Every successful career is like a journey: both require one small step after another to reach your goal.

Just ask Susan Price, chair of Kettering’s Health Professions degree program. Her career began with an A.S. in Radiography, but she didn’t stop there. She’s gone on to teach Sonography, administer KCMA’s Sonography department and pursue advanced degrees. Her next career milestone: a Ph.D. in Education.

So it probably doesn’t come as any surprise that Susan challenges her students as much as she challenges herself. That’s simply because she has a tendency to take things a step further.

In some cases, a million steps further.

"MAXING OUT" THE ULTRASOUND
Reaching far beyond KCMA’s campus, Susan’s actually been around the world teaching ultrasound techniques. She’s traveled on numerous medical mission trips to Central America, South America and Micronesia to teach ultrasound techniques that go beyond merely detecting pregnancy. She’s shown how the comparatively inexpensive ultrasound machine can be used to diagnose multiple health conditions.

“These clinics simply can’t afford multi-million dollar CAT scanners,” notes Susan. “So it’s essential for these clinicians to realize how to maximize the tools they do have.”

TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Showing KCMA students how to maximize their careers is what Susan’s new job is all about. As chair of the Bachelor of Science in Health Professions degree, she’s in charge of helping students upgrade their skills via KCMA’s degree completion program.

“Hospitals now realize that the more educated their employees are, the better patient caregivers they are,” notes Susan. “KCMA’s B.S. in Health Professions degree provides a pathway for people working in hospitals to further their education more easily.”

“Our goal is to increase KCMA’s educational service to people of Dayton and the graduates from other A.S. programs in the Miami Valley,” she says. “I believe Kettering has the best degree completion program primarily because we look at the whole person.”

“Now that I’m back in school, I feel like the student/teacher relationship has flipped on me,” she adds, “it makes me appreciate the extra steps professors take to develop whole people, not just crank out graduates.”

THE NEXT STEP
She greatly encourages those who are thinking of going back to school to ‘go for it.’

“The most common misperception I hear from people is ‘I don’t have enough time,’” she notes, “but five years from now, you’re five years older, whether you went to school or not. So why not go?”

Susan’s two favorite ways to relax are feeding the birds in her backyard and reading. She just finished rereading “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadima on a Christmas break cruise to the West Caribbean with her husband, Dave, and daughters, Leslie and Amy.