Radiology Department Welcomes Carley Scales and Susan Masterson

Please welcome two new employees to our department, Carley Scales and Susan Masterson. Carley is one of our new administrative assistants and Susan takes over some of the duties of the recently retired Julie Dickerson in our Quality Improvement Division. Meet them both below!

My name is Carley Scales, and I am a new administrative assistant. Along with supporting my group of faculty members, I will be your go-to girl for ordering and catering. I am so excited to be a small part of such an incredible organization that does so much good for our community and beyond!

I have lived in Cincinnati my entire life and grew up on the east side in the Eastgate/Withamsville area. I spent nearly every warm weekend at my family’s campsite on the Ohio river, and we were on the boat every chance we got! The water is my happy place, and now we get to share it with my three nephews and niece. Family is everything to me, and mine is growing very quickly!

I graduated from McNicholas High School in 2016, where I played volleyball. I took my passion for the game to college with me for my first year at a teeny tiny school in West Virginia called Alderson Broaddus University. I quickly began to miss Cincinnati and being close to my family, so I transferred to Northern Kentucky University where I finished my bachelor’s in marketing in 2020.

I grew up in Kincaid, Illinois, a town of 1,500 people about 30 miles southeast of Springfield, the state capitol. Fun fact: I was raised in a funeral home.

In the summers growing up, I would leave home in the morning and sometimes not come home until dark. Riding bikes, chasing fireflies in the evening, spending all day with friends, constant sleepovers, and never knowing where you might end up for lunch and supper. I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents, and (I am totally dating myself here) but when I would spend the night with them, we would go out for dinner and come home and watch “Hee Haw” and Lawrence Welk and my Grandpa would dance with me in the living room. I never had to make my bed, and my Grandma always baked me chocolate chip cookies and made me French toast for breakfast. We had an in-ground pool growing up, because when your Dad is the local funeral director, you can’t leave home for very long. We didn’t travel at all, so that was some built-in fun for the summer. I was active in sports—volleyball, track, competitive cheerleading. I was great at tumbling; I had a back layout to die for! There were only 29 kids in my high school graduating class!

I went into nursing partly because I wanted to help others, and partly because growing up female in small-town America in the 1970s with not a lot of exposure to the wider world, you just didn’t realize what other options there might be. But nursing has ended up being a great career with so much flexibility and work choices.

I’ve worked in a lot of adult hospitals. Cincinnati Children’s is my first pediatric hospital. There is truly no comparison. I would never want to go back to an adult hospital. I think people who have worked at Children’s their entire career get frustrated because they think the grass is greener at a different place, but this is the greenest grass I have found and I’m grateful every day for it.

I am a registered nurse with a master’s degree from Saint Louis University’s School of Public Health. I’ve worked in a lot of different places and roles throughout my career, mostly in adult cardiac surgery intensive care, but I came over from the Anderson Center as Radiology’s safety consultant at the end of April. My role will encompass both safety and quality in the department, with my main focus being on patient safety. I am excited for the opportunity to take the current state and be able to expand and grow as a dedicated full-time person in the role. My specific duties include but aren’t limited to review of all departmental-level safety reports, safety coaching, quality work driven by trends in safety reporting, assisting with OPPE, the quarterly Quality & Safety Conference in collaboration with others, and some OpEx responsibilities as assigned.

My hobbies include reading; knitting; hiking; traveling; baking; going to concerts and comedy shows; the opera; and spending time with my kids, dog, family, and friends. I just got back from a 2+ week vacation to Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece, and I’m headed to Vienna and Prague in September.

The last book I read was Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey by Florence Williams. I just started SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard because I am now a bit obsessed with ancient history after my trip. I love historical fiction and science writing, and I think anybody’s personal story and journey is more fascinating than fiction.

I just indulged in “Baby Reindeer” on Netflix. I’ve gone to the movies twice in the last few months:  “Wicked Little Letters” and “Inside Out 2.” I thoroughly enjoyed both of them!