Claudine Kawabata, OD

Education

Bio

Dr. Kawabata gained her interest in eye care through her need for glasses since the first grade and through her maternal grandmother’s frequent trips to see a glaucoma specialist. Upon her graduation from high school, Dr. Kawabata went on to attend the University of Hawaii then transferred to Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration. She subsequently went to the Pacific University College of Optometry where she was awarded her doctorate in optometry. Dr. Kawabata had a strong interest in contact ​lenses and went on to do a residency in contact lens research at CIBA Vision in Duluth, Georgia. During that same year, she had the opportunity to do a mission to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico with the Amigos group, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Pacific University, which provides eye care to the indigenous people of Central America.

Dr. Kawabata then returned to Hawaii to work in private practice but  relocated to New England upon marriage to her long time Massachusetts suitor. During her first year in Massachusetts, she decided to do another residency in ocular disease to further her knowledge. Dr. Kawabata was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to do a VAMC Hospital residency at the Brockton and West Roxbury sites, where the focus was primary eye care and geriatric optometry, with rotations in pre and post-op management of cataract surgery and LASIK. She also had the opportunity to precept students in clinic.

Dr. Kawabata joined Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston in September 2000 and was proud to do so. She knows she is affiliated with some of the finest physicians and optometrists in eye care. Dr. Kawabata hails from the 50th state of Hawaii, born in Honolulu and raised in Pearl City on the island of Oahu.