shadow a few different specialties.”

When she shadowed an optometrist, Jann knew she had found her calling and enrolled at the New England College of Optometry in Boston, where she earned her doctor of optometry degree. “Optometry is the only discipline where you look inside the body without cutting something open,” Jann said. “I wasn’t really interested in doing surgery, so optometry was a great fit for me.”

She observed that some medical specialties keep patients at arm’s length, but optometry isn’t one of them. “When you’re going through primary care, they’re asking a lot of questions, not doing a lot of hands-on,” Jann said. “Optometry is really hands-on.”

She enjoys working with children, an interest she developed as an undergraduate at Quinnipiac when she was considering pediatrics. Looking back, she credits her time at Quinnipiac as transformative, both as a student and a basketball player who sat out a year, but still practiced with the team and sat on the bench for home games. A native of Westford, Massachusetts, she attended Westford Academy, where she was a two-year captain and the school’s third all- time leading scorer with 1,505 career points.

“At Quinnipiac, our team was really diverse with students from different countries and backgrounds,” she said. “Knowing and getting along with a variety of people really helped me learn how to connect with patients and get to know all kinds of people.”

By her senior season at Quinnipiac, Jann was named a team captain. She had become a leader and a role model with the Bobcats after playing in a career-high 30 games as a junior. “It taught me that if you put the time in, no matter what you start with, you can excel,” Jann said. “For basketball, perseverance and working really hard helped me to keep pushing myself in optometry school and also to where I am now.”

So what is Jann’s advice for future optometrists? “Go some- where you feel welcome and where it has that community feel, somewhere you’ll get involved,” she said.

In her off-work hours, Jann enjoys traveling with her husband, Ryan Murphy, an athletic director at Watertown High School in Massachusetts, and spending time with family and friends. She also includes basketball in her life, giving private lessons to girls ranging in age from 7 to 20, something she’s done since high school.

Although it’s been almost a decade since she graduated, Jann still remembers that welcome feeling she had walking around campus. “Even going back, it still feels like home,” she said.