G.I. native brings eyecare to Aurora
Dr. Emily Laub will be joining the optometrist staff at Eyecare Professionals, brining her services to its facility in Aurora.
Laub grew up in Grand Island with her brother, Emmett and is the daughter of Grand Island firefighter captain Brad Laub and Barb Laub, a dental hygienist at Doniphan Dental Services.
Following her graduation from Northwest High School in 2016, Laub attended the University of Nebraska-Kearney with the desire to work in the medical field and find her life’s calling.
“When I was shadowing, I was seeing the patient relationships as optometrists and we get to know them and it just really appealed to me,” Laub said. “It was a mixture of medicine, knowing these patients and helping them see it all just came together and it just sounded amazing.”
In addition to being an honors student all four years at UNK, she was an active member with the university’s Pride of the Plains Marching Band.
Following her graduation from UNK with a bachelor in science in 2020, she attended Northeastern State University Oklahoma’s College of Optometry in Tahlequah.
In her new role, Laub will provide vision tests and eye exams to help fit patients with the right glasses and contacts they need.
“The medical side of things was huge because, though it interested me, being a general physician didn’t quite appeal to me and then that mixture of helping people see and then managing a lot of medical conditions, I loved it,” she said.
During her studies she was astonished by the work that awaited her.
“I was most surprised just by the fact that optometry has both eyeglasses and contacts and medical components, how much that entailed and how much the classroom worked with it,” she explained. “Learning all the details and what’s expected of you, how exactly contacts work, how to pick the right contacts and glasses for patients and all the small medical components, then bringing that all together in the exam room for every patient is different.”
The complexity of each case is what motivates her in her work.
“The complexity and how many details there were, it was very surprising to me, but at the end of the day it’s just makes me more excited to do it,” she stated. “Every patient is different, every person is different and it’s not going to be repetitive at all. It’s going to be something new every day and the sheer complexity of eyes has always blown me away.”
Prior to her graduating with a Doctor of Optometry in May, she with met with Dr. Dawn and Dr. Jason Langford of Eyecare Professionals in Grand Island who offered her a place of work with Eyecare Professionals.
“I’m going to be focusing on primary care as I get established and get to know people,” Laub stated. “Potentially, I might look into like specialty contact lenses, a lot of it is medical management that will be included in primary care as well.”
While Laub will be focusing on primary care when she starts this month, she shared that she also learned laser procedures during her time in Oklahoma, which is currently not a “part of the Nebraska scope of practice at this time.”
“Eventually, if it does become part of the scope of practice, that would be something I would love to do,” she commented.
Laub begins her work at Eyecare Professionals in Grand Island on June 17 and will begin her practice in Aurora on June 20. She will be scheduled to work in Aurora Thursdays and Fridays, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with the rest of the week being spent in Grand Island.
Outside of her upcoming work in Grand Island and Aurora, Laub enjoys being in the outdoors with her hobbies including fishing, camping and gardening.
Joining Laub in her return to Nebraska is her fiance, Robert Layne, who previously lived in Fort Smith, Ark. Coming back home to Grand Island, Laub expressed joy for working in the familiarity of her hometown, but also the excitement of getting to know more about Aurora.
“I haven’t been to Aurora a lot, but I hear nothing but good things about it,” she commented. “I’m really excited to have a different office, have my own separate patients in Aurora and get to know the people there and learn a lot about the town.
She also shared excitement in working with her new team in at Eyecare Professionals.