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Dr. Court Wilkins, left, recently received the 2026 Golisano Health Leadership Award from the Special Olympics. He is shown with Luciano Colonna, senior director of operations for Special Olympics Utah.

Courtesy Rocky Mountain University

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Dr. Court Wilkins, at left, assistant dean of clinical affairs at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, was recently honored for his work with the Special Olympics.

Courtesy of RMU

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When Dr. Court Wilkins was named Optometrist of the Year by the Utah Optometric Association a few years ago, he humbly went about his work at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, or RMU, without telling anybody about it for months.

“He was afraid I’d brag about him,” a colleague joked. “That is the kind of person he is — always serving people but never wanting to be noticed for it.”

Dr. Wilkins is more focused on teaching and serving others than tooting his own horn. He’d rather focus on administering eye exams to young athletes with unique health challenges, prescribe free glasses to inmates in need of help at the state prison or educate future optometrists than boast about himself.

Since you might not hear it from Dr. Wilkins, we’ll spill some more tea about RMU’s assistant dean of clinical affairs. He recently received another honor: the 2026 Golisano Health Leadership Award from the Special Olympics.

The prestigious award recognizes his “outstanding leadership in Special Olympics Utah health programming and an ongoing commitment to advancing inclusive health for people with intellectual disabilities,” according to the organization. He was presented the award at a recent Special Olympics Utah health and wellness fair, which provided resources and services to athletes, families and individuals of all abilities on the west side of Salt Lake City.

“Dr. Wilkins is just an unforgettable human being,” said Luciano Colonna, the senior director of operations for Special Olympics Utah. “I’ve honestly never encountered someone with the expertise and the heart that Dr. Wilkins has.”

Having previously served veterans and military personnel worldwide with the Army and the Air Force for a few decades, Dr. Wilkins has been an integral part of RMU’s College of Optometric Medicine since May 2021. The former Utah Optometric Association president plays an integral role as the Utah director for the Special Olympics’ Open Eyes program. He volunteers for the Friends for Sight, Utah Partners for Health and Charity Vision organizations. He’s also helped RMU establish a working partnership to provide eye care to incarcerated individuals at the Utah State Correctional Facility.

For the past 15 years, Dr. Wilkins has volunteered for Special Olympics, helping the impactful charity by administering countless free eye exams and prescribing thousands of glasses for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“The guy never stops,” Colonna said. “He’s always doing something in the community. He’s extraordinary.”

And it’s not just Dr. Wilkins. The influential optometrist brings RMU faculty and students, even his wife and kids on occasion, to help underserved communities and people in need at events and clinics around Utah — from Provo to the capital city and clear down to St. George and the Navajo Nation reservation in the southeastern corner of the state. They’ll be volunteering their services again at the end of May during the 2026 Utah Summer Games in Cedar City.

“I just want to make their lives as productive as possible,” Dr. Wilkins said. “Without good vision, they can’t function well, can’t learn well and can’t work. It’s my way of helping make their lives better and giving them opportunities to learn and work. I think it’s just inherent in me. It’s been part of me my entire life — seeing what I can do to help and serve.”

Along with heartwarming athletic competitions, health screenings are a big part of the Special Olympics experience. The Dr. Wilkins-led RMU team plays a key role in helping deliver free eye screenings to the children (athletes and non-athletes alike) at these events throughout the year. Through the organization’s Healthy Athletes initiative, eye exams and free prescription glasses and/or sports goggles are given to those in need. Participants who don’t need prescription eyewear receive sunglasses.

Along with the popular vision services, Special Olympics helps children receive screenings and education in general medical care (sports physicals included), dental care, hearing, podiatry and physical therapy. A spring event at Glendale Middle School included 75 different booths aimed at providing services — from healthcare to teaching people how to cook and clean — for community members.

During this spring’s health fair at Glendale Middle School, Dr. Wilkins’ crew was inundated with about 165 people for eye exams. With four eye-exam lanes set up, the group was able to provide 100 of those participants with life-changing prescriptions and scheduled exams for the rest at the RMU-affiliated Parkview Clinic.

It’s a win-win situation for the participants and the volunteers from RMU and elsewhere.

“We give students an opportunity to practice their skills while giving back to the community. It’s a great symbiotic relationship,” Dr. Wilkins said. “I hope we instill in them the value of serving their community once they’re in practice — even if it’s just half a day a month.”

Over the past year, Dr. Wilkins’ volunteer efforts helped provide 800 free vision screenings through the Open Eyes program. Students enjoy those opportunities because they interact with grateful communities and can practice what they’re learning in the classroom while giving eye exams to actual patients in real-world settings instead of on classmates in the lab.

“Dr. Wilkins is great. He clearly wants to serve as many people as possible,” said Andrew Perkes, an RMU optometry student who earned his bachelor’s degree at Utah Valley University. “He’s constantly looking for new community centers to go to and different organizations to partner with so that we can find more people to serve and allow these people to see and get eye care. He thinks about that every day.”

Colonna admires the way Dr. Wilkins interacts in a kind and compassionate manner with everybody, whether it be those he works with, teaches or treats. It takes special skills and patience to help patients who can’t always communicate clearly because of autism, Down syndrome and other conditions with unique challenges — and to teach students how to do the same.

“He’s just amazing to see in action,” Colonna said. “He’s a good teacher and a good doctor. He does both things really well. He’s the real deal. We need more people like him. Rocky Mountain University is very lucky to have him. He has incredible character.”

Jody Genessy is the senior content writer for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.