Optometrist seeks to ‘do good’ with new business

Dr. Tiffany Luke, an optometrist and the owner of Do Good Eye Care, a new downtown business, wanted her company’s name to reflect her goals and passion in the most unambiguous way.

“We wanted to give back to the community and make the name of our company what we’re about,” she said.

A graduate of the UAB School of Optometry, Luke — along with her husband, David, who serves as chief operating officer — plans to use a portion of each sale to help provide eye exams and glasses to the needy, including children, in Birmingham and foreign countries.

“We want to be a viable company, but that’s my heart,” she said. “That’s what I want to be in business for.”

And the Lukes said they are excited about being part of a newly revitalized downtown Birmingham. It was the recent boom downtown — new apartments and restaurants, the Lyric Theatre renovation, Publix and Regions Field — that drew the couple, who live in Hoover with their two children, to locate their business there.

“It just seemed like this was the place to be,” she said.

Luke, originally from Baxley, Georgia, earned a business degree from Valdosta State in 2003 and graduated from UAB in 2014.

While at UAB, Luke and her fellow optometry students did a lot of community work, offering free or reduced-price eye exams to low-income people, sometimes at homeless shelters and women’s shelters.

“That became something I looked forward to,” she said.

Luke and a group of students also traveled to Grenada to provide eye exams and glasses for children.

She said she wants to do similar work through Do Good Eye Care, both locally — partnering with nonprofits — and in other countries. 

For example, she’s planning a trip to Haiti later this year with a couple of other physicians.

Luke wants her customers to feel involved in Do Good’s charitable activities.

“We’re trying to sell a good product at a good price but actually have people feel if they come to us that they’re part of something bigger than just eye care,” she said.

Luke said she will likely start a newsletter to help keep people informed about exactly how Do Good is spending customers’ money to give back to the community. 

Donating a portion of each sale “is a real and tangible thing that we can actually give and do,” she said.

Luke also said she hopes customers will enjoy visiting her storefront on the first floor of the historic Pythian Building on 18th Street North across the street from the Lyric Theatre.

“The tile in here is original,” she said. “The space itself is so beautiful. I love the old building. I love the history. And we’ve tried to keep as much of it as organic as we could.”

In recent years, the space served as Sidewalk Film Festival headquarters.

Luke said she believes Do Good can thrive in its new home.

“There are a few optometrists downtown, but we thought we could have a good business and be competitive and actually be the optometrist for the people who live down here,” she said.

David Luke is also co-owner of Two Maids & a Mop, a cleaning service on two upper floors at the Pythian Building.