Our team as of October 2024

One of these days we'll take a photo. Meantime, here is our current team, in order of when they made their first appearance. 

• Rebecca (20-30 hrs per week), who founded the Shop in 2005. She divides her time between the Dry Eye Shop and the Dry Eye Foundation (note: these two orgs are not affiliated with each other).
• Aidan (5-ish hrs per week), who began at the Shop in 2016 and now works full time for the Dry Eye Foundation. Aidan still (thankfully) consults for the Shop as he is the only one who knows everything inside and out.
• David (10 hrs per week), who has been our product packaging & labeling pro since 2017.
• Jack (24 hours per week) who joined in February 2024 and heads up order fulfillment all day Mondays and mornings the rest of the week.
• Alisha (full time), who joined in late May 2024 as Rebecca's executive assistant. After running front desk for a few months, she is supervising shipping operations, doing all of the purchasing, filling in on reception, and helping me generally with the day to day.
• TC (26 hours per week) who joined in August 2024 as the other half of the fulfillment team plus stockroom support, working all day Monday and afternoons the rest of the week.
• Brenda (28 hours per week) who RE-joined in September 2024 after maternity leave. Brenda is our spectacular customer service specialist. 

Oh, so you noticed...

...that we have only one full time employee in the business right now, and that half the team were newly hired in 2024? Heh. Well, we live on a peninsula, and hiring is hard. We had some turnover this year for all kinds of reasons from medical challenges to relocations to a new baby to just not quite finding the right match. But we love our team and are super proud of what everyone achieves and how much heart they put into it.

Dry Eye Shop Alumni

(by Rebecca)

I've had a lot of super great people working at the shop over the years. I consider them all family, wherever they move on to.

In order of their first appearance at the Dry Eye Shop:

Chaidie. Rebecca's child. Start date uncertain but since the Dry Eye Zone and Dry Eye Shop were founded when Chaidie was 3 years old, they grew up immersed in all things ocular surface disease and ocular surface pain and wore ever so many hats over time. Most recently, they worked part time remotely from Stanford doing some bookkeeping, social media and marketing support. Chaidie detached from the shop and foundation in summer of 2022 to immerse more fully in their own life and times as a student in Palo Alto, employee of a fascinating startup in Oakland, and just being an all round incredible human. But wherever they go and whatever they're doing, they still keep educating peers in all things dry eye.

Brent (full time). Brent ran all things shipping for four years! Highly valued. Much missed. Incredibly efficient, amazing spatial sense (can tell you in a nanosecond what box to use for a given combination of 13 products). And such a great sense of humor. - Brent was the barbecue master - at our old premises, we had an outdoor space that we barbecued every summer. In my heart of hearts, I hope he will be on the team once again sometime in the future.

Lindy (full time). My incredible, creative, thoughtful, amazing, caring sister, who did customer service (and much more) remotely from Portland for two years during our craziest season. Lindy started in the middle of the Unisol 4 crisis of 2016. She was hyper-attentive to every detail, a heavenly listener, and ran customer service like a dedicated concierge! She also helped in a thousand other ways, particularly marketing support and graphic design. She is the only Photoshop expert we have ever had!

Espen (part time). Espen (like Aidan) joined us in summer of 2016 and ran purchasing and managed the stockroom that summer. Espen and I share a passion for mental health and healthcare advocacy, and we remained connected for a few years via occasional brainstorming parties. He's now working for a congresswoman in Oregon.

Susan (part time). Susan ran our stockroom like clockwork for three years, and she was David's first supervisor here. Susan brought cookies from Central Market - usually snicker-doodles - when least expected and most needed. She even brought good tea back from her annual visit home to England.

Ally (full time). Ally is an ophthalmic technician who worked in customer service here from apprx. 2017-2019 and a couple of other briefer stints. She was so much fun to work with - always kept us in stitches, as well as being a hard worker who really cares about patients.

Jordan (part time) (~2019) Jordan started as a short-term IT intern recruited from our local community college, then stayed as inventory specialist till we had to downsize a bit during covid. He was so diligent, with terrific attention to detail and process. He went on to pursue an IT career.

Emily (part time). Emily started in 2018 by helping periodically with YouTube videos and photography. In summer of 2020, as Chaidie's high school bestie, Emily became part of the famous "Recent Grads" order fulfillment team, before heading off to college in Oregon.

Leah (full time). 2020. Leah joined the Dry Eye Shop as my executive assistant - only to have everything change almost immediately due to Covid in March 2020! Her job rapidly morphed into purchasing and inventory management plus administrative support and de facto office manager. Leah was amazing - she ran a tight ship, figured everything out and helped keep us all on our toes - and she was the 'hub' for our young people's team at the time. Leah moved on at the end of that year.

Tori (part time): 2020. Tori joined as our first specifically "Pick & pack" hire, responsible for packing all orders. Tori kept us all in good humor. I'll never forget all her helpfulness and flexibility when I kept flip-flopping over whether to have any staff onsite during the early part of the coronavirus shutdown. Tori moved on to do college full time.

Flint (full time). All things shipping. Flint helped get us through a particularly difficult time in the first half of 2021 when we were really struggling to find suitable staff for shipping. He worked early and late, mastering complex procedures and making sure that no matter what, everything got out the door on time.

Lalana (full time). Lana was an amazing customer concierge. She joined us in April 2021, with extensive experience in eye care and optical. After the arrival of Poppy, our very first Dry Eye Shop baby, in late 2021, Lana opted for full time motherhood for the time being. We're so happy for her, though we miss her!

Shawn (part time). Shawn came to us in the summer of 2021 from Trillium, working Tuesday and Thursday afternoons as custodian, to keep us sparkling clean. Shawn is a friendly and engaging soul, and loves trains, and chocolate... every cleaning session ended with Hersheys special dark kisses. This was Shawn's first paid position, and I'm proud of what he accomplished in his brief stint here!

Melanie (part time) Melanie is my talented niece! She worked as a Fulfillment & Stockroom Associate from summer of 2021 to early spring 2022, processing and filling orders, assisting Gary in the stockroom and also assisting with customer service tasks. Melanie teamed with Joslynn, then ran solo, then briefly teamed with E. Melanie is a hard worker and continuous learner.

Heather (full time) Heather managed customer service from December 2021-December 2022 until returning to her pre-pandemic job. Heather cared so much about our customers, while mastering all the technical skills of the job, and keeping on top of lots of tickets. Customers always had nice things to say about her and we miss her a lot! 

Valcorie (part time) Valcorie assisted in shipping and the stockroom from May-November 2022. Valcorie is a tremendously interesting person and engaging conversationalist who resonated with our mission on a personal level. They were impressed by all the different steps that go into making sure everything is right, how each team member has each other’s back and how the whole team has our customers’ backs.

Joslynn (various). Joslynn started working at the Dry Eye Company in July of 2021. She started working in the stockroom doing fulfillment and her position evolved from an on-site position to a remote role doing finance and data entry work after she went on maternity leave. 

Gary (full time) (2021-2023). Gary was the closest thing I've ever had to an operations manager. He came to us during the pandemic and gradually took on more and more responsibility for everything coming in or going out of the shop. While very hands on - the way I always picture him in my head is coming up the stairs with a case of something heavy - he did a great deal of bookkeeping work and is the only employee I've ever had who grew into independently doing all of the purchasing planning. Much missed.

E (various) (2021-2024) E started part time after hours doing custodial work, later applying for a job in shipping, where they worked part time and later full time. E was easygoing and a delight to have on the team. By the time they decided to move on, they had become an expert in many things related to shipping and receiving, and were managing most of David's tasks. 

Kevin (part time) (2023-4): Kevin took a very very part time job doing our interstate sales tax filings remotely after Joslynn. We appreciated having this tedious and constantly changing responsibility covered regularly.

Brenda (full time) (2022-2024). Like Joslynn, Brenda also started in shipping, but we persuaded her to try her hand at customer service soon after she started when we were having a lot of difficulty recruiting. (Customer service, for which we have a very high standard, is always by far the hardest job to recruit and train for here.) She's been brilliant at that, showing lots of ability and initiative. In March 2024 she became the mother of our third Dry Eye Shop baby in three years! She went on maternity leave and then resumed working (remotely, from California now) in September 2024.

Miguel (full time) (1h2024): Miguel is a recent college grad who came on board in a temporary customer service role shortly before Brenda went out on maternity leave and stayed with us about five months. He was super dedicated and friendly and worked so hard while he was here - he just had a fantastic attitude and we miss him.