Success Story: Meet Barbara

On the Front Lines

When Barbara Moss first discovered the Respiratory Therapy degree program at St. Augustine College, she was already working in healthcare as a Certified Nursing Assistant — someone who understood firsthand the difference a skilled respiratory care team could make for a patient struggling to breathe.

“I was excited to find St. Augustine. There are only a few respiratory therapy programs in the city, so that’s kind of unique,” says Moss, who was also drawn to the college’s culture of inclusion. “Even though it’s a school founded to serve the Hispanic community, the fact that I’m not Hispanic was never an issue. It was a very diverse classroom in every way — everyone was welcome.”

Within two years of enrolling in SAC’s CoARC-accredited AAS program, Moss had completed her coursework, her clinical rotations across Chicago-area healthcare facilities, and earned her Associate of Science degree in Respiratory Therapy. She graduated prepared to sit for the NBRC credentialing exams — the nationally recognized benchmark for respiratory therapy practice. Little would she know that a global pandemic was just months away.

“It was extremely difficult,” she recalls, describing her transition from CNA to Respiratory Therapist at Chicago’s Swedish Covenant Hospital just as COVID-19 began to surge. “We had a lot of very unstable and extremely sick patients. In the beginning, it was really bad … really scary.”

Respiratory therapists were among the most essential and most stretched healthcare workers during the pandemic. Managing ventilators, maintaining airways, and monitoring oxygenation for critically ill patients — the precise clinical skills SAC’s program builds over six semesters — became life-or-death work overnight.

Moss credits her training at St. Augustine for preparing her to meet that moment.

“You really had to be strong,” she says. “It was a lot of work, a lot of people needing help, and a lot of unknowns. It hit respiratory therapists probably the hardest.”

Now, with the most acute phase of the pandemic behind her, Moss has turned her focus to what comes next — and the horizon for respiratory therapy professionals in Illinois is broad. From hospital ICUs and neonatal units to pulmonary clinics, sleep centers, and home care, the field offers career paths that grow with a practitioner’s credentials and interests.

“There are so many things you can do with a Respiratory Therapy degree,” she explains. “You could do home health; you could work in a hospital. It’s a great stepping stone to basically be the nurse of breathing.”

Moss hopes to continue her education — perhaps pursuing a bachelor’s degree or beyond — but she’ll always carry her SAC experience with her. In a gesture that speaks to how deeply the college shaped her, she once donated to the Jewish National Fund to have a tree planted in SAC’s honor in Israel, sending the college’s mission across the world.

“I loved my experience there. It taught me everything about breathing that you wouldn’t ever think twice about,” she says. “There’s so much to it, it’s unbelievable — and I really learned all of that at St. Augustine.”