The Association for the Study for African American Life and History (ASALH) is considered the founders of celebrating Black History Month. This year, they have stated that the theme of Black History Month will be African Americans and Labor. They hope that this theme will highlight and honor the impact African Americans have made in their professions.
Below is a collection of some of our short biographies and oral histories of African Americans who have made significant contributions to the PA profession. We can not list everyone in our collections in such a small exhibit, so if you don’t see someone below, please explore our Oral History and Biography pages!
If you would like to suggest that we recognize someone through an interview or a bio, please write the PA History Society.
Oral History Interviews
*If the below interviewee has a biography, you can click on their name to be taken to it.
Joyce Nicholas was the first female PA. She also was an advocate outside of the profession, fighting for tenets’ rights in North Carolina. This interview is audio only: Interview
Steven Turnipseed was in the first class of MEDEX students and was also the program’s first African American student. Turnipseed fought in Vietnam and went on to be one of the first African American program directors in the US: Interview
Earl Echard is still working with the federal prison system as a PA. With Nichols, Turnipseed and John Davis, he founded the Minority Affairs Community of AAPA: Interview
John Davis is a cofounder of the Minority Affairs Community, and later on, the African Heritage Caucus: Interview
Peggy Valentine is a PA educator. She worked with Brenda Jasper create Project Access, a program that reaches out to high school students that are underrepresented in the PA profession to teach them more about the profession and encourage them to consider it as a career: Interview
[Photograph to right: Project Access group, 1988]
Murl Dotson, a veteran and PA in the Veteran Affairs Hospital , was one of the few PAs that could work in Mississippi. He fought tirelessly for the state to pass PA practice legislation, which finally got enacted in 2000: Interview
Lovest Alexander is a longtime educator with Duke University’s PA program. He promoted the PA profession in its early days to African American students and took part in many diversity and minority committees and groups: Interview
Kathryn Reed is a PA educator who founded the National Society of Black PAs during the COVID-19 pandemic: Interview
Shani Fleming has done two videos with us! In 2022 she was the recipient of the first AAPA Diversity Award for her work in championing DEI in the PA profession: Interview (2019) Interview (2024)
Lavette Shirley Elee is a PA educator who cofounded the non-profit Women’s Health and Resilience Foundation to battle women’s health issues in underserved communities. She also is children’s book author, creating books featuring PAs as a way to introduce the profession to children: Interview
Biography
Karen Bass was the first PA to be elected to the US House of Representatives. As a PA, she was a strong advocate and participant of Project Access. She is also currently the mayor of Los Angeles, CA.
Stephanie Bowlin is the first PA to become a Dean at a university.
Tricia Harris was the first African American to serve as president of the Student Academy.
Prentiss Harrison was the first African American PA. He went on to become a PA educator and an advocate for diversity within the PA profession.
Robin Hunter-Buskey is a longtime PA with the US Public Health Service. She was one of the PAs that was sent to east Africa during the Ebola outbreak in 2015. Hunter-Buskey was also the first African American to be chair of the NCCPA.
Saibatu Mansaray was the first female Army PA to serve on the White House Medical Unit as tactical medial officer and later on, the director of operations.
Dawn Morton-Rias is the first PA to be CEO of the National Commission on Certification of PAs. She was also the first African American to become president of the PA Education Association.
Henry Lee “Buddy” Treadwell was an informally trained assistant to a doctor in rural North Carolina. Treadwell and his relationship with Dr. Amos was one of the inspirations for Dr. Eugene Stead’s founding of the PA profession. [Photograph to Right: Buddy Treadwell taking care of a patient, undated]
Rich Vause was the first PA to reach the rank of Captain/06 in all branches of the military services.
Wendell Wharton was the first president of the African Heritage Caucus. He was also the first African American to be elected to serve as an AAPA House of Delegates officer.
Robert Wooten was the first African American president of the American Academy of PAs. He is also a PA educator and is a past president of both the North Carolina Academy of PAs and the AAPA’s African Heritage Caucus.
