Kathryn Foland, RT(R), Witham Health Services of Lebanon, Indiana
By Matt Skoufalos
Whether she’s working shifts at the hospital, taxiing her three sons among their daily activities, rearing livestock on the homestead, or teaching exercise classes at her barre studio in West Lafayette, Indiana, there are always demands on her time.
From Film Cassettes to Full-Time Tech
Kathryn traces the roots of her medical imaging career to a radiologic technologist assistantship she began during her freshman college year at a local hospital in Crawfordsville, Indiana. As she put in shifts on evenings and weekends, the work gave her a practical education in what would become her full-time career.
“I scheduled patients, transported patients and purged film; answered the phone, ran cassettes,” Kathryn said. “I enjoy helping people, and I’m a very visual learner, so it was the right path. It was something that I fell in love with.”
“We’re that first step to diagnosing what’s going on with the patient when they initially come in,” she said. “It’s sometimes good and sometimes bad, seeing things from the very beginning coming through to the end.”
At the same time that Kathryn was beginning her work in healthcare, she was keeping an eye on her grandfather, who was in and out of the hospital, regularly getting chest X-rays while battling emphysema and COPD. Her work as an imaging assistant didn’t seem to match up with the focus of her undergraduate studies, and so in 2010, Kathryn began X-ray school at the Ascension St. Vincent College of Health Professions.
By then, she had married her husband, Jordan, and begun working in a nursing home. It wasn’t the best fit for Kathryn, and neither was studying physical therapy, another option with which she had been presented. Instead, she put herself up for a competitive program in Kokomo, Indiana, and landed the opportunity.
During her second year of X-ray school, Kathryn was hired on as a student tech at Ascension St. Vincent, and stayed on after graduation as a working tech on a PRN basis. In 2013, she maintained those as-needed responsibilities while also taking on work at Franciscan Health until a full-time position opened up.
Meanwhile, the couple had welcomed Brysen, the first of their three sons. After nearly a year of working nights and weekends with an hourlong commute on either end, the family relocated, and Kathryn left St. Vincent. She later took on work in outpatient clinics and similar settings before joining Witham Health Services of Lebanon, Indiana in February 2026.
Finding Her Outlet at the Barre
All along, however, Kathryn had kept up with an exercise routine that eventually led to her certification as a Pure Barre instructor. She began the process during 2020, qualifying for the tests over video and in home studios.
Of the five different barre formats her home studio offers, Kathryn is certified in two of them, and today she teaches three to five classes once or twice a week. Classic is a low-impact, high-intensity, full-body, 50-minute workout that improves flexibility through toning and strengthening. The Define class fuses the Classic class format with heavier weight training to enhance muscular definition, perfect form and help students find a full range of motion.
“I like barre because we’re a very low-impact workout,” Kathryn said. “It’s like Pilates and yoga and ballet combined together. We do a lot of hands-on corrections, while it’s still music-driven, so my brain is always working.”
Kathryn says she enjoys barre instruction because the classes give her an opportunity to help people in a different way than in her day job at Witham Health.
“It’s really cool to see clients from the beginning,” she said. “I get to see progress.”
“I’ll have a client come in for the first time, and then 50 or 100 classes in, they’ve perfected the form and you can tell their toning, their mental clarity, their confidence has improved.”
In addition to charting her clients’ progress, Pure Barre creates a social environment around fitness that makes everyone feel welcomed and invited. From ages 16 to 70, the people in her studio feel in community with one another around the opportunity to exercise. That is what Kathryn says motivates everyone to bring their best to the class.
“Pure barre is my outlet,” Kathryn said. “That’s my peace and calming for the week. I don’t have to think about anything else. It’s a 50-minute class, no cellphone. It’s my time; it’s the clients’ time.”
Raising Boys and Blue-Ribbon Livestock
Kathryn also spends lots of time ferrying around sons Brysen, 12; Nash, 9; and Stetsen, 4, to the various activities of their childhood: baseball, basketball, 4-H and more.
Another of the family’s most time-consuming activities involves animal husbandry. The Folands have begun showing pigs, sheep and rabbits at the Indiana State Fair as a way to carry forward activities that Kathryn and Jordan enjoyed in their own childhoods.
“My husband and I both grew up showing pigs; I grew up showing sheep as well,” Kathryn said. “My brother raises show pigs now.”
“You definitely want to connect with the right people that can help you,” she said. “It’s a big industry, but close-knit. Everybody knows everybody.”
In addition to helping connect their sons with the work that is required to rear animals – feeding, walking, washing and cleaning their living spaces – some of the livestock are sent to market for slaughter, or for breeding by other farmers.
“It’s not a cheap hobby, and it takes a lot of dedication,” Kathryn said. “You’ve got to feed them and walk them twice a day and make sure their muscle and skeletal structure is good. In order to be competitive, it’s a full-time job in itself.”
Among the variety of activities in her life and those of her children, Kathryn sometimes has to remind herself not to overload her days. But she wouldn’t trade the peace of mind that barre delivers for anything else.
“I love showing up for the clients and seeing them show up for me,” she said. “Any time I feel like I’ve got too much on my plate – kids, work, activities – I remind myself it’s good for my mental health to do something that’s not just being a mom and an X-ray tech.
“There are always opportunities to work.”
Off The Clock Nomination
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