Emory Eye Center’s newest optometrist, Trenton Gaasch, OD is a self-described Type A personality. Organized. Focused. Always looking for ways to execute with equal parts empathy and control.
“Being in control was a quality that helped me navigate challenges during my adolescence,“ he says “But I also understand the benefits of having someone else in control. It forces you to acclimate, to rely on, and learn from others. I knew that obtaining my professional goals would require collaboration, teamwork, and sometimes relinquishing that control to someone else.”
In Gaasch’s case, that ‘someone else’ was the United States Army, which paid for his optometry education through the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP). In return Gaasch made a three-year commitment to serve as an Army optometrist.
“I was intrigued by the unpredictability, bravery, and camaraderie of other service members,“ he says of the scholarship offer. “It was scary because I didn’t know if I’d end up being deployed or where I might be deployed. But it also meant I’d be traveling to unique places, performing tasks that challenged me.”
However much he loves structure, Trenton Gaasch thrives when he’s outside his comfort zone. The Army gave him a lot to grow on.
As a commissioned officer, he ended up serving as the only optometrist in the US Central Command of the Mid-East, where he provided comprehensive and acute eye care at a combat support hospital. He also worked with physicians to launch a traumatic brain injury unit while serving at Ft. Jackson in South Carolina. And, while he was stationed at Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state, he enrolled in a hybrid program at Dartmouth College (New Hampshire), where he earned a master’s degree in health delivery science last year.
If the Army had become comfortably familiar by this point, graduate school would once again jolt Gaasch.
“I didn’t think I’d get into the [Dartmouth] program because I assumed it was a program for hospital CEOs, and successful health care leaders with more experience than I had,” he says.
“But as an openly gay military provider, who had worked in unique environments, I was able to share my knowledge and learn a lot from industry leaders who shared my desire to improve the healthcare system.”
Gaasch’s graduate school project, “Compassionate Care for All” makes it clear he wasn’t looking for an easy “A.” Among other things, it explores ways that medical training and resources could be improved to cultivate an optimal care delivery model for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Is it, perhaps, Gaasch’s blueprint for the next challenge?
“I am excited about all of the things I will be able to do at Emory – seeing patients, teaching future optometrists, sharing my knowledge of the health care system, and doing research projects with my colleagues,” he says.
“If we’re ever going to change the healthcare system to serve everyone, Emory – a world-renowned institution - would be a great place to start.”
Trenton Gaasch earned his Doctor of Optometry degree in 2016 from the Southern College of Optometry. He will see patients at the Emory Eye Center Optometry Service at Clifton Road starting May 13.
-Kathleen E. Moore