What goal(s) would you like to advance during your term on the APAP board and how will you accomplish your goal(s) during your term, if elected?

As part of the Board team, I’d like to focus on APAP’s transition to independent management, CASPA and APAP’s voice nationally.

• APAP’s independent management. As I said in my original platform statement and still believe, "we should build a structure with substance enough to meet our members’ needs, lean enough to be flexible and evolve, yet managed with fiscal prudence. We’re much larger than we were a generation ago, but not so large our members’ voices should be lost in the crowd. We need to craft a structure open enough so that all of us can be heard, one to grow the best of our thinking, yet we need also a stable process to draw these ideas together, to winnow them and build a consensus that works. . . . The way that APAP’s new structure evolves must support these ends."
• CASPA. As CASPA matures we need to ensure that it meets the needs of applicants, programs and APAP. Its finances especially should be carefully monitored, so as we set CASPA’s fees, we balance our aspirations for APAP’s growth with the burden to our applicants. I believe strongly in the worth of CASPA and am proud of my role in its founding. I made the motion from the floor that resulted in the initial work group that became the CASPA Advisory Committee, and as an APAP Board member was the first liaison to the Committee. Now, as it matures, I’d like to continue to help guide CASPA’s growth to benefit all of us in the PA community.
• APAP’s national voice. As APAP too has matured, we need to continue to expand our role with other national organizations. We need to forge ties with like-minded groups to leverage our voice in national debates on health professional education and health policy.

What strengths/skills/experiences would you bring to the APAP board and how will your talents strengthen APAP?

Two experiences over the past year have helped put my career in medical education into focus. I spent an eight month leave of absence in a Trappist monastery, and this past summer I had bypass surgery. Months in an austere contemplative community plus the experience of open heart surgery do wonders to clarify your thinking and humble you.

While I have the same CV I had a year ago, my perspective has been reshaped by these experiences. As you can see from my CV, I’ve spent a career in medical education, most of it with PAs, directing programs, writing grants, publishing, teaching, practicing clinically, serving on state regulatory bodies, the APAP Board and as an NCCPA Commissioner. I’ve learned a lot from each one, and pulled some hair too along the way, but I’ve come to recognize the value of experience as a caldron, boiling away the less relevant and leaving a solid core. When I look back now on what I’ve accomplished across the range of PA education and policy, what I find of value is less the trail of CV footprints and more the judgment and understanding that comes from fire tempering. I’d like to bring this part of myself to the APAP Board.

I used to think my strength was my CV, but after my time in a monastic community and after the leveling experience of being just one more cardiac surgery patient, I recognized it was less where I’d been but who I’d become over the years. I would be honored to serve another term on the APAP Board and pledge to bring my best judgment, values and experience to each issue we address.

What is your vision for APAP in five years?

My vision for APAP as we make the transition to independent management is to heighten the role the Board plays as facilitator for the voices of programs and faculty. Our considerable growth has led us to change the way we do business, but we need to manage this growth thoughtfully. Our challenge will be to balance our larger organizational structure with preserving open access. We must find ways to keep APAP open to fresh ideas and innovation. APAP’s greatest strength has always been the vigor and creativity of its members. Ruth Ballweg used to call it our pioneer mentality. We need to nurture this. Whether in the design of APAP meetings, our new organizational structure or the ways we recruit new faculty into APAP activities, we need to build in easy and welcoming access. We don’t want to put off people by an intimidating organizational structure or a maze of regulations that are clear only to the initiated. I am convinced that working together, we can create forums and structures that promote open discussion and debate to tap the vigor of all our ideas, while evolving to a healthy new structure.

What is APAP’s greatest strength? Its greatest challenge?

APAP’s greatest strength and greatest challenge are the same - the incredible range of talent, ideas and energy of our members. As we’ve grown larger our base of abilities has grown too, bringing even more talent to bear on each question. Our challenge is two fold: First to ensure that these voices get heard, so we can foster the best array of ideas; and, secondly, after debate, we need to find ways to help bring us toward consensus. We need both - rich and healthy debates followed by a way to come together on a common path. We can’t afford to worry open discussion will splinter us, but we can’t hesitate either, after we’ve worked an issue, to put aside our differences and forge a common goal.

Serving as a board member of a national organization can be a career-building experience. What would you expect to gain from your board service?

I feel like I’ve reached the Johnnie Appleseed phase of my career, when I’m more interested in planting and nurturing things than in adding to my CV. One of the benefits of having a long career in a profession like this is that you can get a chance to turn everything you’ve been through, stars and scars, into something useful. Rather than limping off after a long game, there are roles like this that let you distill your experience, take it to another level and use it with a team to help grow the next generation of APAP. As corny as it sounds, after a point collecting medals doesn’t count for much, planting does.