Introducing: Michael Kobayashi, O.D.

An educator and a healer

Sun City Vision Clinic Optometry is very pleased to introduce Dr. Michael Kobayashi to you. Dr. Kobayashi comes to us from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami Beach, Florida which emphasized ocular disease. Before that he examined patients at the Braverman Eye Center specializing in geriatric care and the management of cataracts, diabetes, and macular degeneration. In the Silicon Valley he managed two offices that emphasized the treatment of computer-related visual problems. In the past, he did vision screenings for the school district in the city of San Francisco and provided all the vision care at Valley State Prison and Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, CA. As team optometrist for Team USA, (which included former undefeated UFC middleweight champion Frank Shamrock), Dr. Kobayashi has treated many cases of ocular trauma related to sports injuries.

Dr. Kobayashi lectures on "Dry Eye" for senior citizens groups and has given lectures regarding ocular safety and ocular trauma at numerous martial arts schools in California.

Dr. Kobayashi is a member of the American Optometric Association, California Optometric Association, San Joaquin Optometric Society; AOA Sports Vision section, Optometric Extension Program, International Academy of Sports Vision..

Dr. Kobayashi was a board member of the Japanese American Citizen's League of San Francisco Chapter (a civil rights activist group), a board member of Eth-noh-tec (a non-profit educational arts organization), a co-chair for the Kenko No Hi Health Fair (a health fair providing services for seniors in San Francisco), a board member for the Michael Futagaki Memorial Scholarship (a scholarship to provide an Asian American a chance to work in the music industry), has helped to organize fundraisers for Kimochi (a non-profit senior service organization in San Francisco). On the personal side Mike is a central valley native. He was born in Fresno and raised in Merced. Many of his summers were spent working on his grandparent's farm. He graduated from Merced High School and received a BS in Anthropology from UC Davis. He spent most of his extra time in Davis teaching at a local music store, teaching as many as thirty lessons a week.

Now in his spare time away from the office he works in Hollywood as a stuntman/actor. He has worked with actors such as Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Jon Heder (Napolean Dynamite), Michelle Rodriquez, and Robert Forester. He has also done ads for Taco Bell and "3" Wireless. When asked why he became an Optometrist he replied, "I am a small town boy. I treat every patient like I would a family member or neighbor. The best part of being an optometrist is talking to all the patients. I truly enjoy people. While working in the prison system what I heard the most from patients was, ' thank you for treating me like a person'. It does not matter who you are, everyone should be treated with respect. I feel that I am a good teacher and I try to educate my patients regarding their health. I want them to know how their eyes are doing."

The staff at Sun City Vision Clinic Optometry believe they are fortunate to have a Doctor who feels this way. We hope you take the opportunity to benefit from his expertise too!

To read about our other staff and doctors, click here.

Optical Staff

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Written for Our Blog on May 14, 2014