You're an optometry professor at an optometry school — teaching, supervising clinical training, and often continuing to practice. Half academic faculty, half practicing optometrist.
Most days tend to involve a blend of classroom teaching, clinical supervision, and continued clinical practice — leading didactic content, supervising students in the teaching clinic, and seeing your own patients. You'll often spend part of the time on scholarly work — research, case work, or curriculum development — that academic optometry expects.
The harder part is often balancing the multiple demands of teaching, clinical care, and scholarship in a field where the scope of optometric practice continues to expand and curriculum needs to keep up. You'll typically work with students at varied clinical readiness, while staying credible clinically and in the literature.
People who tend to thrive here are clinically expert, scholarly, and patient with the long arc of academic optometry. The trade-off is the salary differential between academic and private optometry practice and the cumulative work of academic responsibilities. If you find satisfaction in shaping the next generation of optometrists, the work can carry meaning that pure clinical practice doesn't.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
You're an optometry professor at an optometry school — teaching, supervising clinical training, and often continuing to practice. Half academic faculty, half practicing optometrist.
Median pay for an Optometry Professor is about $106K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $52K to $208K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Instructing, Active Learning, and Learning Strategies.
Most people in this role hold a master's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 17.3% through 2034, with roughly 229,720 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Health Teacher, First Aid Teacher, and Clinical Instructor.
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