Ann L. Elderkin, PA is a leader whose reputation for making a difference in the health care industry emerged from her clinical experience as a PA and her advocacy for improved access to health care. Elderkin has over 30 years of experience in health care leadership positions, directing health care policy development, directing public health administrations, and providing medical services as a PA.
Elderkin’s involvement with AAPA began when she was a first year student in the Yale University School of Medicine PA Program, graduating in 1980. While attending her first AAPA Conference in 1979, she was elected treasurer of the Student Academy and rapidly became a leader in state and national PA organizations in the years that followed. She served as president of the Massachusetts Association of PAs and chaired its legislative committee for many years, advocating for PA prescriptive privileges. She served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) from 1986 to 1995 and as president from 1993 to 1994. As AAPA President-Elect in 1993, she testified at hearings of President Clinton’s White House Task Force on Health Care Reform, appearing as the first PA in history to be televised on CSPAN [See photo to right]. She also served as president of the PA Foundation 1997-1999, developing leadership programs and community-based grants.
Elderkin’s clinical experience spanned the specialties of internal medicine, nephrology, family practice, emergency medicine, and cardiothoracic surgery between 1980 and 1993. However, it was her experience advocating for improved patient care and health access that gradually shifted her career focus to becoming more involved with health policy and public health. While still caring for patients, her broad base of medical knowledge and research led to her work as a senior research analyst for the Massachusetts Senate Health Care Committee from 1988 to 1990.
She was then recruited to become the director of the City of Somerville, MA Health Department and served from 1990 to 1997, where she led the passage of comprehensive tobacco control regulations, including smoke-free restaurants, and a community health agenda to improve collaborations between local hospitals and community organizations. In 1997 she was offered a position to become the director of the City of Portland, Maine, Public Health Division, which she held until 2000.
Elderkin’s continued affiliation with the AAPA and the PA Foundation led to her being selected as the first PA serving as a Senior Health Policy Fellow for the Office of the Surgeon General from 2000 to 2002, working on the Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Overweight and Obesity and other initiatives. After the one-year Fellowship, she was offered the opportunity to continue as a senior health policy consultant. Although she left the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) in 2002, her work for the Surgeon General continued through a contract with Health Systems Research, Inc., where she directed federal contracts addressing health policy and health services issues of national significance. Among other initiatives, she served as the project director and managing editor for the development and dissemination of “Bone Health and Osteoporosis: A Report of the Surgeon General,” which was released in 2004.
This work led to her becoming the executive director of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the world’s largest professional, scientific and medical society established to bring together international clinical and experimental scientists involved in the study of bone and mineral metabolism, where she served from 2006 to 2019. As executive director she played a leadership role with the ASBMR Secondary Fracture Prevention Initiative, a multi-stakeholder coalition which developed Consensus Clinical Recommendations and an action plan for secondary fracture prevention. She was subsequently appointed to the National Institute for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Advisory Council to provide advice on its research portfolio and broader issues of science policy and served from 2022 to 2026.
Elderkin has many awards for her work, including the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Award (2002), the American Medical Association’s Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Career Public Servant at the Local Level (1995); the American Cancer Society’s Making a Difference Award for Outstanding Community Service (1995); the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Partners in Prevention Award (1995); and the American Cancer Society’s Award for Extraordinary Effort and Results, Recognizing Leadership in Tobacco Control Regulations (1992).
Acknowledgments:
This biography was prepared by Steven Wilson with the assistance of Ann Elderkin and submitted to the Society in February 2026. The photographs are courtesy of Ms. Elderkin.
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