This year’s Women’s History Month theme as: Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Others. The National Women’s History Alliance’s wanted this year’s theme to celebrate the “collective strength and influence of women who have dedicated their lives to education, mentorship, and leadership.”
To honor Women’s History Month and this year’s theme, the PA History Society has gathered below oral history interviews and biographies from our collections to highlight some female PA educators who have made history by making a difference. We aren’t able to list every PA educator in our collections, so please browse our oral history and biography pages to discover more ladies who have made an impact in PA education!
Oral History Interviews:
Marcia Andela moved to the United States from the Netherlands as a child. She graduated the Yale PA program and then returned to the Netherlands to help start the PA profession within the country: Interview
Nicole Burwell is a past president of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA). She is currently and educator at the PA program at the nation’s largest HBCU – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s John R. and Kathy R. Harriston College of Health and Human Sciences: Interview
[Photo to Right: Nicole Burwell]
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
Chris Everett is passionate about promoting research by PAs. She is the founding director of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s PA program: 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)
Pauline Gross was the second woman to receive Colonel rank in the Army. She also was instrumental in the formation of the Interservice PA Program (IPAP): Interview
Kara Caruthers has been a staunch advocate for DEI initiatives. Her dedication to inclusive and equity representation within the profession has led to her involvement as both a participant and team lead in the Project Access diversity recruitment initiative hosted by the PA Education Association (PAEA) and the American Academy of PAs (AAPA). She served PAEA as a member of the Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee of the Inclusion and Diversity Council before joining the board. She would later serve as president of the organization: Interview
Kathryn Reed is a PA educator who founded the National Society of Black PAs during the COVID-19 pandemic: Interview
Karen Roberts moved to the United Kingdom to teach at the PA program of St. George’s, University of London when the profession was just starting in the UK: Interview
Katherine Thompson advocates for interpersonal violence (IPV) education in PA programs. She started her company IPV Educators to better educate healthcare providers on how to handle patients who are victims of IPV: Interview
[Photo to Right: Thompson conducting lab testing, 2017]
Susan Salahshor is a passionate PA educator. She was the first African American to serve as president of the Florida Academy of PAs: 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
Biographies:
Lisa Mustone Alexander is a highly regarded academician, clinician and community activist who has played an active role in the global expansion of the PA concept.
Ruth Ballweg was a former program director of the MEDEX Northwest PA program. She helped the program navigate the difficult times after the 1980 GMENAC Report promoted some PA schools to close down. She was also instrumental in helping other countries start the PA profession or further develop their PA or PA-analog programs.
Kari Bernard is the founding director of The College of Idaho’s doctor of medical science program (DMSc). It is the college’s first doctorate program.
Stephanie Bowlin is the first PA to become a Dean at a university.
Constance Goldgar is a past president of the PAEA. She is also passionate about studying genetics, working for the World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer at one time.
Theresa Horvath served on the board of the PAEA. She was the AAPA representative to the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and was the founding director of Mercy College’s PA program. [Photo to Right: Horvath teaching, 1996]
Lillie Hudson was only 1 of 2 PAs invited in the group of ninety scholars to attend the National Institute of Health, National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, 3rd Annual Translational Health Disparities Course, in Bethesda, Maryland, in August 2013. During this 2-week intensive training Hudson realized that she wanted to be a part of the solution and actively participate in training the next generation of compassionate PA clinicians that would expand health equity and challenge health disparities. As a full-time clinical instructor of Family Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, she serves in many roles including the director of the Pre-PA Pathway and faculty advisor to the African-Heritage PA Student Interest Group. These 2 student led organizations, work to increase awareness of the PA profession in historically marginalized communities with the goal to diversify the profession and combat health care disparities. [See below, right photograph]
Kathy Pedersen uses her position in academia to identify and use PA-like providers in settings around the world to reduce healthcare inequity and improving healthcare access. She has been involved with hosting delegations from other countries; exploring and fostering the PA profession; and working with student electives in Honduras, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Nepal, Indonesia, Liberia, the Thai/Burma border, and other countries. A career highlight was helping to create the interdisciplinary Thailand International Elective for PA, Public Health, pharmacy, and medical students. This 4-week rotation exposes students to many impactful experiences in resource-poor settings, including refugee camps and clinics for displaced Burmese, the leprosy hospital, the HIV/AIDS hospice, orphanages, and others.
Janice Tramel was the first African American and woman to chair the Physician Assistant Examining Committee (now the California PA Board) and the first to chair the California Academy of PAs Program Relations Committee. She has served as an ARC-PA site visitor, Department of Health and Human Resources grant reviewer, chair of the Faculty and Staff Development Committee for the Association of PA Programs (now PAEA), participated in Project Access, and is a founding member of the African Heritage Caucus for the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). In 2017, she received a Certificate of Honor from the African Heritage Caucus of AAPA for her dedication to the diversity in the profession. Most recently, she was acknowledged for her 40 years in PA education with a special congressional recognition from Representative Karen Bass, who was a student of Tramel’s.
[Photo to Right: Janice Tramel (center) with Lillie Hudson (right) and Lisa Landry-Taylor (left)]
