For Immediate Release
Contact: Jenni Roberson, 703.380.2764

PA Foundation Announces Nutrition Outreach Fellows

40 PAs from Across the Country to Provide Nutrition Education to the Public

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (July 31, 2020) —The PA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA), recently selected 40 PAs (physician assistants) from across the country to be a part of the foundation’s new Nutrition Outreach Fellowship.

Through the fellowship, PAs will receive special training and resources on nutrition to both enhance their clinical practice and to give back to their healthcare peers and the community at large.

As part of the program, each fellow will deliver nutrition education to a minimum of 100 consumers and 100 healthcare peers over the course of the fellowship year. Content will focus on the role of nutrition in overall health with a special focus on management of type 2 diabetes, healthy aging, and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS). This program is generously supported by Abbott Nutrition.

PA Foundation Executive Director Lynette Sappe-Watkins, CFRE, said the fellows will follow a dual track, providing the nutrition resources to both consumers and their peers in healthcare.

“This program is especially timely as people living with chronic health conditions such as diabetes may be facing challenges in maintaining proper nutrition during this unusual time of social distancing. In these current circumstances people may have limited access to nutritious foods and even limited access to healthcare providers,” Sappe-Watkins said. “The Nutrition Outreach Fellows are PAs who have stepped up to be a part of an effort to provide knowledge to people in their communities about nutrition topics that will hopefully inspire dialog on nutrition between providers and patients. The Fellows will be stepping outside of their practice to help individuals in their communities learn more about an area of preventative care that has immediate impact on their health and well-being.”

Faculty for this program are Allyson Hamacher, MPAS, PA-C, RD of Phoenix, Ariz., who practices in neurology at the Mayo Clinic; and Matthew Wright, MS, PA-C, RD of Branchburg, N.J., a faculty member at the Rutgers University PA program.

The PA Foundation Nutrition Outreach Fellows are:

• Erica Amianda – Hackensack, NJ
• Christopher Benjamin – Portland, OR
• Tamara Bennett – Chattanooga, TN
• Whitney Brusich – Green Bay, WI
• Colleen Buda – Brighton, MI
• Tasha Carpenter – Ann Arbor, MI
• Mary Katherine Clark – Atlanta, GA
• Stephen Cohen – Weston, FL
• Karey Davis – West College Corner, IN
• Mousumi Dey – Fort Worth, TX
• Nicole Drake – Hendersonville, NC
• Michelle Fegeley – Durham, NC
• Nicole Fox – Moab, UT
• Megan Fulton – Charleston, SC
• Sarah Gerber – Goodyear, AZ
• Jamie Gibbons – Houston, TX
• Meredith Grunden – Krum, TX
• Shemeka Irby – Chicago, IL
• Denise Johnson – Capitol Heights, MD
• Scott Kastning – Shepherd, MI
• Katie Lemons – Cambridge, MA
• Erin Lepp – Marietta, GA
• Delaney Lundeen – Plymouth, MN
• Joel McReynolds – Kearney, NE
• Kathleen Moneghan – Dover-Foxcroft, ME
• Kayla Olson – Beulah, ND
• Nguyen Park – Great Falls, VA
• Camille Paul – Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands
• Jonell Poe – Augusta, GA
• Sarah Pryor – Norwalk, CT
• Emma Reeve – Chandler, AZ
• Damaris Rosado – El Paso, TX
• Sabrina Seidman – Los Angeles, CA
• John Taylor – Broadview Heights, OH
• Chelsea Tersavich – Savannah, GA
• Alexa Tovsen – Washington, DC
• Margaret Ann Walker – Gig Harbor, WA
• Stephanie Watson – Hartford, CT
• Pamela Wilson – Irmo, SC
• Kim Zuber – St. Petersburg, FL

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About the PA Foundation
The PA Foundation is a national nonprofit organization that promotes better health and wellness by providing PAs and PA students with philanthropic opportunities and resources. It is the philanthropic arm of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA), representing a profession of more than 140,000 PAs across all medical and surgical specialties throughout the U.S. and on American military bases around the world. The PA Foundation has provided almost $2.3 million in scholarships to deserving PA students.

Learn more at pa-foundation.org and engage through Facebook and LinkedIn.