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Lalique Petersen, a dedicated full-time faculty member at Malcolm X College, has had an incredible journey in the healthcare and education fields.
Lalique Petersen, a dedicated full-time faculty member at Malcolm X College, has had an incredible journey in the healthcare and education fields.
This July, she was honored with the opportunity to serve on the 2024-2025 Board of Directors for the Illinois Health Information Management Association (ILHIMA), a component of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). As the Education Director, Lalique works closely with the ILHIMA Board and the Education Committee to design programs that provide high-quality educational opportunities for health information management professionals throughout Illinois.
Her path to this role wasn’t linear. Born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Lalique was a first-generation college student. She knew early on that she wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, but after an advisor discouraged her from a pre-med track, she followed her interest in technology. She earned a degree in computer networking, but the work left her unfulfilled and taking a year off to join the Peace Corps and teach in North Carolina.
It wasn’t until she worked in customer service at a hospital that she discovered the perfect marriage of her interests: health information technology. After shadowing the billing and coding department, she knew she had found her calling. Lalique pursued coding at Oakton Community College and spent the next 15 years as a coding auditor before earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Motivated by the gaps she saw in the industry, she decided to return to teaching, specifically to help coders, billers, and doctors feel more confident in their roles.
Lalique feels her work as the Education Director for ILHIMA directly impacts her role at Malcolm X. She sees it as an opportunity not only for her professional growth but also to build connections that benefit her students. Through ILHIMA, Lalique has access to a vast network of health information professionals, creating opportunities for mentorship and career advancement for her students.
Her advice to her students is simple yet powerful: “Just because you came from a Chicago public school or the west side of Chicago, don’t let people tell you ‘no.’” Lalique’s journey, from the U.S. Virgin Islands to her leadership role in the state association, is a testament to the power of saying “yes” to opportunities.
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