Meet Our Doctors

​​​​​​​​​​​​​Dr. David Christensen came to Iowa EyeCare in August of 2000 after graduating from the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Optometry. His clinical interests include contact lens fitting and management of eye diseases.

Dr. Christensen received the top award in his class for “excellence in clinical care” and was one of two to receive a similar award for his expertise in contact lens fitting.

Dr. Christensen grew up in Grimes, Iowa, which is a suburb of Des Moines. He graduated from Dallas Center-Grimes High School where he was active in athletics (football, basketball, and golf). He then attended Buena Vista University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology while earning Cum Laude honors. He also participated on the golf team at Buena Vista where he was twice named an Academic All-American. He finished in the top ten at the conference tournament his junior and senior year earning All-Conference honors in the Iowa Conference.

Dr. Christensen is married to Lindy.

​​​​​​​Dr. Aimee Colander was raised in Center Point, Iowa, and graduated from Center Point-Urbana High School. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and completed her Doctor of Optometry degree at Indiana University School of Optometry in Bloomington, Indiana.

Dr. Colander graduated from IU with academic honors and was a member of the Gold Key National Optometric Society and Beta Sigma Kappa Honor Society. After graduation, she completed a year-long ocular disease residency at the Huntington VA Medical Center in Huntington, West Virginia.

Dr. Colander joined Iowa EyeCare in June of 2015. She is a member of the Iowa Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association. Along with her husband, Brian, they have two children and enjoy spending time with their families, attending church, and watching Chicago sports teams.

In her free time, Dr. Colander likes spending time outdoors, running, and reading novels.

​​​​​​​Dr. Morgan Thorson grew up in Manchester, Iowa and is a 2010 graduate of West Delaware High School. She completed her Bachelor's in Biochemistry and Biomedical Science at the University of Northern Iowa in 2014. She received her Doctor of Optometry degree from Southern College of Optometry, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 2019.

Her externship rotations included The Eye Center in Memphis, TN, Vision Source Eyecare in Kansas City MO, and Wolfe Eye Clinic in Des Moines, IA. Her training emphasized dry eye treatment, specialty contact lens fitting and ocular disease management. She received the Valley Contax award for excellence in contact lens care and is a member of the Iowa Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association.

Prior to starting at Iowa EyeCare in December of 2022, Dr. Thorson practiced at Family Eye Center in Muscatine, IA.

​​​​​​​Dr. Dennis Francis joined Iowa EyeCare in January of 2002. He is originally from the state of West Virginia. There he attended West Virginia University earning a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. He then attended the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago where he earned his doctorate in Optometry.

After graduation, he joined a large private medical ophthalmology practice in Rockford, Illinois. He worked there for four and a half years with a strong emphasis on the treatment of ocular disease and surgical management. His greatest clinical interest is in ocular disease.

Dr. Francis resides in Robins with his wife, Karen. Their interests together include smallmouth bass fishing, travel, hiking, and other outdoor adventures with family and friends. They attend Faith Bible Church in Cedar Rapids. Outside of involvement with church and family activities, they particularly enjoy spending time pursuing smallmouth bass in the Great Lakes region together.

​​​​​​​Dr. Ryan Nelson's optometry experience at Iowa EyeCare began at an early age. As a near-sighted 3rd grader from Wilkins Elementary who needed glasses to see the board from the back of the classroom, he always loved coming into the Marion office because of the nice people, clean building, and the candy at the front desk! He thought, "when I grow up… I want to be an eye doctor".

Sure enough, in 2008 he graduated from Southern College of Optometry and started seeing patients back home at Iowa Eyecare. Be it glasses and contact lenses or glaucoma and cataracts, Dr. Nelson can help. His professional passion is in helping to manage the business side of the company. He's proud to tout a terrific team and says they all have a lot of fun!

Dr. Nelson enjoys patient care and practice management, but during the summer and in the fall he also loves being outdoors. When he is not working, you can find him in the woods on a peaceful hike or out on the water fishing.

​​​​​​​Dr. Kimberly Cruise was born and raised in Cedar Rapids. She graduated valedictorian from Kennedy High School and earned a music scholarship to attend Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She graduated with honors in three years.

While at Luther, she was selected for membership in the Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Sigma Kappa academic honor societies. She then attended Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated second in the class of 1998. She earned several awards for clinical excellence including the Bausch & Lomb contact lens award. Due to academic excellence, she was nominated for membership to the Tomb and Key Honor Fraternity and the Gold Key International Optometric Honor Society.

Dr. Cruise joined Iowa EyeCare in August of 1998. Dr. Cruise has been invited to become a member of the Clinical Board of Examiners in Optometry. She enjoys teaching and lecturing while also serving on the Education Committee of the Iowa Optometric Association. While lecturing, she helped launch two pharmaceutical ophthalmic medications. She has also sat on several pharmaceutical round-tables. Her clinical areas of interest include dry eye, contact lenses, allergy, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and comprehensive family eye care.

In the past, she has been a member of the local Lion’s Club and Daybreak Rotary. She has also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.

Dr. Cruise’s husband, Chris, teaches mathematics at Washington High School. He is also the head men’s swimming coach. He runs an instructional competitive swimming clinic during the summer months. They have two children, Tyler and Conner. As a family, they are very active members of the New Covenant Bible Church. They also enjoy traveling together and numerous water sports.

​​​​​​​Dr. Tom Anderson was born and raised in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and graduated from Fort Dodge High School. After graduation, he attended Luther College for 2 years and transferred to the University of Iowa where he graduated in 1981.

Dr. Anderson is a 1988 graduate of Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, Illinois, specializing in contact lenses. While at ICO, he was on the Dean’s list.

Dr. Anderson worked at LensCrafters in Cedar Rapids from 1988-2005, at which time he joined Dr. Brown in private practice in Hiawatha. Dr. Anderson joined the Iowa EyeCare family on December 30th, 2011.

Dr. Anderson’s wife Sharon is an advisor of insurance for businesses at The Accel Group, and they have three children. The family are members at First Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids. Besides being the biggest supporter of his children’s sporting activities, Dr. Anderson enjoys a good golf game, basketball, and of course seeing a great Iowa football game.

​​​​​​​Dr. Peyton Myers was born in Landstuhl, Germany in a military family. She was raised in Nevada, Iowa where she graduated from Nevada High School. She attended Missouri State University, majoring in biology.

Dr. Myers attended Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon where she earned her doctorate of optometry. During her time at Pacific, Dr. Myers was a member of Beta Sigma Kappa honor society and enjoyed spending time with classmates. Being close to Portland she could be found hiking, spending time at the coast, and trying new food with her husband and friends. Dr. Myers graduated summa cum laude from Pacific University.

Dr. Myers joined Iowa EyeCare in July of 2022. Her clinical interests include dry eye, ocular disease, myopia control, and glaucoma management. During her last year of optometric education she completed rotations in ocular disease at the VA, a surgical management rotation for cataract/refractive surgery, and comprehensive primary care.

In her free time Dr. Myers enjoys reading and spending time with her husband, Jonathan, and friends. Jonathan is a network engineer for a dental group. They enjoy spending time outdoors, cooking and being with their cat. Dr. Myers is interested in learning Spanish and making pizza in her free time.