PAEA Honors Faculty and Programs at Awards Luncheon

By Eileen Evans

This issue of the Update features the awards presented to the winners of the Outstanding Service Award, the Research Achievement Award, and the Excellence Through Diversity Award at the Awards Luncheon during PAEA’s Education Forum held in November in Puerto Rico. Faculty selected to receive the New Faculty, Rising Star, and Master Faculty awards were featured in December 2005 issue of the APAP Update.

Outstanding Service Award

Stolberg is this year’s winner of the Outstanding Service Award. She has served PAEA in many capacities since her first days as a PA in 1977: as chair of the Education Committee and the Eastern Consortium and as a member at large and vice president on the board of directors. Stolberg is also recognized for her skills as an arbiter; as a member of the Association’s Transition Task Force, she has been called on recently to break more than one deadlock.

Stolberg was a faculty member and program director from 1977-2000 at the MCP Hahnemann University PA Program, now known as the Drexel Hahnemann program. She has mentored faculty in leadership forums and professional development programs. In 2001 she became chair of the PA Professional Standards Committee for the International
Commission on Healthcare Professions, a division of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools.	Stolberg on the Oregon shore with son Jesse, who refreshes and amuses her.

Prior to this, Stolberg represented APAP for two three-year terms with the ARC-PA, was vice chair for two years, and served as a site visitor for more than ten. She was an invited member from 1994-95 on the Medical Workforce Project Advisory Panel for the Office of Technology Assessment of the United States Congress.

Among her scholarly activities, Stolberg co-edited Physician Assistant: A Guide to Clinical Practice. This text, published in 1994 and ready for its fourth edition, is used today by many PA programs. She served from 1995-2003 on the editorial board of Physician Assistant journal, published articles in Perspective and the PA Newsletter of Ethics, and has given numerous presentations for the PA and external organizations. She has received grant funding and served as a peer reviewer for PA training grants. Just recently Stolberg became director of the Stanford University PA program in California.

Research Achievement Award

Jim Cawley was selected as this year’s winner of PAEA’s Research Achievement Award, which is presented to an individual who has a distinguished record of scholarly contributions to PA education over many years and/or someone who has authored a recent, seminal work of importance to PA educators.
		Cawley in Taiwan in 2004

For more than 25 years, Cawley has worked as a health workforce researcher evaluating the role of PAs in American medicine. His record of scholarly research and publications began in 1977 and, 27 years later, has reached 114 peer-reviewed publications and 91 invited presentations. He is the author of three books on the profession and has made substantial contributions to other medical texts on research methodology and epidemiology. His contributions to the literature appear not only in the range of PA journals and textbooks, but in some of the most respected and prestigious publications worldwide, including Academic Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, Health Affairs, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Journal of Public Health Policy.

Excellence Through Diversity Award

The Excellence Through Diversity Award was awarded this year to the University of Texas Pan American PA Program. Program director Frank Ambriz accepted the award. The program is located in the Rio Grande Valley, which borders Mexico and has a population that is approximately 85 percent Hispanic. Health care provided in this region serves both countries and cultures.

Guided by the 2003 report released by the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, “Race-Neutral Alternatives in Postsecondary Education: Innovative Approaches to Diversity,” the Pan Am program has had notable success in achieving diversity, partly through strategies designed to incorporate diversity into most lectures across the curriculum.
		“Home Sweet Home”

Pan Am initiated outreach programs to target diverse and underserved populations in middle and high school students. It partnered with local colleges, including community colleges, expanded financial aid options, revised its admission procedures, and reviewed its self-study process to further inclusion.

One of Pan Am’s faculty created the PA Summer Enrichment Program, a targeted admissions program that placed all six of its inaugural, Hispanic participants in PA programs throughout Texas. Prior to participating, each of the students had been denied admission to PA programs for various reasons. Recently, the program completed a second cycle with eight minority students.

In addition to partnering with the “Big 12” schools in the state, Pan Am also collaborates with the University of Texas-Brownsville, its sister university, and guarantees its advisors the ability to place two students into every incoming Pan Am class. These students are almost always Hispanic and are more likely to serve in the Brownsville area after graduating. Pan Am’s qualitative admissions process allows for a second look at applicants from the nearby community college. Representatives from Pan Am are present at the community college’s transfer student orientations and career fairs to offer personalized mentoring and advisement.

Pan Am encourages its students to adapt to and accommodate the program’s unique border community and to help them realize the hardships that families experience in accessing care. The vast majority of their patient load includes socioeconomically disadvantaged Hispanic people, much like themselves.

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