Jessica Barr, COMT, ROUB

Meet Jessica Barr, COMT, ROUB. Like so many others before her, she found herself entering the health care field in an unlikely way, simply needing a job that offered health insurance. She was offered a job as a visual field technician, fell in love with ophthalmology, and the rest is history, as they say.

Jessica was in college at the time, so she changed her major from fine arts to pre-med and was certified as an Ophthalmic Assistant (COA) just two years later. After becoming certified, she was recruited by a practice in Florida and went on to achieve certification as an Ophthalmic Technician (COT) at the University of Miami. Jessica moved back to her hometown of Philadelphia after her children were born and started working at the University of Pennsylvania. She continued to learn and study and successfully achieved certification as an Ophthalmic Medical Technologist (COMT) and also as a Registered Ophthalmic Ultrasound Biometrist (ROUB)!

Jessica's hunger to learn and grow has not stopped. She is on the Board of Directors for Philadelphia Regional Ophthalmic Society (PROS), Association of Technical Personnel in Ophthalmology (ATPO) and The Wills Eye Hospital Online Knowledge Portal. She has been an instructor at over 20 JCAHPO-accredited lectures and workshops all over the country and is an adjunct professor and program co-director for the COT program at Camden County College.

"Making a difference in people's lives is one of the most rewarding parts of the job", says Jessica. She takes pride in her ability to calm, comfort, and give people hope and is now growing that care by teaching and mentoring her fellow technicians and leading by example. Looking forward to completing her bachelor's degree in health care administration, Jessica sees herself in a higher level administrative position in the future, as well as continuing to be an educator. Last year Jessica began working as the Clinical Supervisor for the Division of Ophthalmology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she oversees 8 technicians for a group of physicians.

Jessica is a great example of how ambition and hard work really do pay off. She made some short term investments early in her career and she is definitely seeing the return on those investments.

Thank you Jessica for your dedication and contributions!

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