07/08/2025
Leadership 2025 with Keenan Anderson
This year’s Leadership Conference was a very historic event. This marked the 40th Leadership Conference and the beginning of a new era of opticianry. Today, I would like to share my experience with all of you, but before that, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Keenan Anderson. I am a licensed optician currently working for Eyenstein’s Optical in Lakewood, Ohio. I am newly licensed having attained my license in November of 2024. This year’s leadership conference is the second one I have been to. Having said that, I think I will have some valuable insight for students, apprentices, and newly licensed opticians about going to leadership for the first time, as I was in the same position as many of you only a year ago.
2025’s Leadership Conference was held in Louisville, Kentucky. I am not that well travelled outside the state of Ohio, so the location was very new to me. I decided to drive to the city due to it being only 5 hours from my home in Cleveland. I was lucky enough to win the UOA/HOYA grant for the conference (which I highly recommend doing if you are a student, apprentice, or newly licensed optician) which was very beneficial and a lovely idea for the UOA to sponsor newcomers. The grant essentially paid for my whole stay there. The costs associated with booking the room to registration and even if you required a flight to the city were all paid for through the grant.