Mary Beth Taylor-Racine's story begins with her growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, with fond memories of her grandmother's house on the shores of Lake Superior. Working as a receptionist in an optometry practice, it was an optician she worked with who inspired her to move to southern Ontario to attend Georgian College for opticianry. Since then, she has lived in London, Guelph and Cambridge for work.
After 10 years at home raising her children, a fateful conversation with a stranger at a wedding brought Taylor-Racine back into the realm of opticianry and to the School. She shared with the stranger that she was an optician, and they shared that the Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science was hiring a casual optician.
Taylor-Racine waited a couple of weeks before trying the number given to her by the stranger. She explained that she had been at home and did not feel up to date but wanted to return to the field. On March 11, 2004, she started working at the School twice a week. Within two years, she was working four days a week and looking for more ways to contribute to the work being done in the clinic. Beyond her role as an optician, Taylor-Racine has been involved in everything from operating the Heidelberg Retinal Tomographer (HRT) for the Ocular Health Services glaucoma screening, to assisting with contact lens studies at the Centre for Ocular Research and Education (CORE).
