The Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) is the only national organization in the United States representing physician assistant (PA) educational programs.

 Membership

The Association's members are the 149 accredited PA programs in the United States and receive all benefits of membership, including the right to elect the Association's officers and to vote at annual business meetings. Historically, all accredited programs have elected to join the Association.

Functionally, the "members" of the Association are the faculty and staff of PAEA's member programs — the 1,500+ dedicated individuals who serve on the Association's boards and committees and educate thousands of PA students annually.

PAEA offers two additional categories of affiliation:

• Individual colleague membership: a non-voting category for individuals, not currently on the faculty or staff of one of PAEA's member programs, with an interest in PA education.
• Institutional colleague membership: a non-voting category for PA programs or other organizations not eligible for full membership with an interest in PA education. Faculty and staff of institutional colleagues receive many of the same benefits as those in full-member programs. Most institutional colleague programs receive their accreditation soon after joining PAEA. At this point, they can be quickly converted to full voting members.