Society for the Preservation of PA History to Become AAPA’s 'Historic Arm'

Carter Will Step Down as Director

The Society for the Preservation of Physician Assistant History (PAHx) has announced that the society’s main office will move to the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) office in Alexandria, Virginia, on July 1. Reginald Carter, founding director of the society and of the PA History Center, will step down on that date, though he will remain the society’s historian for at least another year. Kevin Bayes, AAPA assistant director, information services, will be the society’s contact person at the AAPA and will manage the day-to-day affairs of the society. Adonna Thompson, the center’s archivist, will become the director of the PAHx Center on July 1. Although the society’s administrative offices will be at the AAPA headquarters, Carter and Thompson will continue to work out of offices at the Duke University Medical Center Archives and at the Eugene Stead Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Carter, a longtime director of the Duke University PA Program, said that the society’s newly appointed Board of Trustees will work closely with the Academy’s leadership and staff to seek new ways to enhance the society’s service to the profession and improve its financial outlook for the future. “I am pleased and excited by this transaction,” Carter said. He explained that the society will become the Academy’s “historic arm,” much as the Physician Assistant Foundation is its philanthropic arm.

Carter thanked the society’s founding members, especially the 61 PAEA member programs that are annual sponsors. “This support,” Carter said, “allowed the society to get off the ground and establish a framework and infrastructure that made it possible to approach AAPA about becoming one of its supporting organizations.” Carter said that his dream was to have all the programs participate in the history project.

On Thompson’s assuming the role of director, Carter said he felt this would strengthen the PA History Center within the structure of Duke University. The center serves as the society’s academic base for growing its special archival collection. The center staff are responsible for maintaining the Stead Office Museum, Prentiss Harrison Resource Room (library), and displays exhibited at the Eugene A. Stead, Jr. Center for Physician Assistants. The PA History Center’s Web site, http://pahx.org, can be accessed for more information about the center and its growing collection of historic materials.

Carter said that efforts would continue to educate the society’s sponsoring organizations through workshops and personal consultations about methods and processes they can use to preserve, study, and present their own history. PAEA has supported the society’s activities over the past few years and made donations at the level of sustaining partner — through yearly donations of $2,000.