Mona Ranade

Congrats @akhileshsistaMD and team!

My most noteworthy experience at SIR 2026 was to be there when Sue got her award. It meant a lot to see her get recognized. As anyone who trained at USC can attest, Sue deserves all the recognition our society has to offer. She is a true model for all - she always does her job to the highest degree and puts patient care first. I sometimes wonder is someone like me would survive in our current trainee environment. I was interested, hard working, and intellectually curious but was admittedly a bit timid procedurally during residency. The people at USC, including Mike, Vicki, Don, Ray and Ilya recognized my potential and fostered it while acknowledging where I had room for improvement - always directly and with respect. Sue trained me to the highest level, but more importantly, cared about me as a person first and foremost. My interview with her was unique- she didn’t care about the tiny details about cases I did or abstracts I presented. She tried to get to know me as a person, to see if the environment at USC was something I would be able to succeed in. And she was brutally honest about it. I left thinking “what was that?” But also with a feeling of inspiration and connectedness. As a junior attending at USC, she always kept a watchful yet distant on eye on me- giving me space to grow. She always had a 6th sense when something was bugging me or I was down, and always offered her support. To this day she visits me and my family on the east coast, sends my kids gifts and helps celebrate their milestones from afar. She truly is one of a kind. It’s people like her that make being in IR a privilege. Congrats Sue!