We would like to encourage all Fellow members to participate in the AAPA Board of Trustees (BOT) election. Voting has been extended through Friday, November 3, 2023 at 11:59 pm CDT. This year, all Fellow members are being invited to cast their vote online via SurveyMonkey (check your email for the ballot). If you do 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 candidates.
Results will be announced later this year (pending reaching our required quorum), and elected members will begin their terms in January 2024.
Thank you in advance for your participation!
Organization: University of Minnesota Physicians
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Fellow Member Since: 2015
Current AAPA Position: Education Committee Chair
Please tell the AAPA membership about yourself, and describe your past volunteer work.
I have nearly a decade of work with the AAPA. My experience with the AAPA began as a student delegate from Maryland in 2014. I was so impressed and energized by this community that was so friendly and helpful – even to a student who printed off a retroactively absurd number of business cards and didn’t really know what she was getting into – that when I graduated, I started looking for ways to engage and give back. I first volunteered with the AAPA in the quiz writing committee, eventually authoring a couple articles for The Cutting Edge and presenting posters at conferences. From there, I briefly helped develop the position of Content Generation Chair before volunteering as Vice Chair of Education for approximately two years. In late 2019, I accepted the role of Education Chair, enthusiastically planning all the new initiatives we could take on in the promising year of 2020. Obviously, the year developed a little differently, but through that, I worked with program chairs, other committees, and volunteers to meet changing member needs from partnering with other committees to have a resource page of safety and mental health links on the website to engaging with an unbelievable set of volunteers who made grossing videos and feedback available for students. The Chair and Vice Chair of Education oversee approximately 16 subcommittees and special projects, and working in those roles for the past few years, I have nothing but respect and awe for the members who willingly give a little (or a lot) of their time to make us all better. Most recently, I gave 1.5 lectures at the 2022 Annual Conference. I am the lead PA at MHealth Physicians, a position in which I gross, assist with autopsies, act as a liaison with our research teams, serve as a PA preceptor, teach residents, help the university maintain their teaching organ collection, and, most importantly, plan Halloween events. When not volunteering with the AAPA or working, I enjoy long walks with my dog, planning events from theater shows to board game nights, and finding new and inadvisable ways to confront my fear of heights from rappelling down a mineshaft to trapeze lessons. A philosophy that I try to live by is that you have a responsibility to make what you care about in this world better. Don’t complain if you’re not also willing to put in the work to fix it. I don’t think our profession or association is perfect, but I’m passionate about them and willing to put in the work. From early morning meetings to late night quiz approvals, I have tried to improve and spotlight education for the better part of the last ten years. If fortunate enough to be selected, I can’t wait to see what we can do together in the next three.
Why are you interested in serving on the AAPA BOT?
I’ve always loved the spark of an idea – seeing something and thinking “we could do that better” or “what if we created this?”, and I would love to be part of that big picture planning for the future of our association. I’ve spent the better part of the past decade being heavily involved in the Education committee side of the AAPA and am very familiar with the amount of manpower, volunteer generosity, strategic planning, and the often intervening years that come between a having a good idea and the full implementation and do not take these resources lightly. Our profession is young enough that the decisions and work we put in today will have very real impacts on how we work and are perceived in the future. That’s an exciting challenge.
What is your understanding of the mission and vision of this organization?
The AAPA was formed so PAs could take ownership of their own education, advocacy for the profession, and the future development of members and the profession as a whole. The association helps give voice to the importance of the profession and provides a forum for members to improve their skills, network, and raise the profile of what we do and the value we provide to the health system.
What do you think should be the most important priority for AAPA?
We have all likely had the experience of reassuring a new surgeon that, yes, we ARE the people they want to bring their specimens to, and then had the satisfaction of seeing them continue to utilize us when they see we do great work. I think this is the same concept on a broader scale. We need advocacy and outreach to enter into critical conversations with partner organizations and peers, but when we get a chance to be in those conversations, we need to have the education, training, and up-to-date knowledge to make future collaborators wonder how we ever weren’t part of the conversation. If we don’t have advocacy, we don’t get in the room. If we don’t invest in meaningful, relevant continuing education, we don’t stay in the room.
Is there a particular area that you feel could be improved within AAPA?
I have had the honor of working with so many talented, dedicated peers who volunteered their time and amazingly broad skillset, and there is nothing better for our organization than when a volunteer is in exactly the best role both for their own development and for the benefit of members. I think continued focus on volunteer engagement, management, and collaboration between committees can only help strengthen our association and profession.
What is the biggest challenge your lab faces today?
Between PAs becoming the experts on teaching grossing to shrinking workforces in histology and lab support, an ever increasing amount of our time is devoted to training new personnel, without a reduction in other work duties. It’s rewarding work, but it’s also expanding work.