Visionary Work: How a Tulane grad built a boutique eye-care empire

Lauren Agnew (SLA ’09) arrived at Tulane University as an undergraduate and found a university and a city that would shape her perspective, her career, and ultimately, her approach to building a business. 

Today, she is an optometrist and owns Eye Wares, which, with four locations, is the largest privately owned eye-care practice in the region. There, Agnew combines clinical expertise with a distinctive design-driven vision.

A resident of Slidell, Louisiana, Agnew began her college career at Louisiana State University (LSU) just as Hurricane Katrina struck. In the months that followed, she focused on helping her family rebuild, tearing out damaged carpet, cleaning debris, and doing whatever else was needed in a time of uncertainty. 

LSU didn’t turn out to be a perfect fit, so she applied to Tulane for her sophomore year and was accepted, receiving a generous scholarship to attend. “The moment I was on Tulane’s campus, it felt like home.”

She has remained closely connected to Tulane since, returning last year to campus to celebrate her 15th reunion. Originally on a pre-med track, she ultimately found her academic home in sociology, where New Orleans itself became an extension of the classroom. The city offered a living case study in resilience and community.

“You could be on a streetcar interviewing people about why they came back or in Lakeview talking to residents. There aren’t many moments when you get to live and learn in a city that’s rebuilding from the ground up. I took advantage of that, and I’m so glad I had those experiences.”

She found many of her classes memorable, including one taught by political consultant James Carville. “Every week we had a different guest speaker, and every other class, he’d pick a few students to have dinner at his house. His wife (political consultant Mary Matalin) cooked for us, and we’d sit around talking politics.”

After graduation, she spent several years in New Orleans, waiting tables and traveling before ultimately pursuing optometry, drawn to its unique combination of medicine, creativity and flexibility. 

“It’s one of the few careers where you can practice medicine and then shift into design — curating eyewear, thinking about aesthetics. It’s a mix of right-brain and left-brain work, and that feeds me.”

She completed four years of optometry school and a residency before purchasing a small practice from a retiring optometrist in Mandeville, Louisiana, closing on March 1, 2020. 

From that first location, she expanded quickly, adding a new location each year in Covington and Metairie, as well as a flagship location on Magazine Street that she designed from the ground up. 

As her business grew, so did her vision for what each space could offer. Travel, and exposure to global design, became central to shaping that vision.

In Paris, she attends international optical shows like SILMO Paris—a major industry gathering often compared to Fashion Week for eyewear, where designers debut new collections and set the tone for what’s next in frames. “When I buy glasses for the stores, I like to offer smaller eclectic frame lines, in addition to traditional luxury brands. I like having frames from all over the world — our Italian vibe, our French vibe, the German titanium, the beautiful Japanese frames. Those trips inspired the way I built the Magazine Street store.”

She advocates for introducing entrepreneurship into education, particularly as private equity continues to expand its influence in the field.

“It’s easier to take the corporate job when you graduate, whether you’re in medicine or engineering. Owning your own practice is much more of a challenge, but if you get the tools as an undergrad you’ll have a much richer mix of options for consumers.” For Agnew, that challenge is exactly what makes ownership so rewarding. And so demanding.

“When you’re a business owner, you are PR. You are HR. You are marketing. You’re an influencer, a blogger, a manager. You have to understand health insurance, 401(k)s, all of it. You have to show your creative side and your analytical side because you’re the one conducting the whole orchestra.”

That all-in mentality extends to every part of the business, no matter how big or small.

It’s a mindset she encourages in others considering a similar path. Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: “It never starts too young. Include entrepreneurship in your studies, and don’t be afraid of risk — that’s where the bigger rewards are.”

That approach traces back to Agnew’s time at Tulane, where the classroom often extended into New Orleans. Those experiences continue to inform the way she works today, and the way she sees what’s possible.