From Ophthalmologist to Social Impact Innovator: Dr. Sarah Crowe’s STEM Career Reinvention with OOXii Global, a start-up making prescription glasses accessible
MULTIPLE HATS: STEM Careers | Reinvention | Entrepreneurship |Thought LeadershipShow Notes
🎙️ From Ophthalmologist to Social Impact Innovator: Dr. Sarah Crowe’s Career Reinvention with OOXii Global With her kids grown and gone, Dr. Sarah Crowe stepped into entrepreneurship with a mission to make eye care accessible and affordable for underserved communities around the world
🔍 What You’ll Learn: Find your purpose and the unique piece you can deliver: How to use your existing expertise to solve overlooked global problems How to have it all: What it looks like to start a purpose-driven venture after raising a family Your age does not matter: Why it’s never too late to pursue innovation—and how life experience can be an asset Finding resources: How to work with accelerators, grants, and global partners as a first-time founder What matters to investors: What you can do when ROI doesn’t reflect your deeper mission—and how to keep going anyway
🧠 About the Guest: Dr. Sarah Crowe is a former ophthalmologist turned social impact founder. After decades in medicine—and with her children now grown—she launched OOXii Global and the 4eyesVision Foundation to make eye care more accessible in underserved regions. From her time as a young doctor in apartheid-era South Africa to deploying affordable vision kits in Papua New Guinea, Sarah’s journey shows how deep expertise, lived experience, and purpose can align into a powerful second act.
📌 Episode Highlights: 00:00 The ambulance driver who sparked everything 02:26 The mission behind OOXii and 4eyesVision 05:36 Sarah’s academic + medical career beginnings 08:19 Working in South Africa’s fractured healthcare system 13:00 Balancing motherhood with a medical career 17:18 Launching her own practice 23:24 The decision to found OOXii Global 34:51 Using what already exists to drive real-world impact 36:48 Training local healthcare workers for scale 40:30 Fundraising challenges + designing a sustainable model 46:01 The path from paper sketches to working tech 57:37 Cultural sensitivity in deploying healthcare innovation 01:07:29 Final reflections on risk, timing, and reinvention
🔗 Resources Mentioned: Learn more about Dr. Sarah Crowe 4eyesVision Foundation UNSW Founders Program
🤔 Reflection Time: What part of your professional experience might be the foundation of a new mission? Is there an issue you care deeply about but assumed it was “too late” to tackle? What would your version of a second act look like?
Want to craft a career story that opens doors? I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you. 📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn
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