[00:00:00] Aric Tucker: this episode is brought to you by the new D nine Business Directory. Shot Greek-owned brands from a variety of categories. And if you are Greek, author or business owner at your profile today at D nine business dot com honoring those Trailblazers who preceded us is just as important as leaving a legacy for those who will follow us. Greek Lee speaking, is about highlighting Greeks today who are creating positive change for tomorrow. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Yeah, hi. Welcome to Greekly Speaking. I'm Aric Tucker, and joining me for this episode is Doctor Ansel Johnson of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity incorporated. Dr. Johnson was initiated in the Lambda Omicron chapter of Phi Beta Sigma. In 1979 he received his doctor of optometry degree from the New England College of Optometry in Boston, Massachusetts, along with postgraduate certification from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He's the founder and clinical director of the Vision Salon in Blue Island, Illinois. Please welcome to Greekly Speaking, Dr Johnson, Thank you for joining us. How are you doing today?

[00:01:20] Dr. Johnson: Fantastic. Aric. Just blessed. Tremendously privileged to be sitting here with you.

[00:01:26] Aric Tucker: Hey, it's a the privileges, all ours, man. I'm glad you're able to make it. You know, we connected recently on social media. We saw some content that you post it and some of the things you're trying to do as far as vision and health awareness in the community. And we said we had to reach out, man, And just connect with you for some good information and health-wise and learn a little bit more about your brand and the services you're providing in that Chicago land area. But first, as we do on Greekly Speaking, we have to know who we're dealing with a little bit about your Greek background. Man, Did you have any Greek influences coming up?

[00:02:02] Dr. Johnson: Actually, no. Neither one of my parents, even though they want to HPCs uh, we're, uh, black Greek letter organizations. So this is organic. And it Eleanor Westlund. It's a PW I where we We just had an opportunity, actually, I'm the charter on the charter line and charter president of our undergrad line, and it was just an opportunity to just do something special. Looking at the values and philosophy of Phi Beta Sigma, the founders It's just tremendous. And as we learned, there were 12 of in our lives in our school again, less than 3% African AmArican student body. But 12 African AmArican men, young men to come together to, uh, start a chapter was historical. And, uh, we'd like to think that we set the bar real high because out of our line or 12, we have five doctors and everybody is a professional. So from orthopedic surgery, the anesthesiology we have three and three optometrists. So we're really proud of that. And, uh, of course, we all still keep in touch. And it was just a tremendous opportunity. We about a mile and a half down the street from my state chapter. And so we had a little bond and, uh, it was interesting were the taller chapter, so they'd have Greek games to the United States, and they recruit us to play for them for their Greek games. Because again, I'm number 10. I'm 62 behind me was 64 and then we had 65 behind that. So it was real fun playing as a combined chapter in the Greek Games, and one might say it was very, very competitive. And so there was a lot of fun, So But we did. We did something real interesting and some really good things.

[00:03:53] Aric Tucker: Hey, that's that's great, man. So 10 deep 12. So what was the name of the line?

[00:03:59] Dr. Johnson: It says First

[00:04:01] Aric Tucker: s first since your charter. Okay, love it. Look. And what was your line name

[00:04:08] Dr. Johnson: and believe it. Not because I'm small in stature, but aunt, and we'll leave it at

[00:04:13] Aric Tucker: that. You know, uh, with those folks who played the old school, they end up using that phrase a lot. We'll leave it at

[00:04:21] Dr. Johnson: that. In my greeting, I go by dark thunder chocolate Wonder the biology progeny destined for Tom a tree. So I like that I still remember. Say

[00:04:36] Aric Tucker: that one more time,

[00:04:37] Dr. Johnson: Big brother. Dark thunder, You chocolate Wonder the biology progeny destined for optometry. Big brother, that makes the Alfa shake Kappas Quake. It turns cute dogs into pups. That was my greeting. Old school? Yeah, old school.

[00:04:55] Aric Tucker: I thought you would go to add Big Brother Dean Almighty or the end of that. But that's all right, man. Hey, I love it. That is so far the number one greedy that we have heard of Greek Lee speaking at, uh, we're going to have to come up with a spin off just to dive deeper into those, uh, scenarios, man. But that's that's wonderful. That's

[00:05:14] Dr. Johnson: wonderful, man. What was your What was your what

[00:05:19] Aric Tucker: was your greeting? Uh, yeah, we won't give it to buy, because this is all about you. So what came first, man? Your your passion for sigma your passion for optometry.

[00:05:28] Dr. Johnson: Wow. Well, I was a sigma first, right? So But I was obviously I was interested in being a enough time interest, too. And like I said, it was to be something special to I think we all try to be asset to our organization, and and there was a means to do that. I love what I do. I'm very passionate. One of the things that got me into optometry was that out of 25,000 of challenges at the time, were talking again in the mid eighties late seventies, there only 400 African AmArican optometrist, and now there's still less than 1000 out of 45,000 in the country. So we make up less than 2% of that professional. But yet I care, and I issues going to touch everybody every life, eventually, right? So even if you've never had glasses all your life eventually getting into the forties fifties and the computer stuff, you might need a little help in. So just also ties into our overall health. Diabetes is one of the leading cause of blindness. Glaucoma is one of the leading cause of blindness and arcs community. There are a lot of our Children, uh, that are in schools that have visually related learning problems, even though they might pass the screening seen 2020. So in terms of impact on our community lifestyle, we touch people every day. And unfortunately, growing up and throughout life, many of us have never seen an eye doctor that looks like them. And so that's what I'm passionate about, giving us the highest level of care. We have a very technologically advanced practice where we have technologies and diagnostic instrumentation to manage my disease. I problems that a lot of the teaching institutions of large major clinics and hospitals don't utilize on a regular basis, and studies show, and this is documented. It's not any big secret that African AmArican patients do better with African AmArican doctors. There's a study out of California that no black patients to see black cardiologist tend to do better, less hospitalization and live longer so that that's documented. And so now my passion I looked at as an opportunity because they were so very few of us, and to get to enhance people's lives every day. There, there, everyday quality of life. Now we got to play it forward and help lift up other people and to at least look at this field if you're considering it. Because, for example, in Chicago area where I am located when I started my practice here, probably about 25 30 African AmArican owned independent practices. Now there's only four of us. So people I tell that to people's like, Wow, how did that happen? Well, uh, again, people aren't used to seeing black eye doctors, and don't think about it. So, um, and a lot of the schools have not done a really good job in terms of their diversity equity and inclusion. And so those are things that were demanding. Now, with my vendors and on all different levels, be it the Technician Side, too. Being sales Rep. Pharmaceutical reps to being selling frames. One of the things we're looking at we are. We're the first office in the Chicago area. White Black agreement to bring back food, white wear for us by us Damon Johnson re released his brand in in that Glass, so we want to make sure the word gets out on that brand, and we're looking at bringing in some additional ones. Another one is Coco and Breezy. His two sisters out of New York, D. J. Said it had a phenomenal looking looking friend, and so we're looking to expand that, and and so we're looking for young people that are interested in the sciences in terms of being a doctor. It's four years after college and an additional one year residency, but again, the opportunities are tremendous.

[00:09:12] Aric Tucker: You know, I think you touched on a key point. You know, a lot of us as Children based, are set of options on what we see, right. I mean, and if we see examples of people in these various fields that leave that impression upon us, right, we're more apt to, you know, add that to the list of options. And, you know, I commend you for, you know, and I heard you speak on your passion about, you know, helping our community in particular. And you you're actually located not far from where I grew up in Chicago. I was like, Man, that's pretty close to where I actually grew up. And I and I wish we had the option at that time of of of going to different doctors in various fields that we're actually closer to us more accessible, right? And and that could actually provide that level of care. And, uh, that was not the case back then. So I commend you. And you've been doing this since 1990 in that area, What have you seen? As far as trends, you're obviously really close to the community. Are you seeing an increasing awareness of health in your particular space?

[00:10:20] Dr. Johnson: Short answer is no. There's so many deficits. I mean, if you just look at the covid 19 situation, there's something we've always known that there's been health disparities and things of that nature in our community. But it's just really brought it to the forefront. And in people's faces, you know, we're dying more from covid the bottom line. We're just dying from lack of knowledge and lack of understanding. And basically, when you break it down to people, this is operational situation. In our office, we ask for your medical and your vision insurance. Most people what you need a medical insurance for it. Well, because if I see something going on in your eyes, possibility of stroke or bleeding in the back of the eyes, and I need to do some more in depth evaluation that falls under your medical insurance. So we need both parts so we can maximize your own benefits. Whereas a lot of our people are going to corporate places where the business model is just simply to sell your glasses and they don't get all deep into the other stuff, they may refer you out. You know, if something serious looks like, you know, might be in jeopardy, which is fine. But we like your primary care provider for the eyes, and we connect with your primary care physician. We connect with your if you're living with diabetes with the endocrinologist cardiologist, we communicate and let them know, Hey, this is what we're seeing what's going on in guys or their blood pressure. We catch so many people, we checked blood pressures and people are surprised. Why do you check your blood pressure? Just came in here and get a pair of glasses. Well, I guess you'd be surprised the people that we have found with extremely high blood pressure and we're totally unaware of it. So or at high risk for stroke or diabetes, or even autoimmune disease like sarcoidosis or Lupus, because their eyes are dry and those can be some of the very early signs of that. But a lot of I doctors don't talk to their patients on that level and try to connect those dots. Yeah, we can help you look good with some nice glasses from U Boot or Coco and Breezy, but understand the other aspect of it. Other things that people don't hear about his. They're different lenses you can get for the computer other than your regular, no line by photos or the whole thing reading. So there's a lot of specialty treatments on your lenses that can help enhance your lifestyle and make things a little bit more comfortable. People are getting zoom fatigue and eye strain. And you know, I'm prescribing a lot of glasses for kids that normally would not have to, but they're on the computer remote learning so much so again, we touched so many aspects of people's lives, and unfortunately, people don't run into that real often. But again, we're trying to play it forward and just build awareness. So that's why I get excited about the opportunity to share my passion and what we do, you know, and and let people know. Uh, you might not be in Chicago, but guess what? There might be an African AmArican optometrist in your area in your city, and there are their feelings all over the country that we can steer folks, too.

[00:13:14] Aric Tucker: I would love it if we could help share that list of resources because we're now in a climate where I think a lot of people have a greater interest in supporting black business owners and and keeping the black dollar in the black community a little bit longer. Um, then it has been traditionally, and for me personally, one thing that I just just reflected on all my visits to optometrists. I've rarely seen an optometrist that wore glasses. I can't think of a better way to support vision Health that with an optometrist who actually proven that vision health is reported. You know, I like the frames that you rocket right now. Man, that's classy. So you know, the other thing that you touched on was diabetes, and we know there's a correlation between vision, health and diabetes, and you're also one of the founders of knockout diabetes, Right? Tell us a little bit about that organization, and what it does

[00:14:09] Dr. Johnson: well are not gonna. Diabetes Program is actually a nationally certified diabetes education program that we have in our office. I treat diabetes classes. I have a registered pharmacist, and I have a certified dietitian and and basically being nationally certified. That means people can usually get paid for it through their insurance. But we are the only I care facility with that type of program in the state-owned and one of two in the country. There's a sister by the name of Paula Newsome, who's the Delta in Charlotte, North Carolina, and both of us have certified programs only two in the country, and both of us are black owned, right, so that just shows our commitment to really taking it to another level. So most of the time when people are told that they are living with diabetes or that they're borderline most of the time, they are not referred to a diabetes education program. Most of those programs in your large hospitals are large clinic situations. Well, we have a little bit more flexibility. We can do it in the evenings. We can do it on Saturdays. We could do it remotely so we have a little bit more flexibility with people, uh, in terms of meeting them where they are with this program. And it's also documented and shown that once people have gone to, uh through a diabetes education program, you know, 34 sessions or more if needed, they can control their blood sugars better. They can lose weight better, because then they kind of know the mechanics. Most people say, Well, I know what I'm supposed to eat better and also the exercise, but they're not. Where people stumble at is that step-by-step process to do it instead of just trying to join the gym or go to a boot camp and lose a whole lot of weight quickly. But then how do you maintain it? It's about lifestyle change, and it's not about well, I can't eat this. I can't eat that well, a lot of times you can't eat some of the stuff you were eating. It's just portion control and turning that corner and moving that in in that direction. The big thing now is vegan. You know, a lot of people want are going vegan, which is a very, very healthy, very useful means of losing weight. Everyone might not want to do that, But again, if we can move the needle more in that direction, it's going to help you different supplements and just giving people guidelines on how to live your best life. It's not a death sentence when you told your living with diabetes and catch it early and deal with it earlier. So another thing we deal with when patients are told that they're borderline or watch the sugar, that's when it really should be addressed, uh, more strongly and and again we just lose 5 to 7% of your body weight. You can sometimes even avoid getting fulfilling diabetes where you have to buy medications and pay, copays and all of that. So again, we're just taking it to a whole nother level because of our commitment to our patients in our community.

[00:16:54] Aric Tucker: I think right now they're going to be a lot of people in our audience listening to this that wish you were their primary care physician because just that information alone and the fact that you're willing to share all these other aspect of health and wellness, right? And some of it is, hey, you know, treating, you know, specific conditions or symptoms. But, you know, a lot of this can be prevented with the proper amount of awareness. And I think you touched on that. But a lot of people don't feel comfortable sharing everything. You know, A lot of a lot of us brothers don't want to go for these checkups and things like that. But I think once you increase that comfort level to your point that you made, if I see more people that look like me, you know that increases the comfort which increases my participation in my own wellness. Right? So talk to me a little bit about the other organization that you found it. The healthy living with a vision.

[00:17:44] Dr. Johnson: Yeah. You know, to whom much is given, much is required that that's what we say at our church. And and so this kind of falls from our diabetes education program or not got diabetes. So a lot of times people, their insurance would not cover it or they don't have insurance coverage or we're out of network for them. It's like, Wow, there's a whole bunch of people out here that need this. How can we help people get this education? Because I still got to pay my diabetes education, right? So I started not for profit called healthy living with the vision. And the initial impetus of that was to raise funds to help pay and provide scholarships for people to have diabetes education to help them live their best lives. And, uh, our, uh, day, which we get tax I D. Number was Juneteenth 6 1920 20. So what better day can we have is our start date, But Simpsons? We really expanded that. So our basic mission is to eliminate health care disparities in the African AmArican community. So with that being said, it's not just diabetes Now, Now we've had some virtual town hall meetings on the Covid 19 situation and the vaccines. One of our board members and I got to say, This is not just me, but we have a phenomenal board is an African AmArican physician that is board certified in immunology and allergy. So same credentials as Dr Fauci. So he's our black Dr Fauci and he's conducted well. We probably had about five or six of these town hall meetings, virtual town hall meetings with huge success and growing, you know, listenership. So and then we're also another project that we have on that, and we just found out today we have Comcast who's one of our major sponsors coming on board. But we also, um, I just did a town hall meeting on low vision. People are legally blind to think they can't do anything, can't see they can't, you know, like Dr. But there's so many things they can do to enhance their lifestyle and vision and function normally. Uh, just because your normal Eurovision seven or it's not just reduced, so there's that we're going to do another one on Lupus and sarcoidosis, so it's really in our community. We just don't have the knowledge, and we want to be a conduit to get that knowledge out to the to the community, and and and we're committed to doing that. So that's another exciting passion. Uh, that I have and one other one is to bring more African AmAricans into our our field. We have poses out there, too lit our undergrad. You know, we have undergrad chapters to divine nine as well as our own organization all over the country and those that are interested in medical and health care professions need to look at optometry, and we can kind of help walk you through that and into that process. If you're interested, those that are are listening to hear because their scholarship money is out there. Some of these schools are finally getting their attention. Wow, you know, all the other ethnic groups have increased in their percentage. So we asked some, Well, what's the minority population of your school? What's 50%? How many of them are African AmAricans? Oh, then you get crickets, right? So now we're asking what what's the number for us? Because that's what we need to impact to impact our health and our community. better

[00:21:05] Aric Tucker: you've You've been recognized by Black Enterprise magazine as one of AmArica's leading 101 African AmArican doctors, and and I can see why, man. I mean, when you have passion, I think it adds to what you're able to accomplish professionally and, as far as you know, in the community. And that's a wonderful thing to see. That's a great example. So we appreciate that for those folks in that Chicago land area, where can they find you again?

[00:21:34] Dr. Johnson: Located at 1 to 812 Southwestern Avenue in Blue Island were just outside the South City limits of Chicago, You know, New Year old neighborhood. So we drop people from the North Side Chicago West suburb South suburbs, so we're pretty easy to get to. Our phone number is 708 38500137083850013 And when in doubt, you can always find us on the Web at www dot vision salon dot com. Vision salon dot com were also on social media Facebook Instagram, Twitter V S. I care under Twitter, and if you Google a vision salon, you'll find this.

[00:22:19] Aric Tucker: Hey, I love it. Dr. Ansel Johnson with the vision salon and that Chicago land area in Blue Island, Illinois. Thank you so much for the information and for spending a few minutes with us here on GreekLy Speaking. I'm looking forward to hearing more about what you have going on with your foundations. So keep us posted, okay? And let us know if there's anything we can do to help support and promote anything you have going on. Okay.

[00:22:45] Dr. Johnson: Well, definitely. Thank you so very much. And you be blessed,