Today we’d like to introduce you to Tammy Pham.
Hi Tammy, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
The immigrant story never crossed my mind growing up in Vietnam. There were no immigrants. All my friends and relatives had the same hair and eye colors. We spoke one language. In America, there are people of different hair, skin, eye colors, and cultures. Like other immigrants, my grandparents had to adapt to the unfamiliar culture. My grandfather took night classes to learn English, learned to drive a car, and worked long hours at a sewing factory. I immigrated from Vietnam to Florida to live with my grandparents at age thirteen. On the weekends, I tagged along to the factory and worked alongside them. I steamed, ironed, and sewed cotton bags, shirts, and pants. We also took home newly sewn clothes to cut the loose threads to make extra money. My aunt moved back to Orlando from Tampa to live with us when I was a sophomore in high school. She attended college at age thirty-six to get a degree in accounting, even though she had only been in the States for five years. She worked part-time selling artificial flowers at Hillsborough flea market. The commute was two hours each way. I helped my aunt arrange the flowers during the week to sell them on the weekends. We commuted before sunrise from Orlando to Florida every weekend. I enrolled in a science magnet program at a high school in a different school district; the school was quite far from our house. The bus rides took at least an hour each way. There I found new friends of the same interests and realized my passion for science, especially healthcare- I wanted to make a difference in someone else’s life. I attended the University of Florida, majoring in nutrition, and shadowed at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL. I worked part-time on campus and lived off campus with other roommates at an apartment complex for low-income individuals. I took the city bus every day to campus. The walks and bus rides were uncomfortable under Florida’s unpredictable weather. I often got to class all drenched in sweat or rainwater.
I attended the University of Houston College of Optometry after undergraduate. I worked part-time at Walgreens pharmacy during optometry school. My first job after optometry school was at a corporate lease. Three years later, my husband and I opened our first private practice in the Woodlands and a second clinic in the following year. As cliche as it sounds, all the hard work paid off. I now get to spend time with patients and create long-lasting relationships. I make a difference by taking the time explaining to patients their eye health and solutions to their visual needs. I have the freedom to set my schedule, which can be limited in healthcare.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge was not education or part-time work during school but rather the practice management aspects at our private practices. We had to learn vision insurance, billing, inventory pricing, electronic health record software, hiring, taxes, payroll, customer service, merchant accounts, and many small business-related areas that optometry school did not teach.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The Woodlands Eye Center is a full-service private-optometry practice, accepting both eye emergencies as well as scheduled appointments. Dr. Pham, Dr. Teoh, and our team are dedicated to always keeping our patients comfortable and well-informed. At The Woodlands Eye Center, we will explain every exam, procedure, and answer all our patients’ questions. Additionally, Dr. Pham enjoys specialty contact lens fitting such as keratoconus scleral, rigid gas permeable contact lenses for regular and irregular corneas, and orthokeratology (myopia control overnight-wear contact lenses). We value craftsmanship. Most of our frames are from independent lines like Matsuda, Lindberg, Prodesign, and Mykita. At The Woodlands Eye Center, we offer vision financing options and will work with vision insurance providers to ensure good eye health and vision care for all our patients.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My biggest supporter is my husband. He understands my passion for optometry and helped tremendously to grow both of our private practices. My role model is my late grandfather. He was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for eight years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975. He took night classes to learn English even at 63 years old. He later became a U.S. citizen and sponsored many families from Vietnam.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.THEWOODLANDSEYECENTER.com
Image Credits
Matsuda
Prodesign
Mykita and
Lindberg
