Keiser University Tallahassee graduate Lilian Beach has a special gift.

“As Mr. Wilson here calls it, x-ray vision,” she describes. “You see it, you see how it moves when they move, you kind of have x-ray vision in your mind. You’re applying that to your daily life.”

Beach walks through the campus lab turning on the x-ray equipment. PIXY, the radiologic teaching manikin, lays on the table as she captures images of its bones. Each one is like a puzzle piece to answer critical questions about a patient’s health.

“I always knew I wanted to be in the medical field. My mom was a doctor, a lot of my family are nurses or medical assistants,” Beach said. “When I found x-ray I kind of knew, something clicked. This is something I could do for the rest of my life.”

After graduating from high school in Tallahassee, Beach moved to Birmingham, Alabama to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Science, with hopes to continue on to become a Physician Assistant.

But her vision for the future was clouded.

“I was kind of working a job that was dead-end and not really something I wanted to do with my life. It was more of a temporary, pay the bills kind of thing,” Beach said. “I kind of reevaluated my life and was like, what do I like?”

The answer, she says, is anatomy. That’s when she found Keiser University.

Beach graduated in May with an Associate of Science degree in Radiologic Technology. She is now working in her field at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, the same hospital where she recently completed her clinicals.

“You do surgery, you do fluoroscopy, you do general x-ray. The ER is a Trauma II so it’s probably the best experience I could get,” Beach said. “You’re definitely more crunched for time and have to think outside the box, which I always liked adding that creative standpoint to things. You can’t always get the walkie-talkie patient that’s able to position exactly how you learned in school. You have to think, how can I get this and make it look like it’s supposed to.”

Beach says she continues to learn and grow in her new role at TMH, and following her passion for taking care of others.

“As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized, your well-rounded life, you want to have a good social life, have a good family life, have a good work life. You have to find that balance, and if you don’t like your work, then you’re not going to like other aspects of your life,” Beach said. “I believe your career should be something you are passionate about. Keiser has made that possible for me. I will be doing something I love and helping others.”

Keiser University is a private, independent, non-profit university serving nearly 20,000 students at 21 Florida campuses, online, and two international sites. Co-founded in 1977 by Chancellor Arthur Keiser, Ph.D., and Evelyn Keiser, Keiser University currently offers more than 100 degrees from associates to the doctoral level. Keiser University is a  designated Hispanic-Serving Institution, a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and was ranked No. 5 in the U.S. in Social Mobility by U.S. News And World Report in 2022.