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Know Your Candidates
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Since 1972 APAP has served as the one and only organization representing PA educational programs. Over the years APAP has had a positive impact on all of us — PA faculty, PA programs, PA students, the PA profession, and our health care system. I have been a PA educator for 17 years, and over the last decade I have been involved in numerous APAP activities. My early APAP service includes development of the current process for managing the |
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| APAP Student Writing Competition and creation and maintenance of the closed pafaculty usergroup. Additionally I have served as Research and Review Committee chair and Research Institute co-chair, and have also performed service for other PA organizations including AAPA, ARC-PA, NCCPA, and several PA journal editorial boards as well. PA education and the PA profession are my passions, and I seek your support in applying that passion to the office of president elect. | |
In my opinion, APAP’s primary responsibilities are twofold: (1) internal responsibility to PA programs, faculty, and students, and (2) external responsibility to represent and promote PA education outside of APAP. APAP’s internal responsibilities are critical to providing faculty development resources and fostering a supportive PA faculty community. I recall during my first APAP conference discovering there were faculty from other programs with jobs like mine, and that by working together we could be more effective. APAP is uniquely qualified to provide the best quality PA faculty development tools, and I believe this should be one of APAP’s top priorities.
Specifically, my priorities for APAP are:
- Concentrate on making APAP conferences and workshops a valuable faculty development resource that would appeal to all programs and faculty
- Continue restructuring of APAP committees to foster greater efficiency
- Promote wider utilization of the centralized application system because it will provide APAP clearer data of the applicant pool and student population
- Continue to strongly support diversity within the PA profession
- Support growth and development of a research community within PA education, including both PA faculty and students
- Encourage greater participation in APAP leadership activities by faculty previously not active
- Explore additional methods to strengthen the PA applicant pool
I would welcome the opportunity to serve as APAP president elect, and if elected I will serve with enthusiasm and passion. Please feel free to contact me at 319/335-8925 or richard-dehn@uiowa.edu.
Patrick
T. Knott, PhD, PA-C
President Elect
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In my time as secretary/treasurer of the APAP Board of Directors, I have observed several distinguished colleagues run for the office of president. Each had planned to accomplish one major change or improvement in the Association during his/her year in office, and each has done so with distinction. As I look ahead to my plans for the Association and what I might accomplish as president, I find I do not have a single plan to work toward. Rather, I see an unlimited number of opportunities ahead of APAP and the |
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| need for a leader who can look expectantly for those opportunities and seize them as they arise. | |
As your secretary/treasurer, you entrusted me to safeguard the Association’s financial assets while remaining alert for prospects to develop new sources of revenue. As president, I would to strive to promote the Association’s vision and direction while safeguarding its reputation and values. I believe that APAP’s leaders must take active roles in seeking out important relationships, cultivating trust among those organizations with a common purpose or natural alliance with us, positioning ourselves correctly on important political issues, and resolving small problems before they grow.
For APAP, these are good times. Our programs are healthy, and financially, the Association is sound. Our business plan is solid and we are realizing new financial resources from successful projects, such as CASPA. Our membership, which grew so rapidly during the 90s, is now maturing, growing more slowly, and becoming stronger. APAP is making solid advances toward assuring that our applicant pool will increase, as we promote an awareness of PA educational programs. Our membership is active, dedicated, and interested in helping to run the organization. We are constantly adding new, talented, and energetic PA educators to our ranks.
What APAP needs to continue and enhance this trend are leaders who can harness what we have and connect this with the overall mission and vision of the organization; leaders with an ability to communicate this vision effectively so that the membership feels informed and included; and leaders who see everyday happenings that confront the Association as opportunities ready to be reframed as advantages. It is in this capacity that I hope to serve you and the Association. Thank you for considering my candidacy.
Secretary/Treasurer
William
H. Marquardt, MA, PA-C
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This will serve as declaration of my candidacy for election to the APAP Board of Directors in the coming election for the position of secretary/treasurer. I am very familiar with the specific responsibilities of this position and have the support of both my peers and supervisors in this effort.
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The demand for fiscal responsibility continues strong as the Association grows and the number of programs and activities supported increases. The Finance Committee has been extraordinarily careful to manage APAP resources appropriately, and the members can be assured that continued fiscal responsibility is the first priority. The formal business plan now in place is the foundation for both present and future activities and will guide deliberations of the BOD as it manages an even greater array of priorities.
Beyond overseeing the fiscal aspects of the Association, the secretary/treasurer must be knowledgeable of the many other issues facing the PA profession and PA education, and I believe that the many years of experience mentioned above have uniquely prepared me to address them on behalf of the membership.
I would appreciate your support in my efforts to once again work on behalf of PA education as a member of the Association’s Board of Directors. Thank you for your consideration.
Secretary/Treasurer
Dana L. Sayre-Stanhope, MS, PA-C
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Over the past seven years I have had the honor of being one of the two longest serving members of the APAP Finance Committee. I joined it because I was thoroughly confused about the organization’s fiscal direction and financial health. It was a new committee and, over the next several years, the committee learned its job well. Ultimately, I believe that our work has made a significant difference in the fiscal stability of our organization and its continuing growth. Initially there was limited funding for |
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| research, limited reserves, and a deficit budget. This year we anticipate continuing APAP funded research projects, getting our first revenue from CASPA, which will allow us to continue to build our reserves and a balanced budget for the fifth year in a row. | |
However, there is a great deal yet to be done in advancing our business plan, enhancing CASPA services, supporting and expanding Perspective on Physician Assistant Education, and ensuring funding for other member-directed initiatives. Perhaps most importantly, it is imperative that the APAP continue its advance toward fiscal autonomy. We are a young, vibrant organization with talented members, and we are ready to stand on our own feet.
All of these things will require someone with experience in budgeting, as well as knowledge of APAP and our goals. Regarding the former, over the course of my career I have created and managed a variety of budgets ranging from a $5,000,000 HRSA consortia grant for pediatric trauma services to the considerably smaller, but no less challenging, budget of a PA department. As a program director for the past 10 years I have been faced with the daily demands for parsimonious management of shrinking university funds, and I fully appreciate the need for APAP to deliver significant value for membership dues.
I am proud of APAP’s continuing achievements and believe that our fiscal health is paramount if we are to continue to address the needs of our membership. I believe that my experience and knowledge provide a framework for continuing that growth, and it is for that reason that I seek the position of secretary/treasurer.
Director
at Large
Frank
A. Acevedo, PA-C, MS
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While working as a physician assistant for the past twenty years, I have had the opportunity to blend both academic and clinical career paths. Though my clinical experience has focused primarily on general surgery and surgical critical care, I have also been able to apply my primary care skills in all practice settings. It is this core foundation of primary care skills that has kept our |
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| profession unique and at the cutting edge of where medicine should be. As an academic physician assistant, I have had the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of PA education. From clinical preceptor, adjunct faculty, full-time faculty, academic coordinator, and program director, I have had the opportunity to see first hand what PA education is all about. | ||
While meeting the demands of PA education and clinical practice, I have also been able to participate as a member of the New York State Society of Physician Assistants (NYSSPA). I have been chair of conference planning, continuing medical education, and governmental affairs. These positions have allowed me to keep abreast of the issues affecting clinical physician assistants and how they relate to PA education in general. Wearing these many hats has provided me with a multi-oriented perspective that I wish to bring to the APAP Board of Directors.
As a candidate for the position of director at large, I see many potential areas that are directly linked to the responsibilities of this office in which we, as an organization, can improve. First, I see an opportunity as liaison to the regional consortia. This link between the board of directors and the regional consortia can be strengthened through the appropriate utilization of technology. Utilizing my background in instructional technology, I see an opportunity for creating and maintaining continuous synchronous and asynchronous dialogue. This dialogue will be essential in formulating our board directives and responding to our constituency in a timely manner.
Second, the assignment of committee work ties in very nicely with the mentoring of potential leaders. As director at large I envision an environment that allows other interested faculty to participate on committees to further their understanding of the workings of APAP. Last, if given the opportunity, I will strive to strengthen the link between the board of directors and all consortia, members, and most important of all, our students.
I thank you for your consideration and support of my candidacy.
Director
at Large
Justine
Strand, MPH, PA-C
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PA faculty are among the most innovative in health professions education. The APAP network provides opportunities for “cross-pollination,” allowing us to learn from each other and devise solutions to common problems. PAs are projected to be one of the fastest growing professions in the next decade and beyond, and PA educators deserve greater recognition for rapidly responding to a changing health care environment. |
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APAP has made great strides in strengthening ties with other health professional education organizations, and I would add my energy and ideas to these efforts.
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I support APAP’s move to further develop our unique identity among the national PA organizations. To achieve this goal, we must build on the excellent work that has increased APAP’s financial viability through fiscal responsibility and development of ideas for generating more revenue.
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We must think creatively together about ways to enhance our applicant pool and share strategies that have worked on the local level. Better characterization of the actual applicant pool is critical, and every possible effort must be made to capture this data. CASPA has been extremely successful, achieving financial viability ahead of its projected timetable. There remain programs, however, that are unable to participate due to institutional or other considerations, and we must devise solutions for collection of this missing data.
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Successful strategies for recruiting, retaining, and graduating underrepresented minority and disadvantaged candidates to PA programs should be more widely shared and will demonstrate that diversity is valued by the organization. Diversity not only increases the PA profession’s ability to impact health disparities, it has potential to increase our applicant pool.
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PA curricula evolve in response to national need, and our graduates can be leaders in making health care safer and more user-friendly. We must continue to share curriculum innovation and take lessons learned to a wider health professions audience, making teams not just a mantra, but a reality.
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As the only federal funding for PA education (Title VII, Section 747 primary care training grants) is increasingly threatened, we must advocate for new funding sources at the national level, in concert with AAPA leadership.
I would bring experience in medical education, health policy, and administration to the tasks at hand and ask your support for my candidacy for director at large.
Strand CV