Excellence in Eye Care

Doctors and Staff

Columbia Eye Associates was founded by Karl Bodendorfer M.D. with the vision of creating an Ophthalmic medical practice that treats every patient with dignity and compassion in providing excellence in eye care.

The Eye Team of doctors, ophthalmic technicians, optical and office staff at Columbia Eye Associates are highly-trained and exceptionally friendly. We understand that for many, visiting a doctor can be a stressful experience. Our comfortable surroundings and compassionate medical professionals will ease your fears as we endeavor to meet your vision care needs.

	Karl Bodendorfer, M.D. General Ophthalmology and Cataract Surgery Dr Bodendorfer hails from Erie, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate degree is from Penn State University and he obtained his medical degree from the Penn State College of Medicine. Dr Bodendorfer trained in ophthalmology at the University of Florida. In 2000, he was hired to be the University of Florida's first Comprehensive Ophthalmologist. His time was divided between the Lake City VA Hospital, where he organized and ran the Department of Ophthalmology's Lake City resident rotation, and Shands Teaching Hospital. In addition, Dr Bodendorfer taught the second year medical student course in ophthalmology from 2001 to 2007. During that time, he won the Ophthalmology Faculty of the Year award in 2001 and 2007, the College of Medicine's Exemplary Teacher award in 2004, and twice was awarded for Excellence in Patient Care by the VA Hospital. Later that year, Dr. Bodendorfer reduced his time at Shands Teaching Hospital to open a private practice, Columbia Eye Associates. He spent half his time teaching for the University of Florida at the Lake City VA Hospital and the other half at his own practice. Both of these endeavors thrived. Dr. Bodendorfer left the VA Hospital in 2008 to work in his private practice full time and still maintains a University of Florida affiliation. Dr Bodendorfer maintains many active memberships in the eye care field including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, and the Columbia County Medical Society. These memberships help to keep him active in the eye care community and keep up with the latest developments in the field of ophthalmology. Being a responsible citizen is important to Dr. Bodendorfer. He has participated in the March of Dimes since 2002 and has been a member of the NASA Medical Support Team. In June of 2007, he went with a University of Florida contingent on a medical mission to provide eye care in the Honduras.
	Richard W. Reichert, M.D. General Ophthalmology and Cataract Surgery Dr. Reichert is a native Floridian whose family initially came to the area before statehood in the 1840's. He obtained his A.A., B.S., and M.D. degrees at the University of Florida. After an externship in St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, he completed an internship at Boston University's Malden Hospital. Dr. Reichert completed his ophthalmology training at Duke University and then returned to Florida for a fellowship in cornea and anterior segment surgery. In 1989 Dr. Reichert became the first full-time ophthalmologist for Lake City and performed the first laser surgery and cornea transplant procedure in the area. In 1996 Dr. Reichert built North Florida Surgery Center to provide the area's first ambulatory surgery and extended his services with offices in Live Oak as well. In order to keep up with the complexities of modern medicine, Dr. Reichert also completed an M.B.A. at the University of South Florida. It is important to Dr. Reichert that all persons come to know that Jesus Christ is the source of all blessings, including healing. He is very active in local and world missions serving in Christian hospitals in Sierra Leone and Ghana, Africa. Dr. Reichert holds a masters degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and is a member of Gideon's International and the Christian Motorcycle Association. Currently Dr. Reichert is a professor at the Lake City extension of the Baptist College of Florida where he enjoys teaching the Bible. In his spare time, Dr. Reichert enjoys spending time with his wife, Jill, and their four daughters. He enjoys many kinds of endurance sports and has completed nearly fifty marathons, three Ironman competitions, including the world championships in Hawaii, and raced his small sailboat across the Atlantic. He also holds a Rescue Diver certification, a black belt in Taekwondo, and on most weekends can be found bicycling the rural roads of North Florida.
	William Avonda, O.D. General Optometry Dr. Avonda hails from Chappaqua, NY. He obtained a business degree from Siena College in upstate New York. After graduation, beginning a business career in sales helped him realize he wanted more personal fulfillment in his life's work. During that time, he became increasingly interested in the field of optometry. Dr. Avonda started working as an optician with his sights set on becoming an optometrist. He learned all aspects of manufacturing and fitting of custom eyewear while he attended the University of Massachusetts-Lowell for his optometry prerequisite studies. During his optometry training, Dr Avonda participated in two missions to Costa Rica to provide eye examinations and dispense eye glasses donated by the Lions Club. Dr. Avonda obtained his optometry degree from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, TN in 2002. After graduating optometry school, Dr. Avonda completed a residency in Primary Eye Care / Geriatric Optometry from the Edith Nourse Rogers VA Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts in 2003. During this training, Dr. Avonda had the opportunity to provide eye care to special populations, including patients with Alzheimer's disease, dementia, psychiatric illness, and homeless patients. In the clinic, he was preceptor to 4th year optometry students. Dr. Avonda is a member of the Beta Sigma Kappa International Optometric Honor Society (BSK), the American Optometric Association (AOA) and the Florida Optometric Association (FOA). In August 2003 Dr. Avonda joined the Family Focus Eye Care practice. When Family Focus merged with Columbia Eye Associates into a larger practice, he continued in the same position to provide excellent comprehensive eye care as a board-certified staff optometrist at Columbia Eye Associates.
	Eric Boone, O.D. General Optometry Dr. Eric Boone grew up in Lake City, Florida and graduated from Columbia High School in 1992. He earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State University in Tallahasee, Florida 1996. He obtained his Doctor of Optometry degree from Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 2004. Dr. Boone currently lives in Lake City with his wife and 2 children. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf, boating, and following Florida State athletics. While attending FSU in 1995, he got his first hands-on experience in the optometric field while working as an optometric technician with Dr. Mohr and Associates at VisionWorks for over 2 years. In 1997 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he was employed by Emory Vision Correction Center as a refractive surgical technician in the field of ophthalmology for 3 years. He was chosen by staff and doctors to receive the Best Employee Award in 1998 for his hard work and dedication. In 2000, he decided to further his education and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to attend the Pennsylvania College of Optometry to earn his optometric degree. He interned at the Pediatric and Binocular Clinic in The Eye Institute during the summer of 2003, where he gained knowledge and experience with pediatric examinations and visual therapy. He also interned at the Feinbloom Low Vision Rehab Center in The Eye Institute, providing low vision evaluations and training with low vision devices. Dr. Boone moved back to Lake City in the fall of 2003 and began his 6 month externship at the Lake City Veterans Medical Center's eye clinic. He gained valuable experience with ocular disease and hospital based medicine at the VA. His last externship, at Family Focus Eye Care, gave him private practice experience. Dr. Boone became a full-time employee at Family Focus Eye Care as a staff optometrist in August 2004, and continues in that same position today at Columbia Eye Associates, the successor to Family Focus. He enjoys his patients and takes pride in offering the best, most efficient, comprehensive eye care to solve his patient's eye care needs so necessary to their quality of life. Dr. Boone has affiliations with the American Optometric Association and the Florida Optometric Association to stay informed and knowledgeable in the ever changing field of optometry.
	Brenda Castro Bodendorfer, COMT, ROUB Opthalmic Technologist Brenda Castro Bodendorfer is a highly skilled certified ophthalmic technologist who is originally from Puerto Rico. Mrs. Bodendorfer intially trained for two years as a technologist at the University of Puerto Rico. She then spent an additional two years training at the University of Florida. She has been working with Dr. Bodendorfer since 2003. During that time she became Florida's only registered ophthalmic ultrasound biometrist. All told, she has over 13 years of experience as an ophthalmic technologist, which she now uses at Columbia Eye Associates. Mrs. Bodendorfer has considerable expertise in intraocular lens calculations. Some of her work was presented by Dr. Bodendorfer and Dr. Donald Downer at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting. She developed intraocular lens nomograms to improve lens selection from cataract surgery. As a native Puerto Rican, Mrs. Bodendorfer speaks Spanish fluently.

	Eveline Lane Live Oak Office Manager Eveline Lane began her career in eye care in 1983 in Live Oak in a one-person office as the office administrator, optical assistant and clinical technician to an Optometrist, where she discovered she especially enjoyed the optical part of the eye care practice. In 1999 Eveline Lane joined the new Family Focus Eye Care practice by assisting the ophthalmologist/owner in opening the Live Oak office facility and serving as the one-person office manager, clinical technician, and optical manager. As the Live Oak practice location grew under Ms. Lane's enthusiastic management and the doctor's excellent and compassionate care, the staff also necessarily expanded to include front office assistants, an ophthalmic technician, and an optical associate, with rotations between the ophthalmologist and optometrists. In July 2009, Family Focus merged with Columbia Eye Associates and continued to do business in Live Oak as Family Focus Eye Care. Eveline Lane maintained her same position and continues to provide enthusiastic, personal, high quality eye care service to the extended Suwannee County community as the office manager in Live Oak. Eveline Lane's passion for high quality and personal eye care, knowledge of the challenges to eye health, and experience with optical dispensing has continued to grow. She has taken advantage of training opportunities, workshops, and continuing educational sessions while attending the FOA Convention and working closely with the staff doctors. Ms. Lane is a member of the Florida Paraoptometric Association.
	Michael Magrill, LDO Licensed Optician Mike Magrill launched his optical career after serving in the Navy. He returned to school in Tampa, Florida and graduated from Hillsboro Community College with a degree in opticianry in1994. After graduation, he worked as a dispensing optician until 2000 when he relocated to north central Florida. Since then, he worked in all aspects of opticianry from the optical lab to dispensing contact lenses and glasses to optical store management. In January 2001, Mike Magrill joined the management team at the Family Focus Eye Care practice. He has continued in that position up to the present time after the merger with Columbia Eye Associates. He now has over 10 years of dedication to providing quality optical dispensation as manager of the Columbia Eye Associates' Lake City optical department and optical lab. Mike Magrill particularly enjoys the challenges of providing quality customer service to patients on a daily basis. He says it gives him "the opportunity to continually refine his skills in troubleshooting problems concerning glasses, adjusting frames and lenses, and even repairing old glasses others could not".

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