Dr. Valerie Kelly is a Doctor of Optometry and our Chief Optometrist. She examines patients of all ages providing urgent eye care, contact lens fittings, and routine eye exams. She recently celebrated her 20th anniversary at Family Eye Care Center & Optical Gallery.
Dr. Kelly received her undergraduate degree from Emory University in Atlanta and her Doctor of Optometry degree from The Ohio State University. She is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Optometrists and the American Optometric Association.
In her free time, Dr. Kelly enjoys providing animal foster care on behalf of the Lowell Humane Society and volunteers weekly for Happy Tails Animal Shelter. Seasonally she volunteers for Boston Area Gleaners, an organization that harvests surplus crops from local farms and distributes them to local food pantries and food banks. She has also been privileged to travel with volunteer medical missions toprovide eye care to underserved communities abroad. These trips have taken her to Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and the remote Yasawa islands in Fiji.
Some patients experience difficulty wearing contact lenses and may have been told in the past that they are not a good candidate for contact lens wear. Certain eye conditions including keratoconus, astigmatism, dry eyes, post-refractive surgery such as LASIK or presbyopia can make contact lens wear more challenging. Dr. Kelly specializes in and welcomes hard to fit contact lens patients.