Mary Warner’s most formative experience was living in a small Alaskan village for several years as a child. It was where she was exposed to the power of medicine to improve and save our lives. It was where she learned to live in a town with the Tlingit and Norwegian cultures, despite being part of neither one.
Mary Warner, DBH, PA-C, graduated from Seattle University, Seattle, WA, in 1987 with a Bachelor’s of Science in General Science. She then completed her Masters of Medical Science degree in 1991 from Emory University’s PA program, Atlanta, GA. While at Emory she spent a semester on Capitol Hill as a healthcare policy fellow in Senator Sam Nunn’s (D-GA) office. In 2020, she attained her Doctorate of Behavioral Health, Management Concentration from Arizona State University where she studied primary care and behavioral health integration as well as the relationships between state Medicaid expansion status and coverage of opioid use disorder treatments.
Warner was the first PA hired by St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut where she practiced in orthopaedic surgery. She then went on to practice in orthopaedic surgery, cardiac surgery, and emergency medicine at Bridgeport Hospital as the only PA who had privileges on all three services. She entered academia in 1994 as an associate adjunct clinical professor at Quinnipiac College’s PA program. She was appointed as instructor and didactic coordinator at the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine (PA Program) in 2000. She was named PA program director after a national search in 2004 and was promoted to assistant dean and assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine. In 2009 she was promoted to associate dean at the Yale School of Medicine. Among her accomplishments during her Yale tenure, she was the first PA to be nominated for the medical school’s Bohmfalk Teaching Award, served as a thesis advisor for a MD candidate, collaborated with the School of Public Health to create the PA-MPH joint degree program, developed the PA collaboration with Makerere University in Uganda and served as a Fellow of Davenport College.
In 2012, she was recruited to Boston University (BU) School of Medicine as the founding director of the PA program and assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine. At BU, she developed a novel educational model of interprofessional education wherein the first year PA students completed the second-year medical school courses. The PA students were integrated into the MD small group discussions, took the same examinations, and performed equally to the medical students on exams and assignments. A major advantage of this approach was learning the classroom translated successfully team functioning at the bedside during the clinical year. This educational model became a major reason MD students chose to attend BU; the same was true for PA students. She left the Boston University in 2020 and returned to Connecticut as a PA faculty member at the University of Bridgeport during the pandemic.
In 2021 Warner was recruited as department chair for the Department of PA Studies at George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, a position she still currently holds. Under her purview as chair, there has been growth in the PA, Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medicine, and the Master Teacher and Leadership Development programs. At GW, she is a member of the Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center Executive Steering Committee and chairs its Interprofessional Education Subcommittee which is developing a new hospital to serve DC residents in wards 7 and 8.
Warner has earned many recognitions and distinctions in her career, some of which include: the PA Education Association’s Rising Star Award (2006), Best Original Research Article Gold Medal from the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors (2014), the American Academy of PAs’ PAragon Research Publishing Article of the Year Award (2014 and as co-author 2015), and the Carl M. Toney Student Society Award from the Boston University School of Medicine’s PA Program (2016 and 2019).
Warner has been an active member of the national PA organizations since she was a student. Her Emory mentors, Virginia Joslin and Joe Liebsack instilled a call to action related to advocacy on behalf of the PA profession. She has been a member of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) since 1989 when she was a PA student. Warner served on the Student Academy of AAPA’s Board of Directors and was their Chief Delegate to the House of Delegates (1991-1992). She served on the Connecticut Academy of PAs’ Board of Directors from 1993-1997 and served as the chapter’s president in 1996. Appointed by Governor John Rowland, Warner served as PA member of the State of Connecticut Medical Examining Board for 6 years. In this role, she provided expertise on PA practice standards of care, the physician-PA team and PA education. During her tenure, she chaired numerous hearings charged by the Board to adjudicate physician and PA disciplinary action.
Warner was a member of the National Commission on Certification of PAs (NCCPA) Board of Directors from 2009-2019 and served as the board chair in 2017. During her tenure she participated and supported the re-design of the leadership structure of the organization, while as chair she navigated the anti-certification climate in collaboration with other PA leaders. As a NCCPA board member, she also served on the PA History Society Board. For nine years, Warner held the role as PA Program Accreditation Site Visitor for the Accreditation Review Commission of the Education of Physician Assistant. She has also served on numerous committees of the PA Education Association (PAEA), including her current role as chair of the Research Mission Advancement Commission, and as a member of the COVID-19 survey subcommittee, Research Institute Committee, and Grants Committee.
She has served on the editorial boards in various roles as a peer reviewer and feature editor for the Canadian Medical Educational Journal, BMJ Medical Education, JPAE, JAAPA and as a contributing editor for the Yale Office of Based Medicine Curriculum. Warner has been a lecturer at numerous local, national, and international conferences, in addition to contributing to multiple peer reviewed articles, publications, textbooks, and abstracts.
She has been a research consultant with the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Knowledge+ since 2020. In this role, Warner has studied the role of CME to facilitate adherence to FDA Blueprint Guidelines, and the impact of adaptive learning platforms on the development of new knowledge.
Her contributions to the PA profession would not have been possible without the patience, love, and support from her husband and two daughters.
Acknowledgments: This biography was written by PA History Society staff with the assistance of Mary Warner. It was submitted to the Society in September 2024. All photographs are courtesy of Dr. Warner.
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