Our History
The History of Mt. View Eyecare
In 1988, Dr. Christen Jankowski (Dr. J) moved to Vancouver after leaving active duty military practice. After researching for many hours at the local library, he thought East Vancouver was going to be the next big place to expand in the city and decided that Mill Plain was the place to open a new eye care practice. At that time, there was only one traffic light that far east on Mill Plain!
In February of 1989, Dr. J opened Mt. View EyeCare Center and saw his first patient as a private practice optometrist. A few weeks later, his wife would give birth to twins, meaning that Dr. J now had three babies to take care of!
As the practice grew, so did Dr. J’s family. To make ends meet while the practice was growing, Dr. J remained in the army reserve, being called up for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. He made it home just in time for the birth of his third child, Nicholas.
Over the next ten years, patients would sometimes arrive to see four younger children running around a small practice. Another 10 years later, he would hire Nick to work as a receptionist for the summer while he searched for a full time employee to take over once he returned to college.
After that summer, each of Dr. J’s four children would end up working at the practice at different points in their lives, truly creating a Jankowski family business. After Nick’s summer of working in the practice and seeing what his father actually did on a day to day basis, he decided to shift his goals from medical school or research to optometry.
In 2012, he began his studies at Dr. J’s alma mater, Pacific University College of Optometry located in Forest Grove, OR. There he met a classmate named Shannon Soper. She had majored in physics in undergrad and optics was not Nick’s strong suit. Thankfully Shannon was willing to help him through labs and studying. They began dating that summer and became engaged at Christmas in 2014. They would graduate in May of 2016 and were married a month later in June. The newly minted doctors began their professional careers with Dr. Nick coming to work at the small family practice so Dr. J could retire. Dr. Soper began practicing at two local practices, splitting time between them.
After a few years and more practice growth, Dr. Soper made the jump to finally working in the family practice. Dr. Nick and Dr. Soper finally finished the purchase of the practice from Dr. J in January of 2021. While Dr. J had remodeled in 2013, they’d outgrown their space by 2018 and had goals to move the practice and expand.
Finally in March of 2022, Dr. Nick and Dr. Soper completed their move to their new location on 164th Ave, which was the largest expansion the practice had ever seen.
In September of 2023, another big step was made with the hiring of the first associate doctor that Mt. View EyeCare had ever had by hiring Dr. Olga Kraushaar.
Mt. View EyeCare has grown a lot in the last 30+ years. When my father started the practice, he had one exam room and one employee, never imagining that it would grow to the busy three doctor practice with 9 employees that we have grown to today.
My father always wanted us to have a “Nordstrom quality of customer service” and a “family friendly feel.” I’d like to think we’ve done well as a family business to keep those two core tenants alive and well. We hope that you’ll feel the same way.
Mt. View Eyecare
Mt. View EyeCare: Vancouver’s family-owned optometry practice since 1989.
Experience personalized eye care from our dedicated team!