Retired instructor of SBCC's Health Information Technologies (HIT) and Cancer Information Management (CIM) programs, Sue Watkins, passed away on July 26, 2023. She was the mother of former SBCC Director of Information Technology Dan Watkins (pictured here with his mom) and remains beloved to those who knew her on campus.
Recalls SBCC's Physical Education Department Chair Kathy O'Connor, "Sue Watkins was an outstanding faculty and colleague. She developed the first completely online program at SBCC in HIT and later the CIM program. She developed these programs early in the online course/program movement and was a tremendous innovator in this field. In fact, this was the only online program in the country in this area, so she had students from all over the country and some from other countries enrolled in the program. These students also had remarkable pass rates on their national standardized exams, which demonstrates the quality of the programs that she developed.
"Sue was always eager to assist other faculty in the development of online classes and she worked closely with our Curriculum Committee in online course training and development. She set a high standard for her students and her program which allowed for most of them to attain work in the fields of health information and cancer information. Even though Sue retired several years ago, she will be greatly missed but her program will live on for years serving students all over the country."
Said Dr. Endrijonas, who served as her dean: "Sue Watkins was a force of nature. She developed the first 100 percent CTE online program at SBCC that was consistently ranked in the Top 5 HIT/CIM programs in the nation. She could always be counted on to serve on committees and to be a strong colleague to faculty. Her passion for her students and profession knew no bounds."
