A degree in economics set Vanessa Manlove ’13 up for a successful career in optometry.
Dr. Vanessa Manlove ’13
Optometrist/Owner of Enlightened Eyecare
Fargo, North Dakota
Major: Economics
Vanessa Manlove used her unique education — economics and optometry — to fulfill a dream. Not everyone can say they’ve opened up their own optometry practice, but Manlove can.
Her new practice, Enlightened Eyecare, is clean and calming. Located in south Fargo, it looks exactly the way you’d expect a lifelong dream to look. Everything is carefully laid out and organized. Glasses are displayed up front, there’s a whole room for contact lenses, and the examination room is inviting.
“Different things lined up in my life for now to be the right time to start this adventure, open this practice, and I’m excited for it,” Manlove said. “It always felt like it was the right thing for me to do.”
Manlove’s experience with eye trouble as a young girl inspired her to become an optometrist. While Manlove did well in school, she had trouble reading and did most of her learning auditorily. Finally, at age 11, she went to an optometrist who determined that her eyes weren’t tracking and working together as well as they could. She was placed in a vision therapy program and could start to see improvement even after a few weeks. Reading was getting easier.
“As cliché as it sounds, I wanted to help people the way I was helped,” Manlove said.
With her eye care dreams on the horizon, choosing to study economics might seem like an odd choice. However, getting into optometry school, you don’t need a science-specific degree — just enough prerequisites to meet the requirements. So, Manlove had some flexibility.
“When I started at Concordia, I started as a chemistry major because I loved it in high school, and I loved it in college,” Manlove said. “However, if the optometry thing didn’t work out, there was no way I was going to spend eight hours a day in a lab doing chemistry.”
Manlove switched her major at least three times during her first year. Advice from a professor helped her make a decision.
What do you want to do with your life?
“I had a conversation with Dr. Thomas Hiestand, and he asked me what I wanted to do with my life,” Manlove recalled. “I said, ‘I want to be an eye doctor.’ He goes, ‘OK, but what do you want to do with your life?’ And I was like, ‘I want to be an optometrist. And he’s like, ‘No, what do you want to do with your life?’ I didn’t understand the question. So, he said, ‘Do you want to manage people? Do you want to own your own business?’ I said, ‘One day I would like to own my own business.’ Because of that, he suggested I do an economics degree.”
Combined with her chemistry (and almost biology) minor, Manlove had enough prerequisites to get into optometry school and a foundation for her future as a business owner.
Optometry school led her to Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee. She spent time in Alaska and Arizona for her externs. However, when it came time to start her life as a doctor, there was no place like home.
“Fargo has always been home,” she said. “The Fargo-Moorhead community is really cool, and I don’t think people outside of it really understand how close knit of a community it is. There’s always something to do. I love that we get seasons here. Fargo is always home, so it was always the plan to come back here.”
She worked at a couple of local eye clinics before she started thinking about opening her own practice.
“I always knew that I wanted to own my own practice, but I assumed that I was going to be purchasing an existing practice. As it turns out, that opportunity wasn’t presenting itself in a way that made sense for me or felt right. I finally realized, ‘what am I waiting for?’ Rather than waiting for the opportunity to come along, if it was ever going to, I decided I was going to create it for myself. So, I took the leap and started Enlightened Eyecare,” Manlove said.
“Part of why I wanted to be an optometrist was to build relationships with patients,” Manlove continued. “I’m super excited to build more and continue the relationships that I have now with patients. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m excited to be part of it and to be part of this south Fargo community.”
Photos by Kayla Duffney Creative
Published October 2026