Faculty and Staff

Staff member makes memories with family, coworkers

a woman in front of a gray background
Susan James is an administrative associate in the Department of Periodontics, Endodontics and Dental Hygiene.
A woman and two boys

Susan James and her sons, Carson and Caleb.

Susan James describes herself as a memory keeper. Whether it’s taking photos of her favorite places and people, preserving old photographs from her family’s past in her spare time or keeping her boss’ schedule up to date, James’ role as administrative support associate in periodontics suits her.

James, a Campbell University grad,  joined Adams School of Dentistry almost five years ago, applying to the position with an administrative background. She admits she didn’t know much about dentistry, but she fits in well with her coworkers and team.

“Periodontics has become a family, everyone works well together and gets along,” she said. “It’s my home away from home. It’ll be five years this year.”

James’ coworkers would describe her as kind, loyal, helpful, friendly, always smiling and always willing to help when and wherever she’s needed. And her contributions to her team and to the school were recently recognized when she was honored with a H.E.A.R.T. award. The H.E.A.R.T (“Helping Everyone Achieve Results Together”) award, recognizes staff whose contributions to the ASOD community have been substantial and who embody the shared values of service and teamwork.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the award,” she said. “I was a little touched, because I know it requires several people to nominate you.”

James’ role is varied, and she supports her colleagues as best she can, ordering supplies, coordinating travel plans, working in Concur and managing schedules.

“I schedule for Dr. Susin and help keep his life on track,” she said. “It’s a team effort – Oksana (Moiseyeva), Jackie (Smith) and me – we’re all a piece of that puzzle.”

Working closely with her team is one of the perks of the job for James, as she likes to build relationships with her coworkers. She said she likes being a resource to others and helping people do their jobs better and offering support.

“I tend to stay loyal to those I’m with,” she said. “I love the people here; that’s the No. 1 thing. I tend to stick where I am, but it’s usually because of the people.”

James has people she’s close to outside of work, too, and said she’s “devoted to my kids,” Caleb, 11, and Carson, 8. Being with her kids also helps her pursue some of her favorite interests, like photography and travel. She’s taken lots of photos of her dogs and her sons over the years, and she is the designated photographer at family events, as well. But she’s also interested in preserving the past, and she has created photo albums of her late grandparents by going through old photos and curating the photos.

“I think of myself as a memory keeper. I want to preserve those memories, and put them all in one place. I want to make sure there’s a record somewhere for my family, and hopefully future generations.”

She’d also like to take more time to travel and has been making a list of the places she’d like to go, including Ireland, Spain and Greece overseas, and visiting closer to home, as well, such as museums in Washington, D.C. But whatever place she ends up seeing next, she’s sure to keep a record of it and preserve that memory for herself and her family.

Two boys with dogs

James loves taking photos of her children and her dogs.