An Alumnus Takes Down Barriers to Eye Care

Pictured: Dean Hart gives an athlete custom-made eyeglass at the 2016 Summer Special Olympics at the College at Brockport in New York.

Involved in civic affairs since childhood, Dean Hart, OD (B.S. ’82), remembers standing with his father during a protest of the Vietnam War. He also attended marches to support civil rights for African Americans in the 1960s.

“When you see a need for something, you can either do nothing about it, or you can do something to try to improve the situation,” Hart says. “My parents brought me up to be an activist.”

Now an optometrist, Hart, who graduate from the State University of New York College of Optometry in 1987, has continued this theme of service and humanitarianism throughout his adult life, donating time and resources to provide eye care for people in poverty-stricken areas locally and around the world.

“Half of the people in the world who need glasses either can’t afford them or don’t live in a place with the technology to make them,” says Hart, who has traveled on medical missions to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and other locations. “A pair of glasses seems like something you should be able to have if you need them, and I have the skillset to help with that.”

Hart’s volunteerism also includes work in the United States, such as eye care at the Special Olympics, where he discovered the need for advocacy for people who could not give informed consent for medical procedures. Serving as part of a panel of doctors and lawyers on the New York State Surrogate Decision-Making Committee, Hart helped determine whether it was ethical to anesthetize certain patients for dental or colonoscopy procedures.

“People born developmentally disabled are typically unable to understand why they have pain in their tooth, why they’re getting a drill in their mouth. But it’s bioethically important to relieve pain, so the state of New York accepts this group’s evaluation as valid informed medical consent when there are no relatives for decision-making,” says Hart, who earned a degree in bioethics from Columbia University in 2021. “We would meet the patient, look at their medical records, and decide whether the care of the tooth problem outweighed the risks of anesthesia.”

In addition to volunteer work, Hart founded a private group ophthalmic practice and specializes in treating visually impaired patients and other underserved populations. (He treated Medicaid patients at no charge, saying, “Money shouldn’t be a barrier to medical care.”) Hart also has held several academic positions, including as founder and director of a low-vision clinic at Columbia University’s teaching hospital, Harlem Hospital.

His desire to improve people’s vision began at New York Institute of Technology, where, with the help of a marketing professor, he developed a plan for a small business: selling eyeglasses on campus. Much to his professor’s disappointment, Hart did not pursue the idea—but the experience influenced his career in both business and science.

“New York Tech gave me the rare opportunity to mature academically,” he says. “It gave me confidence and a new outlook on academic pursuits.”

As he has gotten older, Hart has dedicated more time to scholarly activities, currently working toward a Master of Public Health at New York University and emphasizing the need to make healthcare more equitable and just.

“Everything I learn is to improve life for the next generation,” Hart says. “I can’t cure the world, but maybe I can cure a little spot for a day.”