After starting a job in an Optical store in highschool and falling in love with the profession, Amber Fournier graduated with honours from the Georgian college Opticianry program in 2005 and has been working as a registered optician in Sudbury ever since. Born & raised in Garson, she values community & family and has a strong passion for helping others. Taking the reins of Gagnon Opticians in July 2023 has been a longtime dream and she strives to maintain the same friendly, personal service that her friend & mentor, Josée Gagnon has modeled over their years of working together.
Working in various optical settings over her career has given Amber a diverse understanding of all things optical related. In 2011, Amber pioneered ‘Northern Low Vision Care’, a mobile low vision service, helping patients with vision loss due to vision disease such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetes & cataracts. After watching her grandfather with macular degeneration struggle with everyday tasks such as reading the newspaper, mail, tv, pill bottles, she vowed to help him maintain his independence and found various low vision tools to help him do just that. This service quickly became a success and is now proudly offered within Gagnon Opticians as one of the largest selections of low vision products in Northern Ontario.
One of the highlights of her career was travelling to Kenya in 2016 with a small group of volunteer nurses from Sudbury and performing vision screening & providing eyeglasses to hundreds of people in need. They volunteered at a children’s home, Zawadi la Tumaini, (meaning ‘Gift of Hope’ in Swahili) which was founded & is still run by a young woman from Hanmer, ON, Jacqueline Villeneuve. This is a platform that is still near & dear to her heart and she continues to support the ZLT family whenever she can.
When she’s not at work, you can find Amber & her husband Eric at a hockey arena with their son, Owen & daughter Olivia, or at home enjoying time with family, friends & their beloved fur baby, Howie.
