Dr. Powell
(top right),
Dr. Gildersleeve
(top left), and their Assistants

Dr. Powell

Dr. Richard Powell, originally from Benkelman, NE graduated from Southern College of Optometry, Memphis, Tennessee with a Doctor of Optometry degree in 1968. His undergraduate college was at McCook Junior College, McCook, NE and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

During college, Dr. Powell was President of the Gold Key Honorary Optometric Society, an honors program recognizing those students in the top ten percent of their class, and was also Editor of the College Yearbook. He worked part-time as an assistant in the computer center while doing optical research for the physiologic optical department.

Dr. Powell was admitted in the American Academy of Optometry in 1971 and was awarded diplomat status in the National Board of Examiners that same year - a recognition awarded to fewer than 10% of all optometrists in the United States.

After serving as President of the Nebraska Optometric Association in 1979, Dr. Powell continued his academic affiliation as Adjunct Assistant Professor at Southern College of Optometry from 1982 until the present. He is one of fewer than 100 optometrist nationally to have received the American Optometric Association Continuing Education Award annually since its inception in 1979. In 1985 he was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Nebraska State Board of Health.

A former US Army Captain, Dr. Powell moved to Lincoln in 1970, having served as an optometrist in Vietnam. He was awarded the Bronze Star for "meritorious achievement in ground operations against hostile forces" in the Republic of Vietnam from August 1969 to August 1970.

In 2004, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of Southern College, the first Nebraska optometrist to serve on the college board. He was also one of 24 optometrists who made American Optometric Association history by qualifying for the Optometric Recognition Award each year for 25 consecutive years.

He is married to Vicki, has two children, Burkett and Shalla, and four grandchildren Burkett II, Madison Lynn, Gabriella Jean, and Greta Faye. Dr. Powell is also an avid hunter and fisherman, and enjoys many sports.

Dr. Powell manages a practice that is very diverse, specializing in contact lenses, ocular disease diagnosis and treatment, glaucoma, cataract, and corneal refractive surgery management. He also works with children's vision, and primary care.