In 2005, Dr. Hayes and his wife, Cris, funded the establishment of the Hayes Center for Practice Excellence at SCO. With matching funds committed by SCO’s Board of Trustees, an endowment was created to support the Hayes Center in its mission. One of the first of its kind, the center will focus on teaching independent optometrists how to manage the business side of their practice, strategic planning, budgeting, overhead control and increasing profitability.

The center is serving as a true step forward for the profession, helping to establish that the business of optometry is just as important to the health of the profession and individual practices as the art and science of optometry.