KLAWOCK — The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) recently hired optometrist Annelle G. Maygren, OD, to head the SEARHC eye clinic on Prince of Wales Island.

Dr. Maygren comes to SEARHC from Fairbanks, where she spent a year working at Golden North Optics. Before that, she spent eight years working as an optometrist with her father’s optometry practice, Shasta Vision Group, in Mount Shasta, Calif. Dr. Maygren will start seeing Prince of Wales Island optometry patients starting Tuesday, July 31, at the Alicia Roberts Medical Center in Klawock (call 755-4800 to schedule appointments). SEARHC currently is remodeling a new eye clinic space in the Klawock Mall, and Dr. Maygren should move to that office this fall.

“The demand for eye care services on Prince of Wales Island has always exceeded what we could provide with our visiting eye clinics,” said Dr. Pamela Steffes, S’áxt’ Hít Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital Eye Clinic Manager, which had been sending visiting optometrists from Sitka to POW about eight weeks a year. “We are excited to welcome Dr. Maygren to SEARHC to lead the expansion of eye care services on POW.”

“We want to welcome Dr. Maygren to POW,” said Joyce Moore, SEARHC Alicia Roberts Medical Center Clinic Administrator. “We are very excited to be able to start offering optometry services to our patients full time. She will be a huge asset to our SEARHC ARMC team.”

Dr. Maygren holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in chemistry from Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D. She earned her Doctor of Optometry degree (OD) from the Pacific University College of Optometry in Forest Grove, Ore. She is a member of the American Optometric Association, the Alaska Optometric Association and the American Optometric Society.

“I am excited about this opportunity and looking forward to becoming a member of not only the SEARHC family but the communities served,” Dr. Maygren said. “My family and I are very happy to be here.”

Dr. Maygren’s medical interests include general optometry and working with kids. She also enjoys spending time with her husband and three children, hiking and reading.