2023 BOT Candidate – Erika Paulsen

We would like to encourage all Fellow members to participate in the AAPA Board of Trustees (BOT) election.  Voting has been extended through Monday, October 31, 2022 at 11:59 pm CDT.  Fellow members who have not yet voted either online or onsite at the 47th Annual Conference in Minneapolis are invited to cast their vote online via SurveyMonkey (check your email for the ballot).  If you did not receive, or cannot locate, the ballot invite, please contact us at [email protected] for alternate means to vote.

To learn more about a candidate, click on their name above to be taken to their feature page.  For this election, you will be able to cast your vote for up to three of four candidates.

Results will be announced later in the year, and elected members will begin their terms in January 2023.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

Please tell the AAPA membership about yourself, and describe your past volunteer work.
After being a histotech for six years, I entered the Rosalind Franklin Pathologists’ Assistant Program and graduated in 2010.  My first job was at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where I was for twelve years, most recently as adjunct faculty with the RF program.  I became involved with the AAPA when I was still a student, then volunteered as the AAPA Liaison to RF right after graduation, from 2010-2012.  I was also involved in conference speaker recruitment for a few years.  I have been involved with the Grossing Guidelines since its inception.  I am currently the prostate subsection author and GI and GU section editor.  In 2017 I became the AAPA BOT Adjunct to the Commission on Cancer and am still in that role.  Finally, in August of 2019 I presented a lecture called “Human Colors: The Rainbow Garden of Pathology” at our spring conference.  I live in Chicago with my husband, two kids, and two cats.  I love cooking and baking (and eating all the things I make), plus singing and listening to anything with electric guitar.

Why are you interested in serving on the AAPA BOT?
Being a PA is one of the true joys of my life.  Despite dealing with difficult residents, sore wrists and legs, and some very late nights, joy comes with knowing that I provide care directly to patients by doing work that is precise, technical, and personally satisfying.  I hope that all of our members feel the same way.  As an organization of skilled professionals working hard in our own respective labs, our group can only be a community if every member contributes.  As a BOT member, I would be happy to contribute my organizational skills, communication style, and passion for our field to help keep our organization running and thriving.

What is your understanding of the mission and vision of this organization?
I see the AAPA working on a macro- and a micro- level.  For the greater profession as a whole, the AAPA helps guide the big picture of our field based on the circumstances or desires of its members.  Some examples: Our field has expanded beyond the US, so the AAPA created a path to membership for international Pathologists’ Assistants.  Some of our members want to focus on forensics, so the AAPA created a Forensic Task Force to help guide them.  There are many more examples of the AAPA carving a path for our members to accomplish their professional goals.  Fellow Pathologists’ Assistants are the only ones who really know what my days entail and what the microcosm of the lab is like.  I look to the AAPA to provide professional support in the form of education/conferences/CEs, inspection guidance, licensure resources, member surveys, etc.  The AAPA understands that we are practitioners who serve and that we are in demand, busy, and sometimes need support.

What do you think should be the most important priority for AAPA?
Currently there are many of our colleagues thinking about state licensure.  I think the AAPA has done a great job of presenting the facts about state licensure and sparking discussion among our community.  We are at a point now where we can decide if licensure is important to each one of us personally.  It is very important for the AAPA to help guide those of us pursuing or thinking about pursuing state licensure.  The AAPA has provided tools and resources for those of us who are concerned about or interested in moving forward with licensure, and should continue to keep the discussion alive and the door open to questions, concerns and, ultimately, the path forward.  The work that the AAPA is doing on developing the Grossing Guidelines is one of the most ambitious projects happening in our field right now.  I think we need to continue toward completing the guidelines and publishing it as a manual for the greater pathology world to use.  We are the experts in gross pathology, and we should be setting the standard for grossing around the country.

Is there a particular area that you feel could be improved within AAPA?
As masters-level professionals, not only do we have skills relating to the grossing bench, our training is applicable to many areas of the lab.  We are seen as an asset to keeping our departments running.  In addition to grossing work, you may be expected to be a preceptor teaching a PA student, a teacher/lecturer for residents, a supervisor of a team of techs, a manager of lab inventory, etc.  The positions in our field are so variable and because of our professional training, we fall easily into other roles – whether we are prepared for them or not.  I would like to see the AAPA provide resources on leading and supervising.  When I was a new PA, I would have benefitted from learning how to deal with staff in a supervisory setting, LEAN principles, etc.

What is the biggest challenge your lab faces today?
Being expected to do more with less – it’s not a new or glamorous issue.  I’m sure all Pathologists’ Assistants would say the same thing if asked.  As widespread as this notion is in the greater health care world, I think this is a particular problem in pathology.  In most hospitals I have seen, pathology departments are underfunded and overlooked – and this was brought into greater focus due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Because we do not work face-to-face with patients, it seems we are not considered to provide patient care.  But as we all know, this is far from the truth.