AAPA News

Ho’onani (Nani) Cuadrado, MSPAS, PA-C, is the 2021 recipient of the PA of the Year Award. Cuadrado is the Program Director of Valley Health Partners Street Medicine and has dedicated her career to serving persons experiencing homelessness and victims of sex trafficking.

The Morehouse School of Medicine Henry Lee “Buddy” Treadwell PA Student Society is AAPA’s 2021 Outstanding Student Society. Throughout 2020, the society held a variety of events including a town hall focused on diversity in the profession, a food drive, and more.

Joanne Rolls, MEHP, MPAS, PA-C, is the 2021 recipient of the Publishing Award. Her article, “Curricular Approaches to Transgender Health in Physician Assistant Education,” is the first national survey of healthcare curricula in PA education.

AAPA has spent the past year listening, learning, and building strategies and initiatives to enhance diversity in the profession and to address health inequities among patients. Although our work is just a start, here is an update on AAPA’s DEI efforts.

In response to an open letter issued by the AAEM Resident Student Association which advocates for the end of all PA and NP “fellowships” and the replacement of non-physicians with physicians, AAPA President and Chair of the Board Beth R. Smolko, writes to AAEM President Lisa A. Moreno on behalf of the PA profession.