Kristin Ireland, right, receives her doctorate in health studies in spring of 2026. Ireland earned an assocuate degree in Respiratory Therapy from MATC in May 2019.
MATC gave me a sense of belonging. They saw me and heard me. Without that, I wouldn't have done everything I have done.
Kristin Ireland’s anxiety about arithmetic was all too real.
In the fall of 2016, she arrived at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s West Allis Campus for her first day of class. Ireland was 29 and had not taken a math class since her sophomore year of high school. To solve even the simplest calculations, she needed to count on her fingers.
“Going back to school was frightening enough,” she recalled. “I also knew that math would be my nemesis.”
But inside her math classroom was instructor Kathleen Schroeder, who offered kindness, support and reassurance.
“Kathleen treated me with dignity and respect,” Ireland remembered. “She was patient and kind. Without Kathleen and MATC treating me the way they did, I don’t know if I would have wanted to keep going. They helped me succeed.”
And the woman who counted on her fingers has done so much. She earned an associate degree in Respiratory Therapy from MATC, degrees from two other colleges, and in May 2026, a doctorate in health studies.
Today Ireland works as a researcher, author, editor and a well-respected consultant. She developed a groundbreaking online lung ultrasound course for respiratory therapists and has shared her expertise via webinars with audiences in the United States, Saudi Arabia and China.
“Kristin was a great student, hardworking and conscientious,” said Schroeder, who is now retired. “She did have some anxiety about math — math tends to do that to people — but she always persevered.”
Finding her way in Wisconsin
Growing up, Ireland wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She was born in southeast Minnesota and moved to Wisconsin when she was 5 years old. Her family came to Milwaukee six years later. She attended the Hartford Avenue University School, located on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, and in 2005 graduated from Milwaukee Riverside High School.
She had some interest in medicine at the time and applied to an X-ray technician program. She wasn’t accepted.
“I had to figure out what I wanted to do,” she said.
In 2006, she enrolled in emergency medical technician classes at MATC while working at UPS in Oak Creek and at a hotel in Glendale. She finished the program in 2007, but she failed the national registry examination, a requirement for certification and licensure in Wisconsin.
Instead of shifting gears, she repeated the entire EMT program and passed the national exam in 2008. She then worked as an EMT at several private ambulance companies in the Milwaukee region. She also taught basic, advanced and pediatric life support classes for the American Heart Association.
During one ambulance shift, a particularly difficult episode with a patient requiring a ventilator left her shaken because she didn’t know what to do.
“At that moment I decided I would never again be in a situation where I didn’t know what I was doing,” she recalled.
Starting a healthcare career
Spurred on by the ventilator incident, Ireland returned to MATC in 2016 and began her prerequisite courses for the Respiratory Therapy program.
She conquered her aversion to math and completed the program in the spring of 2019. Soon after, she started working as a respiratory therapist during the weekend shift at All Saints Hospital in Racine.
“Kristin is without a doubt one of the brightest and most dedicated respiratory therapists I have ever had the privilege to work with,” said Mike Davis, regional manager of respiratory care services at Ascension All Saints, who hired Ireland. “As a graduate of MATC, she takes great pride in understanding the why behind everything she does and consistently goes out of her way to use her ever-expanding knowledge to improve patient care.”
In the fall of 2019, Ireland’s ever-present intellectual curiosity kicked in. She noticed patients were getting sick and dying apparently without much reason. “I started to get nervous,” she said. “You can’t treat something you don’t understand.”
So in the middle of a global pandemic, Ireland’s urge to learn more led her to Marian University in Fond du Lac, where she received a bachelor’s degree in respiratory therapy in 2021. A week later she started her master’s degree in an online program offered by Loma Linda University in California. She finished in June 2022.
Not content to stop there, Ireland in 2023 enrolled in A.T. Still University’s doctor of health sciences (DHSc) online program, which focuses on healthcare leadership, policy and evidence-based practice.
“I wanted to go as far as the path would take me,” Ireland said. “I wanted to finish the journey. Gaining more knowledge means you can solve more problems.”
While attending classes, she did research, wrote articles and shared her expertise at various conferences. She stopped working at Ascension in July 2025, and a few months later, she and her husband, Sam, moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
Along with her writing, editing, research, consulting and lecturing, Ireland is finishing her doctoral paper, a study of leadership in respiratory therapy before, during and after the pandemic.
All her career opportunities came as a result of her unabashed and apparently insatiable appetite for knowledge, a desire that started in earnest after an MATC math instructor allowed her to be vulnerable, to be herself and to count on her fingers so many years ago.
“Learning is all about the struggle,” Ireland said. “It’s about pouring out every ounce of brainwidth that you have into something until something clicks. And when that happens, it’s a rush. It feels like such a win.”
Learn more about MATC’s Respiratory Therapy program
About MATC: As Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 35,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 45 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.