40 Under 40 - 2025

Kernesha Weatherly has spent a large part of her career advocating for imaging technologists.

One of her achievements involves securing a raise for multi-modality technologists, which helped lead to a 10% reduction in turnover within a single year at New Orleans-based Ochsner Health, she said. She accomplished this by advocating for the critical role radiology plays in patient care, supporting surgical procedures and accurately targeting conditions for diagnosis and treatment.

“It was really the advocacy, being loud about it, letting people know that this [role] is necessary, these are the reasons why, and this is what we're running into,” she said.

She also helped increase the number of limited X-ray machine operators. Those roles didn’t exist in Louisiana, so Weatherly and her team worked with the medical board and clinicians to develop them.

She implemented 24-hour MRI access and deployed 3T MRI, which is twice as strong as standard MRI scanners, across the health system. That reduced wait times for specialized imaging and boosted patient throughput, contributing to a 15% increase in patient satisfaction scores, according to Weatherly.

Weatherly is also working to establish a system-wide Imaging Access Center to improve scheduling and expand access to same-day imaging.

“I wholeheartedly believe in including patients and their decisions for how they would like to receive their care, versus saying, here's your appointment, show up at this place at this time,” she said. “That may or may not work for the patient.”

— Lauren Dubinsky