Taking the Lead
Shannon Cavallo
Lead Radiologic Technologist
A.S., 2002
Two days after receiving her Associate in Science degree in Radiography in December 2002, Shannon Cavallo started her new job as a radiologic technologist at Jupiter Medical Center.
She advanced to second-shift supervisor and later, weekend supervisor, allowing her to juggle the demands of working while raising two children. Today, she is the lead radiologic technologist, a position she has held for three years. Instead of supervising one or two people on her shift, she manages the hospital’s entire team of 25 X-ray technologists.
She largely attributes the quality of the College’s Radiography program and its instructors to her success. In fact, because of the demand for radiologic technologists at the time, everyone in her class graduated with a job.
“Ninety percent of the team I work with everyday have gone through this program at Palm Beach State, which makes me wholeheartedly want to accept those students over other applicants I get because I know the quality of the program,’’ said Cavallo, who has attended meetings of the Business Partnership Council for the Radiography program and offered feedback on curriculum changes. “I have hired people from other programs, and they are just not the same – the work ethic, the knowledge of anatomy and the physics required to apply safe radiation doses for the exams performed. I feel that program grows the person to be a technologist.”
Cavallo’s husband, Jeremy, also completed the College’s Radiography program and works at the same hospital as lead technologist over CT scan and nuclear medicine.