Donald Sefcik, DO, MBA, started working clinically with PAs in 1988. From 1997 through 2000, he served as the medical director for the PA program in the College of Health Sciences at Midwestern University. During his time at Midwestern University, Sefcik served on the master’s thesis committee for 32 students: serving as chair for 21 of those committees.
Sefcik was involved in designing the course format and helped select much of the content for the programs offered through CME Resources. From 1997 through 2012, he was a frequent lecturer in the courses. He authored chapters for the first and second edition of Primary Care Review for Physician Assistants and was a contributor to the first and second editions of Primary Care for Physician Assistants Pre-Test: Self-Assessment and Review. He presented posters at APAP (now, PAEA) conferences on the impact of review courses for the PANCE (2001) and predicting performance on the PANCE using norm-referenced examinations (2002).
From 2003 – 2010, he served as the American Osteopathic Association’s appointee to the NCCPA’s Board of Directors, serving as treasurer (2006-2008), chair-elect (2008-2009), and chair (2009-2010). During his tenure, he served as a member of the Test Security Task Force and the Specialty Recognition Task Force.
He has often been heard to compliment and thank the wonderful administrators and staff, and other board members that he worked with during his time at the NCCPA. He learned much about leadership and management, as well as assessment design and statistical score analysis while associated with the NCCPA.
Sefcik earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy (Butler University 1981), a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree (Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine 1985), a master’s degree in pharmacology (Butler University 1994), and an MBA degree (Purdue University 2004). He completed a residency in emergency medicine (1994) at Midwestern University, where he also served as chief resident.
Sefcik served as the senior associate dean at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine 2007-2016), dean of Marian University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine (2016-2020), associate provost and then provost at the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (2020-2024).
Throughout his clinical and academic career, Sefcik focused primarily on two themes: 1) the importance of the history and physical examination when determining a patient’s diagnosis and 2) the challenges that students encounter while preparing for licensing examinations. The bulk of his student teaching, conference presentations, research, and publications related to these topics.
He initially assessed the contribution of preclinical courses to the performance of physician assistant and osteopathic medical students on their licensing examinations. He studied the impact of personalities (using the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator; MBTI) and class rank on examination scores. He then reviewed the effect of various preparatory behaviors and study techniques on examination preparedness. Most recently, he investigated the utility of progress testing, a technique using serial multiple-choice tests to help guide preparation for licensing examinations.
Sefcik was the lead author of a book for students aspiring to enhance their test preparation, How to Study for Standardized Tests (Jones and Bartlett, 2012) and a contributing author for How to Provide Authentic Feedback in Medical Education (Springer 2024). He coauthored The Preceptor’s Handbook for Supervising Physician Assistants (Jones and Bartlett 2011), Motivating Students to Attend Basic Science Lectures (Academic Medicine 2011), and the CAST Model: Enhancing Medical Student and Resident Clinical Performance through Feedback (JAOA 2015).
Sefcik served as a consultant for institutions to help them improve licensing examination performance, to assist them with their accreditation efforts, and to improve their faculty development programs. He was the principal investigator on four HRSA grants (two supporting predoctoral training in family medicine and two supporting academic administrative units in primary care).
Currently, Sefcik is at Xavier University offering both guidance and support as the institution works to establish a new College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Acknowledgments:
This biography was written by Randy Danielsen with the assistance of Donald Sefcik. It was submitted to the Society in April 2026. All photographs are courtesy of Dr. Sefcik.
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