Dr. John Kingsley graduated from UMSL’s College of Optometry in 2023 and recently joined Vision Specialists in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo courtesy of Dr. John Kingsley)
When Dr. John Kingsley bumped into Dr. Kyle Cheatham and Dr. Jordan Keith at Lambert International Airport last fall, it felt like fate.
Kingsley, who had been practicing as an optometrist at Becherer & Associates in Swansea, Illinois, for the past two years, first met Cheatham while studying at the University of Missouri–St. Louis College of Optometry. A 2023 graduate, Kingsley served as president of UMSL’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Optometrists and sometimes brought in guest speakers for the local chapter. When Kingsley mentioned to one of the speakers that he hoped to return to his native Nebraska after graduation, he was connected to Cheatham, who served on the FCO’s Board of Directors.
Kingsley was well aware of Cheatham, who co-founded KMK Optometry, one of the country’s leading boards exam preparation services. Cheatham is also the founder of Vision Specialists in Omaha, Nebraska, and wound up interviewing Kingsley over Zoom for a position at the practice. Cheatham and Kingsley clicked, but Kingsley and his wife ultimately decided to stay in St. Louis a bit longer, so he put the job at Vision Specialists out of his head – until he ran into Cheatham a few years later.
When they reconnected at the airport, Kingsley, Cheatham and Keith – who also practices at Vision Specialists – discussed how things were going at the practice. Kingsley later flew down to Omaha for an interview and was offered a job in May. He and his wife and daughter relocated over the summer, and he officially started practicing at Vision Specialists earlier this month. It was a full-circle moment for Kingsley.
“Probably 90 to 98% of optometry students use KMK, so when I was in school, I literally listened to Kyle teach me on videos for about a year straight, which was pretty cool,” Kingsley said. “Now, I get to be working alongside some of the experts in the field, which is a really special opportunity. I’m definitely looking forward to that.”
Kingsley is excited to learn from Cheatham and Keith and have them as mentors. Having grown up in Kearney, Nebraska, and earned his bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he’s also excited to plant some roots in his home state. Originally, he thought he’d follow in his dad’s footsteps and become an MD, but it wasn’t until his senior year of undergrad on the pre-med track that he finally admitted to himself that it wasn’t what he really wanted. He still wanted to pursue a career in health care, however, and shadowing Dr. Kevin Trummel at Lawrence Family Vision in Lawrence, Kansas, helped him see a path for himself in optometry.
“He is just a fantastic, amazing optometrist,” Kingsley said of the UMSL optometry alum. “He kind of sold me on the career. The way that he was with his patients was just absolutely incredible; you could tell that he genuinely cared about every single one of them. I’m a very detail-oriented person, but I’m also very personable; I really enjoy one-on-one conversations with people. Through shadowing him, it was like, ‘Okay, I can kind of combine these two aspects of my personality with optometry.’”
Kingsley enjoyed the family feel of UMSL’s College of Optometry, with its smaller class sizes, and felt immediately welcomed by the students and faculty he interacted with during his interview. He believes experience is the best teacher and said that his fourth-year externships at the UMSL Patient Care Center, the Family Care Health Centers of Carondelet, Mulqueeny Eye Centers, Tomasino Goerss Vision Source and Saint Louis University Eye Institute helped solidify his skills and prepare him to practice in the real world.
While Kingsley acknowledges that optometry school often felt overwhelming at times, leading to periods of self-doubt, the moments of personal connection that he’s had with patients over the past two years have reaffirmed to him that he made the right decision. While working at Becherer & Associates, for instance, he saw a heavily geriatric population with a high prevalence of ocular disease. In particular, one patient with a high-risk case stands out – on Kingsley’s last day, the patient said he wanted to give him a hug to thank him for all he had done.
“A patient saying that just makes it worth it,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to listen to patients who just lost a spouse, or a lady who lost a son and is crying in my chair. It’s not every patient, certainly, but getting the opportunity to offer a listening ear, pray for them and just be there for them is a special moment. There’s such a special relationship between doctor and patient; they’re willing to open up to you. And I love having that privilege.”
