2025 Alumni Honors: Dr. Michael Greenwood, ’07, ’11

Young Alumni Award Winner embraces challenges and offers new perspective to his patients with groundbreaking care.

Michael Greenwood, ’07, ’11, was a talented four-sport athlete at Jamestown (N.D.) High School. He stayed active throughout the year: football in the fall, hockey in the winter, track & field in the spring and baseball during the summer. Though he was busy competing, he still found time for his studies. 

It should come as no surprise, then, that the ophthalmologist not only opened Vance Thompson Vision’s first practice near Sioux Falls, S.D., but also helped the business grow to more than 400 employees across nine locations in seven states. He did so as one of two managing partners — and even started his own accompanying business.

Today, Michael runs the West Fargo office. He founded “Green Man” with his business partner Brandon Baartman, allowing patients to see what their vision would look like through a virtual reality headset after getting eye surgery.

“It’s a virtual reality education thing for patients to help them better understand how they’re going to see after they have cataract surgery, you know, sort of a test drive,” he said. “Cataract surgery is a once-in-a-lifetime procedure on your most precious sense, and you’ve got different options on which lens you want to choose — similar to buying a car. We want people to be able to test drive it before they have surgery.”

It takes a village

As a year-round athlete, Michael found time to prioritize his education.

“I think finished with high school with a 4.0, or at least a 3.9 grade point average, something like that. I was probably a better student then I was an athlete,” Michael chuckled. The two would eventually go hand-in-hand as he was named the North Central Conference’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year when he competed for UND’s football team.

“I had an awesome advisor that got me started,” Michael recalled. “I was interested in biology; it’s the catch-all program for pre-med, so I got connected with Kim Ruit and she was one of the best advisors in the biology department.”

It means a lot and it’s nice to get recognized as an individual but there’s no way to accomplish these things without a good support team.Michael Greenwood, ’07, ’11, 

During his junior year, Michael recalled going to dinner with his parents and some of their friends after a football game at Kings Walk Golf Course. One of those friends was Tom Seaworth, ’75, ’81, ’83, a former UND football player and medical doctor.

“My parents and I always went out to dinner after games with their friends, but I remember this dinner pretty vividly,” he recalled. “Tom goes, ‘What are you going to do after you’re done with football? You better start thinking about it because the time is coming fast.’ And I told him, ‘I don’t know, maybe I’ll be an optometrist. I’ve always worn glasses and I’ve always been interested in that, and I think I’d like it.”

Tom replied, “You ought to look into ophthalmology. It’s like optometry but you get to do surgery.”

The next week, his advisor, Kim, helped set him on that path. He shadowed ophthalmologist Mark Sczepanski, ’96, over winter break and the rest was history.

“I instantly fell in love with it,” he said. “(Mark) was happy. His patients were happy. His staff was happy. Surgeries are relatively short. Patients get instant gratification, and that’s what hooked me.”

After being named a Young Alumni Achievement Award winner, Michael was speechless. “It always feels good when you get selected for something, and this was unexpected. When I talked to DeAnna (Carlson Zink), I didn’t really have words,” he reflected.

“It means a lot and it’s a nice nod and it’s nice to get recognized as an individual but there’s no way to accomplish these things without a good support team,” Michael affirmed. “Whether it’s getting recruited by Bubba (Schwiegert), having the right faculty and staff on campus, coaches, teammates, family support when I’m traveling, running behind or any of those things, it’s a really special thing to have that so I appreciate it very much.”