Claudine Y. Kawabata, O.D.

I hail from the 50^th state of Hawaii.  I was born in Honolulu and raised in Pearl City on the island of Oahu.  I gained my interest in eye care through my need for glasses since the first grade and through my maternal grandmother’s frequent trips from the outer island of Kauai to see the glaucoma specialist on Oahu.

Upon my graduation from high school, I went on to attend the University of Hawaii then transferred to Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon and completed a B.A. in business administration.  I subsequently went on to the Pacific University College of Optometry and completed the program in 1993.  At that time I had a strong interest in contact lenses and went on to do a residency in contact lens research at CIBA Vision in Duluth, Georgia.  During that same year, I had the opportunity to do a mission to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico with the Amigos group which is a non-profit organization affiliated with Pacific University providing eye care to indigenous peoples of Central America.

Thereafter, I returned to Hawaii to work in private practice but relocated to New England in 1999 upon marriage to my long time Massachusetts suitor.  During my first year in Massachusetts, I decided to do another residency in ocular disease to get further training and to remain independent in my transition to this new state.  I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to do a VAMC Hospital based residency.  I did this at the Brockton and West Roxbury sites, where the focus was primary eye care and geriatric optometry, rotations in pre and post-op management of cataract surgery and LASIK, and precepting students in clinic and labs.