Matt was raised in Richfield, Idaho. As the second of eleven children, he learned to eat quickly before the food was gone!

 

He grew up without glasses, although he realizes now that he needed them by at least age 10 when he couldn’t catch the baseball in the outfield anymore. In high school, he had to ask the coach what the score was during timeouts because he couldn’t see the scoreboard. Finally, he got glasses and contacts and his basketball shooting percentage improved. 

 

After high school he spent some time in India helping surgeons at eye camps prepare blind patients for life-changing cataract surgery. He didn’t settle on optometry as his career choice until he proposed to his wife and she asked how he planned to support their future family. He quickly responded that he would be an optometrist because he thought that would impress her. He attended Ricks College, Brigham Young University, and graduated from Pacific University College of Optometry. 

 

He has practiced in various locations throughout the Magic and Wood River Valleys since graduating as a doctor of optometry in 2005. He established Little Wood Vision Clinic in Shoshone in 2016 to bring quality eye care to rural Lincoln County.