Brooke Bonilla, OD, has had an untraditional pathway to becoming an optometrist. She joined the Navy in 1997, at just 18 years old. Her parents couldn’t help with college tuition and encouraged her to find a trade. “I was seeking opportunities that my circumstances couldn’t provide me,” Dr. Bonilla recalls. The military seemed like the best way to achieve that. For four years, she served as an electrician on an aircraft carrier. She loved the troubleshooting component of the role. “I would show up with my tool bag, wrench, voltmeter and screwdriver, and I’d fix the problem and move on to the next one.” She didn’t realize then how valuable that would be in her future career as an optometrist. Read More