PAEA is committed to providing the best services possible to its members. Its major services include the premier national meeting for PA educators, the PAEA Annual Education Forum, which is held each fall in a different city around the country. The Association publishes a journal, the Journal of Physician Assistant Education, and a monthly electronic newsletter, PAEA Networker, for all PA faculty members, as well as electronic directories and an annual data report.

PAEA supports research on PA education through two grants programs, one jointly sponsored by the American Academy of Physician Assistants. The Association conducts faculty development programs and continually reviews and upgrades student and graduate PA self-assessment exams.

A major enterprise developed by PAEA - one that benefits both its member programs and prospective students - is the Central Application Service for Physician Assistants (CASPA), which allows applicants to complete one electronic application and designate any number of programs to receive it. Since the service was launched in 2001, nearly 50,000 applicants have applied to the PA programs through the service. One hundred and eight programs now participate in CASPA. Program participation in CASPA frees faculty and staff to devote their efforts to student recruitment and retention activities.

PAEA systematically collects PA program, student, and applicant data, both through CASPA and through the Annual Report on PA Educational Programs in the United States. The Association has committed significant resources to developing its research capacity and has formed a workgroup to overhaul the collection, analysis, and sharing of data.

The PAEA Faculty Development Institute (FDI) is the umbrella entity that oversees all of the Association's faculty development initiatives and workshops. The FDI is responsible for a number of annual faculty development workshops, including the Basic Skills and the Clinical Coordinators Workshop, two perennial faculty favorites. The PAEA Research Institute oversees all of the Association's research activities, including two yearly grant programs, and the production of the quarterly, peer-reviewed journal Journal of Physician Assistant Education.

The Association also sponsors an annual exhibit of educational products and devices for PA faculty at its fall Education Forum. For the past nine years, well-known publishers, software developers, and medical device manufacturers have taken advantage of the opportunity to reach the educators in the PA profession. Companies that exhibited in 2005 brought in textbooks, patient simulators, PDA and web-based systems, and clinical medical education software.