Adam Kornegay: Hello Connie. I'm Adam Kornegay and this is July

1st, and I get the honor and privilege to interview you on

behalf of ASET.

Connie Kubiak: And I'm looking forward to it.

Adam Kornegay: You ready?

Connie Kubiak: Yep.

Adam Kornegay: All right. First question. Can you name when and

where you received your credentials and where do you

currently work?

Connie Kubiak: So I received my R. EEG T. June 1991. I'm number

2192 and did my oral boards in Fort Myers, Florida. I received

my registered in Evoked Potential May of 1995. I'm

number 528, and I did my orals in Chicago. Lew Kull was

actually one of my examiners, had me so nervous, I thought I

was going to just throw up. I received my CNIM December of

2006, I'm number 74. Took it in Detroit. Decided to take the

first round because I had this horrible fear that the Erwin's

out of Duke were going to require us to do some kind of

oral practical exam. So I took my exam with Doctors Verne Hulce

and HB Calder sitting behind me and Martha Coyne sitting next to

me on my left side which, needless to say, was extremely

intimidating. Verne was done in 45 minutes, and HB swore through

the whole study. My CLTM I received in 2009. I'm number 32

and I did that here in Gaylord, Michigan. Currently I'm a travel

tech on hiatus for a little bit of time. President and co-owner

of Innovative Group Incorporated, maker and

co-developer of the Electrode Puller. So that's what I'm doing

with my time, along with my ASET volunteer work.

Adam Kornegay: That's fantastic. What drew you to the

neurodiagnostic profession?

Connie Kubiak: So, when I was four years old, I had a head

injury, and a couple years later, started having blackouts.

I went to Catholic school, and the nuns weren't very happy,

because they always occurred during church. At that time, I

had numerous EEGs done in Saginaw with that horrible

bentonite paste I could hear, as a kid, I could hear the pen

noise when I swallowed or I chewed, and at this point in

time, knowing what I know now, I wish I could say I was sorry to

the tech who ran my studies. I remember having hair down to my

knees at the age of five, and my mother had it cut because it was

easier than dealing with the paste cleanup afterwards. I was

on phenobarb for four years. There was talk of possible

learning disabilities. After that, I was always interested,

but never really knew how to get the training. Got married, moved

to Florida, trained in EKG and non-invasive cardiology. I

wanted to learn Echo, which was just coming out. My boss told me

it was a dying art. I didn't want to do that. I think it was

just a way to get me into the EEG lab. So I was trained on the

job, and in hindsight, not trained very well. I found out

about ASET and ABRET accidentally through mail that

came to my lab while the boss was on vacation. A new

neurologist came in and said he'd help me get registered, and

after three months of training me on the job, told me, in

exchange for training his wife, who was also his office staff,

to do his EEGs, he'd help me get registered. I said, "No, can't

do that, small hospital." While covering for a little

neighboring hospital where the tech was on vacation, she was

getting a new Nihon-Koden machine, and I met Jennifer

Doremo, who had been a past MSET president here in Michigan, was

very active with ASET. She was extremely kind. Told me about a

school in Tampa, which was the closest at the time. I lived in

Kissimmee. I interviewed there, went to school and then once

trained, I knew this is what I wanted to do when I grew up. I

was 32 years old, with two kids, a husband, and it was the best

thing I ever did.

Adam Kornegay: I love it. So was EEG a popular specialty when you

first started?

You know, as a kid, I had no clue. I mean, I just assumed

everybody had EEG in the lab, right? I had my first EEG in

1964 and we drove into town, but it wasn't a big deal. After I

moved to Florida in the late 70s, the hospital that I was in

was 110 beds. They had a tech that came out of Orlando once or

twice a week, recorded EEGs, and took them back to the doctor to

read. Eventually, they hired a respiratory therapist who had

done tele-EEG in South Florida. I trained under her. She took

over for the registered tech. Trained under her, did EEGs and

pulmonary function testing, because neither areas were very

busy, but the boss wanted to make sure he had enough coverage

in case somebody was out or on vacation. We covered both

areas. In 1988 when I went to school in Florida, there were

actually three accredited programs. It was pretty popular,

and Florida was pretty progressive, so. Now, in

hindsight, I guess it wasn't very popular. I don't think it

still really is, right?

Adam Kornegay: Do you do you recall who your early mentors

were?

Connie Kubiak: So, in school, and I have to say that only

because prior to that, I really didn't have, I mean, I had

somebody who trained me, but I don't know if I really call her

a mentor. Dee Sibeck was my clinical coordinator at St Joe's

in Tampa, and Vivian Porter was the program director. They were

very influential, along with classmates there, Kamar Kip

Anthony and Celia Barreto. As I progressed in my career, doctors

Verne Hulce and HB Calder, Martha Coyne, Judy Ahn-Ewing, Dr

Tim Thoits who I worked with at Butterworth Hospital, which is

now Corewell in Grand Rapids. My boss there, Gina Watkins, my

boss up here in Traverse City, Leon Olewinski and involving

myself with ASET. I would say Elizabeth Mullikin, Susan

Agostini, Adam Kornegay and Mary Betinis. I'm sure there's more

and other ones. There are tons of people who influenced me, but

they were probably the ones I refer to the most.

Adam Kornegay: That's quite an impressive group of people you

just mentioned. What are some of your earliest career influences?

Connie Kubiak: Well, I think the biggest influential thing was

always the patient. Once I went to school, I realized I'd done a

few studies on people and didn't really know what I was doing. I

was trained with a styrofoam head laying next to the

patient's head with all the markings, and told to put them

on, just line them up and put them there, right? Nothing about

prep, nothing about paste, nothing about cleanup, just

that's what you did. I remembered my experience as a

kid and how horrible my hair was when I got it done, and the fact

that I had to have it cut. I thought, I'm never going to do

that to another person. I think that's probably been a thing

that's gotten me through most of my career, trying to put

yourself in the patient's shoes. How are they feeling at the

time?

Adam Kornegay: Beautiful. If you had not become an EEG

technologist, what do you think you'd be doing?

Connie Kubiak: Well, initially, after high school, I went to

college to be a special education teacher. In my first

year, I was extremely disappointed, because we spent

more time teaching students how to do the things that they were

eventually going to be teaching students. My basic math for

teachers was teaching supposed high school graduates basic

math, and I was very disillusioned. I ended up,

after the first year, I just didn't, didn't go back to

college. I lost interest and started working retail. Ended up

moving to Florida for job opportunities because the

financial economy and things like that in Michigan were going

bad in the late 70s. Got married and sort of fell into the job.

As they say, the rest is history. I think I was always

destined to be in medicine, I just didn't know it yet.

Adam Kornegay: So why do you think that this field took off?

Connie Kubiak: Well, I think once there became more

widespread knowledge. It really wasn't used a lot clinically

until the 70s, late 60s and 70s. I think once there was more

education for the physicians and the neurologists who are using

it, and they saw the benefits of testing, they decided that, you

know, maybe they could use it for more things. It got bigger

and bigger. Then they started training people. It got bigger

and bigger too. When I started training, the CAT scan had just

started, MRI wasn't even in the picture yet, so EEG was done for

a lot of things that it's not even used for now. When the CAT

scan came out, I was told that EEG would go by the wayside.

When the MRI came out, I was told my job was going to be

obsolete because they had MRI. When auto recordings that

Nihon-Koden had came out, I was told they wouldn't need an EEG

tech anymore. Same with digital, right? That it was a dying

career, but it didn't happen. If anything, it made it expand more

and more and more, and now we're playing catch up.

Adam Kornegay: Yeah, we are. Do you remember what equipment that

you trained on and what the limitations were back then?

Connie Kubiak: So I was trained on a GRASS Model 8-16, a 16

channel GRASS machine. It had three master switches in the

middle, and I was told not to touch anything else but those

three master switches., I would destroy the machine. I didn't

touch anything when I helped across town. She had, I think, a

Model 6. It had the electrode switch panels off to the side of

the machine. It was mounted on the side. She didn't do any

portables at all because, she said, if she moved the machine

it went so out of whack it took forever to get it straightened

up. I think it was just because she didn't want to do portables,

because the machine was actually smaller, it was only eight

channels. For the Model 6, you had to warm it up. It had tubes

in it. You turned it on, you went for coffee, you came back

20 minutes later. The machines were very heavy. That one was

actually bolted to the floor. Everybody talks about

limitations. I never had a problem with the ink and the

pens and all that kind of stuff. I think it was because I was

taught to really baby this equipment. You took care of

things and you did what needed to be done with it. Probably the

biggest “limitations” had to do with storage of everything.

Manipulating all of that paper around. Put it in this room, put

it in that room, put it in storage, put it out of town,

microfilm it, throw it away, you know, that kind of thing. I

think it also helped you be a better tech, because you learned

what was important. What montages you had to do, what

electrodes you had to add, what you had to drop off, what you

didn't have to. How to make the patient do what you needed them

to do, because the noise, the noise would wake them up, right?

Adam Kornegay: Yeah.

Connie Kubiak: That's all I had when I was training.

Adam Kornegay: You recall some of the other pieces of equipment

that you used over time?

Connie Kubiak: Yeah, the analog world. It was well, Nihon-Koden

and GRASS. Teca, Nicolet and evoked potentials. I had a

Nicolet CA1000 and then a 2000. I used Biologic, Xceltech,

Nihon-Koden, Cadwell, Natus, Compumedics from the digital

world, evoked potentials. Like I said, the Nicolet, Biologic,

Cadwell, Viking Nerve Conductions, Teca, Natus. I did

ambulatory reel to reel and cassette tape recordings with an

old Oxford system and a scanner with the bifurcated and the

single leads that were with a collar system. That's what was

used to attach it to the patient's neck so that it wasn't

full of artifacts. Then Xltech, Lifeline, Natus, and Cadwell. I

think I've used them all. In intraoperative monitoring it's

mostly Cadwell and Biologic.

Adam Kornegay: When you were using the equipment over the

years, did you did you feel like there was negatives or cons to

using some of that equipment? Or did you just focus on on the

positives and what it could do at that time?

Connie Kubiak: Well, I mean, there were, you know, when you

were using so my first ambulatory system was a reel to

reel system, and then the cassette tapes. If somebody put

an ambulatory on and they didn't clean the clutches on those tape

recorders, it would come back and the tape would be all messed

up. Inevitably, as you were switching from one montage to

the other, that's when your patient had a seizure, or they

would start it. You would miss it, because you had to run a

blank page so you could write on it for the doctor. You'd turn it

off for 10 seconds, and then you'd change your montage real

quick, and you'd start again. Inevitably, something would have

started at that time, or the paper would catch or something

like that. The positives on it? It taught you to be a better

tech. It taught you how to troubleshoot your equipment and

how to change what you had to do. We didn't have biomed people

then. I had a maintenance guy with a screwdriver that I didn't

even need the screwdriver because GRASS sent screwdrivers

with all of their equipment. If you had a problem, you called

GRASS. They told you how to troubleshoot it. If you needed a

part, they sent it to you. You sent the old one back, and the

tech changed it out. You didn't have biomed. I didn't have a

biomed guy until probably 1990. I was in the field a good 10

years before I even knew what a biomed guy was.

Adam Kornegay: Thinking about your training program, do you

have any specific memories that kind of pop out?

Connie Kubiak: Oh, tons, tons. I started school when I was 32

years old. I was married, I had two kids, I had a husband, I had

a full time job, and I couldn't give up any of those things at

that point in time and survive. In my interview, I was told by a

male physician, neurologist who was also the lab medical

director and the program director that I would never make

it because I was married and I had two children, and I was

working a full time job, and it was just impossible to do. We

started the program As a student we spent three months doing head

measurement and basic general medical training. Sometimes we

went out on the floor with experienced techs. Since I had

already had five years of clinical experience, I think

they treated me a little bit differently. I was doing things

differently than the other students were. We had five

women, three were over 30, and three men when we started. One

of the days we were doing clinicals, and one fella did his

first rotation. He went into the ICU, and he came down halfway

through the study. He quit school, picked up all his stuff

and walked out and he said he couldn't do EEGs on dead people.

Then he became a paramedic, which we thought was just

ironic. He said they weren't dead yet, so he didn't worry

about it. Two of my very good friends from school, Kip and

Celia, kept me sane. I was driving 85 miles one way to

school, driving back, and then going to work. I was working 30

hours a week, five days a week, sometimes six, to keep my hours

up. I had the benefits at the hospital. They were supposed to

be paying for my schooling. I got let go partway through my

schooling. Kip and I were the same age, had the same number of

kids and the same need to get a good career to help take care of

our family. Celia was a little bit younger, and her family

became my godsend. I got hit broadside, t-boned, in May of 89

on my way to school, rolled my van seven times, graduated in

September. After a week or so of recovery, I got my schoolwork by

phone every day with Vivian and I lived on and off with Celia

and her family for about two months until I could drive again

and then go to classes. It was tough, but her family and Kip

are wonderful, and I appreciate them, and we're still friends.

As a group, we would take our weekly terminology words and

make up a story on this big chalkboard in the classroom. We

had a story about a band called Sulcus Fissure and the Gyrettes,

and we would write these stories. We write these little

chapter stories every week using all of our words, and I don't

know if anybody ever wrote it down, but we had so much fun

doing that, it was such a riot. As we were going to graduate,

Dee, who was a mentor to me, became sick. She and I had

chatted because I had background experience in pulmonary disease

issues. She was starting to have some issues. She was diagnosed

with AIDS, and she passed away right before we graduated, or

right after we graduated. Her personal life was scrutinized

due to the fact that she had AIDS. Once it was discovered how

she contacted it through work, they sort of dropped it. Thank

goodness now for HIPAA, because that would have never happened

as HIPAA would have been around at the time. Kip and I graduated

top of our class. We were extremely competitive. In spite

of everything Vivian and her staff, and were very supportive

for all of us, and even with all of the issues, and even after we

graduated. One of my highlights was interviewing Vivian Porter

and having her a guest of ours when we were in Kansas City. It

was such a good time to see her.

Adam Kornegay: So over time, in your opinion, how do you think

that the field has changed over the course of your career?

Connie Kubiak: Well, I think online education, computers and

digital EEG, has been a great opportunity for a lot of people

to expand their knowledge. It's made our job easier and harder

at the same time. Easier in the fact that you're not dealing

with all of the technical stuff and the moving around and all of

the heavy work is a little bit lighter and a little easier. But

I think it also gives you a false sense of knowing it all,

because you're not troubleshooting equipment like

you were, and you're not having the mechanics that you did. You

push a button and it goes, and if a doctor wants to change it,

the doctor can change it. You don't have to as a technologist.

An analog system can humble you really quick if you don't do

something right, and depending on who your instructor was, they

humbled you even more. Same thing when punching in montages.

I think when you had the mechanics having to change a

montage on the fly, it gave you a better understanding of how

the 10-20 system was set up, and how it was constructed, and why

you did what you did, and if you had to change it, why you

changed it. You learned the "whys". Now you don't learn the

"whys", too much anymore. Now it's just "do this". The doctor

can change it when they want to.

Adam Kornegay: Thinking about scientific knowledge, how do you

think the scientific knowledge has changed the field, and what

do you think are some major breakthroughs?

Connie Kubiak: So I think in medicine in general, MRI changed

tremendously what we knew about neuroscience and neurology and

digital EEG for our organization. Prior to that we

had telefactor and some ambulatory things, and you can

do 24 hours of video recording and hope that the VCRs didn't

fall apart and that your machine didn't lose power. All those

kinds of things. I think once we went digital, and we were able

to do so many more channels, I think it just opened everything

up for intraoperative monitoring and things like SEEG, and

epilepsy surgery and all of those things that were so

minimal back in the day, I did carotid monitoring on an analog

machine and if you weren't paying much attention to what

the physician was doing, your machine was totally jacked if

they hit the Bovie while you were holding onto something. I

think also it's been exceptionally good for the

patient. Now you can do things in the OR, in the ICU, the ER.

I think at the same time the technical staff and physicians I

think that's the thing that we're trying to catch up on now.

Adam Kornegay: So what do you think are two or three large

issues in EEG or neurodiagnostics?

most absolutely no idea what we do or

Connie Kubiak: You know, it’s funny, as I was reading this

question, I was thinking, you know, I've been doing the HAC,

the Historical Chair work now for about 10 years on and off.

I'm finding we have the same issues now that they were having

when ASET started in 1959. To me, that's sort of sad. To

think that in almost 70 years, 65 years, we're still dealing

with the same stuff-short staff, lack of education, lack of

training, lack of physician support. I'm not saying for

everybody, just sort of across the board. It depends on where

you work. it depends on who happens to be that physician in

your lab. They're still talking about competency and salaries

where we're located or how well trained we are, especially

physicians, especially neurologists. You talk to a

neurologist who's not part of your team, and they ask you what

you do, Some

Adam Kornegay: some of the main areas of professional discussion

or disagreement today?

Connie Kubiak: My number one thing, I think, is the rapid EEG

systems. I think there's so many people who are afraid of them,

instead of looking at them as a tool and trying to get involved

with them. I blame some of that on the manufacturers who seem to

circumvent the neurodiagnostics field. They went to the ER docs,

they went to the ICU docs and nurses and the hospital admins,

and they sort of went around technologists, instead of

embracing technologists, I think it's a good tool to use in your

lab so that you're not killing the staff that you have, which

is, I think, why hospitals are having such a hard time keeping

staff because of call and schedules. I also think that

physicians need to understand that that machine will never

replace a good, qualified technologist and a full EEG set.

I don't care what kind of set you put on somebody, that person

and that nurse who has to flip that person in an intensive care

unit. Sometimes those systems don't stay on well. I think

that's one of the things. Cross training of non EEG staff,

because of that is a big caveat. Iif I'm using the system now, do

I need an EEG tech? Can I just do away with the lab and use the

system on everybody? That's where I think the neurologists

need to come in and say, "No, you can't". Respiratory

therapists have to be registered, and because a lot of

them do sleep now, there's a push again, to train Respiratory

Therapy people to cover the EEG lab. When I was asked to do that

over 30 years ago now, I took all of my school books into my

meeting and sat down with the Vice President and said, "Okay,

here's all the books I used. Here's a tape measure, here's a

crayon, here's a set of electrodes. When whoever we're

and credentials. Yet still ultimately what's best

training, can put all these on a patient in 30 minutes, and then

run a 30 minute recording, a good quality recording, where

they have to sit in the room because they can't leave

especially for a 30 minute study, and they can identify

when the patient's at risk and when the patient's having

issues. Then we can leave them on their own." I said, "You

know, I've been doing this for 10 years, and I still don't know

all this stuff". He never brought it up again. I think

those are the big things, I think from a career side, it’s

development, I think some of the things we need to start looking

at is maybe, and for lack of a better word, a technical or

vocational school approach, initially. HB Calder told me one

time he said, "I don't need a registered tech to put

electrodes on, I need a registered tech to look at the

data and interact with the patient. Anybody can put

electrodes on". You can teach anybody in three weeks how to

put electrodes on. They may not know what they're doing or why

they're doing what they're doing, but they can do that. I

think if we, if we get people younger, like they get these

high school kids as med techs and phlebotomists early on, and

then grab and then get them that job as an assistant, then get

them as a Tech 1, then move them into school and get them then to

come registered. I think it's only going to help us more.

Adam Kornegay: And what are you most proud of?

Connie Kubiak: Well, I think we missed licensure in the 80s and

the 90s, and I don't see that really happening, but I don't

think we give it away. I think we still have to work on just at

least being recognized and and being treated as the

professionals that we are. It bothers me at some places that

I've been to that the technologists, because they

don't have to be credentialed, are techs, and they're at the

same level as environmental services or cafeteria workers,

and I have a problem with that. What am I most proud of? All my

credentials and my education. Disappointed I didn't get a

degree, but at the time, there really wasn't much, and life

just got in the way. But those things belong to me. Nobody paid

for them. I did. I paid for all of them. Now, I never was

reimbursed. I never got compensated. It was all me.

Influenced my kids to know how important their life path is,

for them to decide. Made a career that would support me and

then myself and my children when I got divorced, and every job,

even as a travel tech, taught me something.

Adam Kornegay: Where do you see neurodiagnostics in 10 years?

Connie Kubiak: Well, I think that there's going to come a

point in time where we're not going to, as a technologist,

we're not going to be working at the same capacity we're working

now. I think that the head pieces will get better. If we

still need to use electrode pieces. You know, think of Star

Trek, and Dr Bones had this scanner that he scanned over

you, and it read your EEGs. There was an article in the ASET

journal years ago about a group out of Japan who was working on

that. Thinking it would be held in an ambulance or in a police

car, and if they found somebody who's unresponsive, they would

just scan it over their head, and it would go transmitted to

an emergency room, and they could tell if the patient was

seizing or not. I think you're going to see something like

that, whether it be some kind of a cap or a system of some time

for that. I think as technologists, our role will

change to be more of the reader, more of the data manipulator,

for lack of a better word. Think NA-CLTM on steroids. We'll be

the people who'll be reading them and telling the physicians

what we're seeing, and the neurologists won't even probably

look at it. The only person who would look at it would be an

epileptologist or somebody doing surgical interventions. It'll be

that next step credential whether it be a PA level or an

electroencephalographer level or something like that. I think

that's we're going and I hope that ASET's at the forefront of

those changes, I hope that they are more proactive than reactive

and sort of find that before it gets started. I think we're

going there right now.

Adam Kornegay: What is the best piece of advice that you've ever

received?

Connie Kubiak: So, I actually have two. My teacher in fourth

grade told me, "You can do whatever you want. Don't let

anyone tell you otherwise". She was a very wise woman. My boss

up here, Leon Olewinski, told me he could teach an EEG tech and

have them trained to do anything in an allied health profession,

just because of how they were trained, but that he couldn't

take another allied health profession professional and have

them do a quality EEG. From a management standpoint, he was

probably my biggest supporter. He had told me that he would

have my back no matter what. He may not agree with everything

that I did, but as his supervisor-manager person, he

respected me and trusted me to make great decisions, and I

appreciated him for that.

Adam Kornegay: Is there anyone else in electroencephalography

that you think would be beneficial to talk to?

Connie Kubiak: Oh my gosh. So, doing all the past presidents.

Dr Hans Luders, Keith Chiappa. Dr Ojemann, Dr Rich Vogel. Dr,

Jeff Balzer, Fazel Jahangiri, I know I was going to mess up his

name. Dr, Tatum. Dr, Drazkowski. Techs like Cathy Boldery and

Patty Baumgartner and Brett Netherton I mean, there's so

many more. I just, like I said, I have this ongoing list. I add

to them as I come across people and and I'm now sharing them

with as part of the members to hopefully get these people

interviewed.

Adam Kornegay: Who were the prominent

electroencephalographers who should be documented?

Connie Kubiak: Well, other than the doctors that I previously

spoke of, I would like to see more from the field of

intraoperative monitoring. I think that's still such a

developing field, and I think we have so many people who are at

the forefront for that. I also like to see some write ups on

people like Drs Alzheimer and Creutzfeldt and Penfield and

Jasper and Jackson. You know that era people, the people who

came way before us, who started all of this. I don't think,

especially from an EEG standpoint, that there's a lot

of things that technologists have access to about them.

Adam Kornegay: So if you could have a conversation with any

neurodiagnostic related scientists, who would it be and

Adam Kornegay: So shifting gears a little bit and thinking about

why?

Connie Kubiak: So my most favorite person that I would

love to be able to chat with, again, was Dr Ernst Niedermeyer.

He would come to the meetings, and he would sit with the techs,

and he would talk. The first time I ever met him, he sat next

to me, and we were talking, and I asked him if he was a

lecturer. He told me yes. I asked him if he was a

technologist, and he sort of smiled, and he said, "I have

your time as president of ASET. Thank you for serving in that

been" and then he got up from lunch and he lectured. He made

me feel about, you know, yay big, but he was such a pleasant

guy, and I would love to talk to him again. He would be great,

but I wouldn't turn any of the other ones down if they showed

up at the door.

capacity. What years did you serve?

Connie Kubiak: So I was President-Elect from 2017 to

2019. I served as President from 2019 to 2021 and the Past

President was supposed to be from 2021 to 2022 but then the

president at that time, Adam Kornegay, oh, wait, he's right

here in the room, changed the rules. I served one more year

until 2023. Now the past president served two years,

which I think it's good for continuity. It was a good change.

Adam Kornegay: So what do you think was your greatest

accomplishment as president?

Connie Kubiak: I had a couple, I think, when I when I started

looking at this. So, when I came in as President, I, as President

Elect, I served with Susan Agostini, and was very grateful

that I was there working with her at the time, because of some

of the things that she was going through. In my tenure, I helped

develop a better relationship with ABRET, ACNS, AES, AANEM,

and ASNM, from what had happened prior to that. Started the

International Members Task Force, which became the now

International Committee, which is a co-committee with ABRET and

ASET. Change the leadership for ASET and executive office, and I

hired the new executive director and assisted in developing

ASET's first virtual annual meeting. I couldn't pick one.

Adam Kornegay: What do you think we can learn from experience?

Connie Kubiak: Probably that everyone is human and makes

mistakes. To learn to forgive, to learn to stay morally and

ethically strong even during times of adversity, and to know

that sometimes things are better or bigger than yourself.

Adam Kornegay: What advice would you give to a new board member?

Connie Kubiak: I think, and I don't know if ASET is doing this

now, but I think to have a board mentor, someone who's either

through the first year or is now in their last year of service,

that can gently guide you in some of the ins and outs of

ASET. Things are a little bit different now than they were

when I first started on the board, and I think it's for the

better. I think it can be very daunting. When you walk into it,

especially if you don't have any past society chapter or

organizational background for a not for profit, it could be very

different. To get friendly with all of the board, not just those

that you know or that you work with. That your work is for ASET

as a whole, not just a small group, and most definitely not

for your best interest. That membership is watching you. Act

professionally, show up, be a professional during the time

that you serve.

Adam Kornegay: What advice would you give to a new ASET member?

Connie Kubiak: To attend a meeting. An annual conference.

The virtual stuff is great, and it's very easy, and it gives you

access to things that if you're from, you know, Kingsley,

Michigan, you probably never would have access to. But the

networking at a conference, that physical interaction and the

camaraderie that's developed can't be gotten in a virtual

platform. It's the conversations during the socials, it's the

conversations at lunch, it's the conversations after the

presentations that are better than some of the presentations.

Then you have a network of people that you most likely

would have never had.. they will never say no to you. If you

contact them for any reason and ask a question or you see them

five years from now, you're just going to pick up just like you

never stop chatting. They'll be your first go- to if you find

yourself looking for a job, if you're looking to change

careers. I never would reply to something in the newspaper. I

would call somebody and say, hey, guess what? I'm looking for

a job. When you can give back. Someone helped you, and I think

it's great for you to reach back and help. A, it's very

educational. And B, someone helped you get where you were.

So that's how people are going to get where they're going.

We're not just talking financially, we're talking

through education or mentorship or sometimes just somebody to

bounce things off. Then ultimately get involved, whether

it be a local, regional or national society, the skills

that you learn through volunteering with these

organizations and the networkings that you develop,

it's free, and it can only help you in your career path,

Adam Kornegay: What do you think are the elements, or what

elements do you think are important to sustain a legacy?

Connie Kubiak: I think learning from mistakes, to make sure

history doesn't repeat itself. To be proactive and not

reactive, and to always be a step ahead and professional in

every aspect of everything that you do.

Adam Kornegay: Where do you see ASET in the next five years? We

Unknown: Yeah, yeah. Because I think as a past president, I

asked that, but do you wanna answer anyway?

think you look at it as a past president, different than you do

as a technologist, right?

Adam Kornegay: Okay, so where do you see ASET in the next five

years?

Connie Kubiak: I think, hopefully, still be the global

leader for technologists with broader education and

international presence. I think we have so much to learn from

those who are less fortunate than us, even in the US. There's

still so many locations in the US that don't have access to the

education, the knowledge base, the networking and the

mentorship. I think they're being left behind because

they're afraid to say something, because they didn't go to formal

schooling, and they work in a very small hospital, and they

work with older equipment, and they're not formally trained,

and I think they're intimidated by ASET. I think they're

intimidated by the people in ASET. I think we're doing them

a disservice, and I'm hoping that we'll reach out more to

them. Then through the emerging markets and the international

presence, I think there's a big need for a lot of people out

there, for us to to help them, and I'm hoping that's where we

go. I think AI is going to make a big difference in everything

that we do eventually, and I think ASET’s going to have to be

at the forefront for that. I don't think it's going to take a

tech's place. I don't think it's going to take a physician's

place, because I think machines are only as good as machines

are. I think there's still going to need to be oversight, but I

think it's going to be up to us to decide how that's used best.

Adam Kornegay: Well, thank you for allowing me to talk with

you.

Connie Kubiak: Well, thank you for doing that with me. I

appreciate it so much.

Adam Kornegay: It's an honor to go down memory lane with you.

Connie Kubiak: Oh God, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not

good, right?