Steven Shelton, Sr, PA-C, MBA, served the PA profession for over 50 years. His contributions included service to his alma mater the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston, pioneering roles in the PA profession and in PA education, and service on pivotal national/federal healthcare committees and commissions.
Shelton graduated from the third class (1975) of the PA program at the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston (UTMB). This was prior to the development of rules governing PA practice in the state. The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners at the time listed twenty-six specific restrictions limiting PA practice. Shelton began his PA career in rural family medicine practices and shortly returned to UTMB-Galveston as a member of the PA program faculty.
His 13-year tenure in the PA program allowed him to develop his grant writing abilities and his clinical placement skills, all the while maintaining his patient care skills in the Department of Family Medicine. Shelton was also granted a faculty appointment in the UTMB-School of Medicine and was the first PA granted hospital medical staff/allied health staff privileges at the University’s John Sealy Hospital.
During his time as a faculty member, Shelton became involved in national PA organizations. In 1989, he served as the president of the Association of Physician Assistant Programs (APAP), which was the predecessor organization of the PA Education Association (PAEA). Shelton recalls that two other PA pioneers from the UTMB-Galveston PA Program faculty also went on to serve as presidents of APAP (Richard Rahr and J. Dennis Blessing); possibly the only time three faculty members from the same PA program held that office. During his tenure as APAP president, he introduced a framework of strategic planning for the organization.
Around this same time, Shelton was appointed a Kellogg Fellow in Health Leadership, sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation through the American Society of Allied Health Professions. At the time, Shelton notes he was the only PA so honored.
During his faculty appointment with UTMB-Galveston School of Medicine, Shelton was selected to represent UTMB as one of four delegates to the University of Texas System Border Health Services Advisory Council (Texas/Mexico) convened by the Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs. He chaired the group of representatives from all Texas health science campuses for two years and was a member of the group for 14 years, the only PA to serve.
Shelton supported federal legislation – introduced by Congressman Jack Brooks – that authorized and funded the Health Education Training Centers program (HETC) through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). It was a sister program of the Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program. This experience proved invaluable to his career trajectory, because the Dean of Medicine/VP for Academic Affairs at UTMB drafted him to develop an AHEC for East Texas. This required his full-time attention, although he was able to retain his tenured faculty appointment in the PA program. He planned, developed, and directed the Texas AHEC East for 28 years. This included grant and contract awards of over $32 million dollars as principal writer, investigator, and administrator from a variety of state, federal, and philanthropic funding sources. In his AHEC director role, Shelton became the second president of the new National AHEC organization.
Shelton participated in several organizations that had direct or indirect influence on the PA profession and on the practice of rural medicine. For over eight years, he chaired a collaboration of eight southern states funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That consortium focused on rural health access, health workforce issues, practice management issues that threatened rural primary practices, availability of health services, as well as health disparities among populations in communities.
Another contribution of Shelton’s included participation as a member of HRSA’s Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary Community-Based Programs. Continuing his service to rural communities, he sat as a member of the Centers of Excellence Program Advisory Committee of the American Nurse Credentialing Center (ANCC), a subsidiary of the American Nursing Association. The program evolved from the Nurse-Friendly Hospital Program initially developed by the Texas Nursing Association and used by Texas AHEC East to assist rural community hospitals in achieving qualifying certification. The program was of particular interest to community hospitals that were not able to qualify for Magnet hospital status due to the requirements that typically could only be obtained by larger hospitals/systems.
Early in the development of the current 911 system, Shelton developed and managed the Texas EMS Dispatch Resource Center program at the direction of the Texas Legislature. This supplied the means for up to 534 rural “911 Answering Points” to subscribe to a phone transfer system so they could pass along medical emergency calls needing pre-arrival instructions from a certified 911 medical dispatcher until local first responders could get to the scene. In Texas at that time, over 95% of certified Emergency Medical Departments (EMDs) were in only three of the state’s major metropolitan areas. This program immediately resulted in lives saved by the pre-arrival instruction protocols assisting callers.
Shelton retired from the PA profession and the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston in 2018 after 39 years of dedicated service, all the while having maintained his PA certification and his Texas license to practice medicine. In 2023, the founding dean of the new Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston tapped him to “help them with things they did not know how to do”. He applied his skills in the development of the medical school.
Shelton recalled fondly his years spent in service, noting: “I could make a difference in the health and well-being of one person at a time as a practicing clinical PA. As an educator of PAs, I realized I was multiplying that effect by the number of students I participated in educating. As my career evolved toward more community-based programs and health policy work at the state and national/federal level, I was able to impact whole communities and regions by the work we were doing. I hope it made a difference.”
Before his passing on October 15, 2025, Shelton lived in League City, Texas where he enjoyed the coastal lifestyle and spending time with his children and grandchildren. He was involved in the leadership of the League City United Methodist Church. He was also a member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and was a member of the Judging Contest Committee, specializing in livestock contests.
Acknowledgments: This biography was prepared by Deb Munsell with the assistance of Steve Shelton. It was submitted to the Society in June 2026. Photographs are from the AAPA Photograph Collection in the PA History Society Archives.
When using information from this biography, please provide the proper citation as described within the PA History Society Terms of Use.
