Patrick Killeen, MS, PA-C, DFAAPA has been a physician assistant for 30 years and has been a leader in the PA profession since his student days. In 1985, he became active in the Student Academy of the AAPA and became its president in 1986. Twenty-four years later in 2010, he served as the President of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
Mr. Killeen served as the President and Chairman of the AAPA Board from 2010-2012. He has been a delegate or chief delegate in the AAPA House of Delegates, Chair of the Medical Congress and strategic relations workgroup. Mr. Killeen was the first AAPA Liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics as well as liaison coordinator for AAPA. Throughout his career, he took on multiple leadership roles and has given more than 100 presentations on a variety of pediatric clinical and professional issues that directly impact the PA profession.
Mr. Killeen also served as a peer reviewer for JAAPA and Advance for NP/PAs. He has authored several articles for The Journal of Family Practice, The Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, Advance for Physician Assistants and Pediatric Primary Care Case Studies, Chapter 23 “The Athlete Who Experienced Syncope”, Jones and Bartlett Publishers 2010.
Mr. Killeen participated for many years in the Student Academy of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, holding the offices of president, delegate to the House of Delegates and western regional chairperson. As an out student member of the LGBTPA in 1986, Mr. Killeen recalls the AIDS epidemic and losing many PA colleagues and friends to the disease. He has been an active member in several other organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Section of Oral Health, President of the Society for Physician Assistants in Pediatrics, Association of Physician Assistant Programs, Connecticut Academy of Physician Assistants, Omicron Nu, National Honor Society and Mortar Board Tau Iota Omega National Honor Society.
Mr. Killeen earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies with a concentration in Early Childhood Education from Colorado State University. He earned his Certificate of Completion as a Child Life Specialist from Johns Hopkins University and earned his Master of Science as a Child Health Associate and certified PA from the University of Colorado Health Science Center.
He currently is the Chief PA in the Department of Pediatrics at Western Connecticut Health Network at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, CT. and is the hospital coordinator and instructor for Pediatric Advanced Life Support for the American Heart Association. He is an active member of the Connecticut Academy of Physician Assistants as well as a member of the LGBTPA Caucus. Mr. Killeen’s newest role is the facilitator for the new AAPA Special Interest Group of PAs for Oral Health, which strives to increase PAs understanding of how improved oral health will decrease systemic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiac disease and preterm delivery. Working with a team of PA leaders, Mr. Killeen has implemented a national PA oral health campaign within AAPA.
Mr. Killeen currently resides in South Salem, NY, with his husband of 15 years whom he married in Connecticut on October 27, 2009.
Acknowledgments: This biography was written by Patrick Killeen and was submitted to the Society in May 2016. The photographs are also courtesy of Mr. Killeen.
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