The Printing Industry's Rising Star: Kiki Dusina of SPC

Editor's Note: The four individuals profiled in this series were named the 2026 Rising Stars due to their passion, their dedication, and the impact they’ve had on the printing industry. In this article, we present Kiki Dusina, account manager, training and development leader, at Specialty Print Communications (SPC), located in Niles, Illinois. 

Kiki Dusina

Although Kiki Dusina attended Clemson University’s Graphic Communications Program, she would tell you she fell into printing and that it was a happy accident.

“I thought that it was a graphic design program,” she shares. “I had one class freshman year about different types of commercial print. … And then four years went by and we just kept talking about print and we never really talked about graphic design, but it really worked out well for me.”

Dusina began her career nearly 10 years ago when she was hired as an associate account manager at Specialty Print Communications (SPC), a PRINTING United Alliance member company, following a career fair at Clemson. She is now an account manager as well as the training and development leader, a position she helped tailor and grow. Dusina is responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s “SPC School,” a comprehensive training curriculum.

She explains that her department consisted of about 18 account managers and over a two-month period, the team would add six new associate account managers, all requiring extensive training. If each new hire was paired with an experienced account manager, as per the company’s normal training process, that would have put a third of the team in a training position, she notes.

“I raised my hand and asked if I could put together a training program and be one person in charge of training six people, instead of doing the typical one-on-one,” she says. “Over the next six months, I created a curriculum and taught it to the new associate account managers.”

Training as a Priority

The program, which began in early 2023, continues to this day with written training materials that are available to all employees, even if they just need a refresher on a process.

Dusina worked on a curriculum that includes five silos, each one expanding on the one before, covering everything the new hire needs to know to succeed at SPC.

“If I have ever made a mistake in the past that cost our company a lot of money or made a customer upset, you better believe it went in those training materials,” she says. “[The materials came from] my personal experience and it came from the other experts within SPC. I spent a lot of time with other department heads finding out what instructions account management give them that’s helpful and what instructions account management give them that is not helpful so we could correct that as part of the training process.”

She also included other elements she knew the new hires should be aware of within the department, such as how to work with vendors, supplier resources, understanding spec sheets, and postal and mailing information.

A few years in, Dusina explains it’s been a learning experience for her on another level. Every person who is trained learns things slightly differently, necessitating flexibility in her approach to teaching.

“It has really forced me to try and explain all topics in at least two ways,” she says. “For most topics, there are slides but then also some type of activity based on a job we have done recently that applies that concept, so they can see the context of why it matters and actually practice what we’re talking about, such as talking about paper and calculating basis weight and piece weight for mail. … I really try to fish answers out of people and ask them to explain themselves, so I know that they’re not just luckily picking the correct answer.”

If someone doesn’t seem to understand a concept, Dusina readjusts.

“It allows me to take a step back and say, ‘Okay, clearly the way that I just explained that wasn’t the right context for you. So let’s rethink this in a different way and see if that sticks,’” she says.

Dusina’s journey to the printing industry may have been a happy accident, but it’s one that she has embraced.

“Hopefully [I will] continue to help future generations of print in whatever role that may look like,” she says. “I think it would be great if there continued to be more training, but the training is also just a need that arose at SPC that I responded to. So who knows what needs will come up in the future that might also be a good fit? … I certainly hope to continue being involved in helping to bring in the next generation and raise them up to be our rock star leaders of the future.”

Outside of the printing industry, Dusina loves creating pottery and plans to build a pottery studio in her newly purchased home. In her day-to-day career, she also hopes to show younger generations that they too can make a difference.

“I hope that it shows other young folks in the industry that they can have a voice and have an impact even without having years of experience under their belt,” she says. “It’s awesome to be able to feel like I’m making an impact even though I’m not a 20-year industry vet. I hope other people hearing my story and what I’ve done makes them take ownership in their career and ownership in their company.”