Sharon Luke, EdD, PA-C, has served the PA community as Executive Director of the Accreditation Review Commission on the Education of the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) since 2016. Before accepting the position at ARC-PA, she was a clinical PA, as well as a PA educator and preceptor.
Prior to entering her PA program, Dr. Luke received her Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Akron in 1986. From 1987-1990, Dr. Luke taught microbiology at the University of Akron to students in the nursing program. From 1990 to 1994, she worked at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio in a variety of research technologist positions, such as DNA research and cytogenetics. Dr. Luke attended medical school but resigned her position because she felt like she would never have a meaningful life beyond patient care as a physician. It was during her work at the Cleveland Clinic that she met a PA and decided she would pursue that career.
Dr. Luke received her PA degree from Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) in 1996. She attained her Master of Science Degree in Health Sciences from Cleveland State University in 2006, and her Doctorate of Education from Walden University in 2019.
Following graduation from Tri-C, Dr. Luke worked in a private Ob/Gyn practice office, simultaneously serving as a clinical preceptor to her alma mater’s PA students. In 2000, she began work at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Department of Palliative Medicine and in the same year, became a part-time faculty member at Tri-C. She eventually transitioned to Director of the PA program in 2003. While there, Dr. Luke worked to create a collaboration between Tri-C and Cleveland State University so that PA students who entered the Tri-C PA program could simultaneously take classes at Cleveland State University, who would confer a master’s degree to those graduates. Largely due to this feat, Dr. Luke was presented the Charles L. Hudson, MD Award by the Ohio Association of PAs in 2008.
In 2008 she became the Founding Director of Mount Union College’s (now the University of Mount Union) PA program and served in this position until 2015 when she became Assistant Director at the ARC-PA. Dr. Luke became the Executive Director of the ARC-PA in 2016.
Dr. Luke has been certified by the National Commission on Certification of PAs since 1996. She has also been licensed as a PA by the State of Ohio Medical Board since 1997. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA). She was appointed to the Physician Assistant Education Association’s Research and Data Committee in 2007 and to the AAPA/PAEA Joint Taskforce on the Future of PA Workforce in 2011. She was appointed to PAEA’s Faculty Development Institute from 2005-2010 and served as the group’s Chair from 2009-2010. She has acted as an ARC-PA site visitor since 2007 and served as a Commissioner on the ARC-PA Board from 2011-2015.
She was inducted into Pi Alpha, the national honor society of PAs, in 2011.
Luke is married with two adult children; one lives in Ohio and the other lives in New York. Her hobbies include reading, sewing, machine embroidery, Cricut designing and she used to teach cake decorating.
Acknowledgments: This biography was written by Michelle Schabowski with assistance from Dr. Sharon Luke. It was submitted to the Society in February 2020. The photograph is courtesy of Dr. Luke.
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