President's Report (Q3 2026)

Just Say Yes

As I begin my year as President of the Florida Optometric Association, I want to start by saying thank you.

Thank you to everyone who joined us “Down the Shore” and to the members who continue to give their time, energy, and ideas to our association. Thank you to our local societies, our Board of Trustees, our volunteers, and especially to the FOA staff and support team in Tallahassee who work behind the scenes every day to keep our organization moving.

And a special thank you to Dr. Nate Etten for his leadership this past year and for everything he has done to help prepare us for the year ahead.

Leadership is never a one-year job. Each president builds on the work of those who came before, and I am grateful for the foundation that has been handed to me. Now, it is our turn to build on it.

At our convention, I shared a story about being handed a box of brownie mix and an unexpected obligation to host a jewelry party. At the time, that box represented something much bigger and much scarier in my mind than it ever really was. I worried about it, stressed about it, and allowed it to take up far more space in my mind than it ever deserved.

Sometimes, I think we do the exact same thing with the challenges facing our profession. We see something unfamiliar or complex, and we immediately imagine a massive, overwhelming commitment. We focus on what we don’t know, how much time it might take, or what could go wrong. Before we know it, we've turned a simple box of brownies into a mountain.

As we look toward the year ahead, we are heading into an incredibly important legislative session with a tremendous opportunity in front of us. I don’t want this session to become our box of brownies.

This Is Our Year

• Our year to advance optometry.
• Our year to remove barriers between our doctors and our patients.
• Our year to have a greater voice in how we practice.
• Our year to take ownership of where our profession goes next.

The future of optometry has never been shaped by one person saying yes. It has been shaped by generations of optometrists who were willing to step forward and say yes when our profession needed them. Now, it’s our turn to say yes.

And saying yes doesn’t mean doing everything. We don’t need every optometrist to host the whole party!

You don’t have to know every bill or every legislator. You simply have to know why what we do matters—because you know your patients. You know your practice. And you know the barriers that stand between them and the care they deserve. When hundreds of Florida optometrists use their voices, those voices become impossible to ignore.

So this year, I’m asking each of you to find your yes. Maybe it’s a big yes. Maybe it’s a small one. It doesn’t matter. Every yes moves us forward.

Make the call. Send the email. Show up. Share your story. Advocate for your patients. Support your profession. Bring another colleague along with you.

Let’s not be intimidated by the box of brownies. Let’s each bring our piece, help one another along the way, and move Florida optometry forward—together.

This is our year. Just say yes.

Susan LaGreca Beck, O.D.

FOA President