Sonographer Lifetime Achievement Award

This awardee is selected by the Cardiovascular Sonography Council. This award is rotated with the Cardiovascular Sonographer Distinguished Teacher Award and is presented every other year.

Congratulations 2026 Awardee, Ken Horton, ACS, RCS, FASE

Ken Horton is an Advanced Cardiac Sonographer (ACS) at Intermountain Health, with over four decades of expertise in invasive and non-invasive cardiology. Intermountain Health is headquartered in Salt Lake City but he works remotely from Central Florida where he serves as an Echo Coordinator for the Intermountain Heart Institute and spearheads quality assurance, lab accreditation, education, and research initiatives. His credentials include ACS, Registered Cardiac Sonographer (RCS), Registered Cardiac Invasive Specialist (RCIS) and he is a Fellow of ASE (FASE).

Ken’s career began with 20 years of distinguished service in the United States Navy. While in the Navy, he applied for and was accepted to the Naval School of Health Sciences (NSHS) Cardiopulmonary Technician (CPT) program. He graduated as the honor student of his class in 1985. After his first assignment at Naval Hospital Oakland California, he returned to NSHS as a staff instructor for the CPT program. He eventually rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer and went on to be the Program Director for the Cardiopulmonary Technician program. He retired from the Navy in 1999 with 20 years of service.

After retiring from the Navy, Ken began his career as a cardiac sonographer at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. His subsequent places of work include University of Virginia University Hospital, Medstar Health Research Institute Cardiovascular Core Lab, and Intermountain Health.

Ken joined ASE in 2000 and has served on multiple committees, councils, work groups, and task forces. He was Chair of the Council on Cardiovascular Sonography from 2011 to 2013. He served as a member on the Board of Directors from 2006 to 2009. He also served as the ASE Board of Directors Executive Committee Secretary from 2013 to 2015. Ken has served on multiple committees such as Guidelines and Standards, Finance, Awards, and Nominations committees. He has authored, coauthored and contributed to multiple abstracts, manuscripts, peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He has been on the writing committee of several key ASE publications including the Guidelines for Performing a Comprehensive Transthoracic Echocardiogram and Recommendations for Performing Transesophageal Echocardiogram Screening for Structural Heart Interventions. He was also part of the Sonographer Career Ladder Workgroup. Ken has lectured nationally and internationally. He has presented lectures at the ASE Scientific Sessions almost every year since 2002.

Ken also has a long, active career with Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) having served on the Registered Cardiac Sonographer examination committee from 1999 to 2025. He was the President of CCI from 2015 to 2017. He is currently a member of the Advanced Cardiac Sonography examination committee.

Ken is married to Tonya Horton and resides in central Florida. They have a blended family of 6 kids and 11 grandchildren. He is an avid NASCAR fan and spends most weekends grilling or smoking meat with a cold beverage.