Dr. Tara Parnell

Dr. Tara Parnell founded Perceptions Eye Health & Wellness in 2004 with the intention of offering the most comprehensive and thorough eye care to her patients and the surrounding Southport community. Providing compassionate, personalized care has been the driving force behind the continual growth and expansion of the practice. Dr. Parnell’s mission is to enhance the vision and health of everyone who visits Perceptions. In addition to providing traditional eye care, Dr. Parnell specializes in ocular surface disease, also known as dry eye, and has completed additional training in medical aesthetics and skin care. She is passionate about connecting with each patient as an individual and taking the time to get to know them as well as their personal health concerns and goals. She works to find ways to optimize health and wellness to promote healing from the inside out. As a result, she has helped her patients address and correct underlying issues that keep them from living their best life. This type of medicine is called functional medicine, which looks at the root cause of eye and systemic disease.

“From improving the look and feel of the skin to correcting gut imbalances to improving diabetes with diet and lifestyle modifications, it has truly been rewarding and fulfilling to see people reach their health goals. I started to connect the dots between skin health, gut health, and eye health, after battling my own health crisis. By understanding and applying the principles of functional medicine, I was able to heal my own body and knew I had to offer this help to others.”

Dr. Parnell completed her bachelor’s degree at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and earned her Doctor of Optometry degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. She is a member of the American Optometric Association and the North Carolina State Optometric Society.

Dr. Parnell is passionate about nature and spending time outdoors. She believes it is a critical component to staying young and healthy. You can find her outdoors, enjoying our local beaches, paddle boarding, boating, and walking with her 2 dogs. She loves to spend time with her family and friends as much as possible because community and support are also pillars of health, bringing meaning and purpose to our busy lives. She also loves to exercise, read, travel, and learn! She believes every day is an opportunity for growth, service, and positive change!

Her mantra: “Leave a little kindness wherever you go”.

Laura Greenway

Aesthetician

Laura is from North Carolina and has been a licensed practicing aesthetician for 20 years. Throughout her career she has focused on becoming a subject matter expert on all things skin. Laura specializes in beating the clock when addressing preventative and corrective treatments. Throughout her lucrative career she has become a licensed aesthetics instructor, spa consultant, permanent makeup artist and has spent over a decade focusing on medical aesthetics. She is excited to be back in the coastal area providing luxury treatments that focus not only on results, but first class customer service. She was voted aesthetician of the year in Wilmington 2020. Her favorite service to perform is anything that will bring you the confidence you deserve, and her specialty is matching the client to a procedure.​​​​​​​

Loren Reece

Loren is an Advanced Aesthetic Nurse Injector with many years of experience in the field of Aesthetics and Injectables. Her nursing career began in and on Trauma, ER and Cardiac units, where she practiced nursing for 7 years before bringing her passion for patient care into the field of Aesthetics. She began her journey into Aesthetics training in Atlanta, GA by the American Academy of Facial Esthetics, and has since attended over 10 accredited Aesthetic training programs in her years of injecting at one of North Carolina's largest medical spas. She recently moved to Leland, NC from Wilmington, NC and has chosen to bring her years of experience in aesthetics and injections to our practice here in Southport, NC! She is very pleased to be part of the Perceptions Medical Aesthetics team and cannot wait to meet you! She has lived in North Carolina for over a decade, moving to Wilmington in 2010 initially to attend UNCW Nursing School, where she graduated with Honors and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2014. Loren has a passion for educating her patients and assisting them to accomplish their aesthetic goals through informed decision-making and by using an individualized and specialized approach in assessing each patient. When she isn't 'injecting confidence,' you can most likely find Loren smiling at strangers, watering her vegetable garden or cuddling up with her 20-pound rescue mutt, Lil' Shep.