Rochelle has been in her own practice on Market and Third since 1982.  Previous to that she had worked as a nursery school teacher, a food quality control lab tech, and a proof reader for early computer texts including the first portable computer in the late 70s!  She received her BA in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley but after working injecting flu virus into chicken eggs asked if that was really the life for her. 

She then received her OD (I kid you not...though it doesn't stand for what you think...it is Oculus Doctori..or something like that) in 1980.  Immediately after graduating, she worked as a vision screener in elementary schools, examining up to 150 kids per day and in a private optometry practice.  When she and the rest of the staff found themselves with bouncing paychecks, she decided it was time to move on and took over a practice of a doctor who wanted to go into winemaking.

Rochelle was born in Stockton (the Jewish community there sponsored her father after the war to come to the United States since he was a sole survivor and had no remaining family after the Holocaust).  The family moved to San Francisco when she was four and she attended Lowell High. She has been married to Joel Blumenfeld for 25 years and has two grown children...Jonah, who she is happy to say it 'off the payroll' and Miriam who will be completing her last year in college.

Rochelle is a board member of the San Francisco Optometric Society and donates eye exams and glasses to clients of Delancy Street, Children's Vision First and the California Vision Foundation.

She is an avid hiker and amateur botanist (except she keeps forgetting the names of the dang plants!), loves to garden, read, cook and travel.  She'd love to be a jazz musician but the requirement of some musical talent makes that a problem!

INTERESTING FACTS

• If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
• It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
  
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.