Dr. Willingham is continuing his commitment to lifelong learning by working toward fellowship in the College of Optometrists in Vision Development, which is the national organization for developmental optometrists (sometimes called a binocular vision specialist, neuro-optometrist or behavioral optometrist). He is proud to make his home in South Carolina, where friendly faces and sweet tea abound, and is excited to explore every nook and cranny of Charleston culture, especially food, history, and music, with his wife Abbigail and their two schnauzers, Posey and Perry.
Dr. Willingham’s favorite hobbies are making music, building legos, riding bikes around his neighborhood, beekeeping, and trying new food!
His favorite patient memory happened in residency, when two parents brought in their little girl, who had just started first grade. The little girl was having trouble in school and was undergoing lots of testing because she wasn’t learning to read and was performing very poorly in school. When she was tested for glasses and began to read the letters on the chart with her new prescription, her mother cried, claiming she had assumed her daughter had just not been able to learn to read! Following up with the patient later, with the help of glasses and a program of vision therapy, she was well on the path to catching up and loving school!
