2019 AAPA Award Recipients
These prestigious awards honor PAs and medical providers who have served their patients, their communities, and the PA profession with great distinction. The awards are the highest recognition bestowed on Academy members and will be formally presented during AAPA19 in May.
Eugene A. Stead Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award
This award is AAPA’s most prestigious, and honors a lifetime of achievement that has had a broad and significant impact on the PA profession.
Ted Ruback, MS, PA-C Emeritus, is the 2019 recipient of the Eugene A. Stead Lifetime Achievement Award. Dedicated to educating PA students and advocating for PAs as “a salesman for the profession,” Ruback has served the PA profession for 40 years. Read More
PA of the Year Award
This award honors PAs who, within the course of a one-year period, demonstrate exemplary service to the community; exemplify the PA profession’s philosophy of providing accessible, quality healthcare to all; and further the image of the profession in a positive, meaningful way.
Matthew Probst, PA-C, is AAPA’s 2019 PA of the Year. Probst is the Chief Quality Officer and Medical Director at El Centro Family Health, where he is working to address the opioid epidemic and provide care to an underserved rural population. Read More
PA Student of the Year Award
This award honors a PA student who has demonstrated exemplary service and leadership as a PA student.
Heidi Rossow, a PA student in her clinical year at Jefferson College of Health Sciences and this year’s recipient of the PA Student of the Year Award, serves as a leader for her fellow students and is committed to advancing the PA profession. Read More
Military Service Award
This award honors veteran or active duty PAs who have demonstrated exemplary healthcare service to their community, to current members of the military or veterans, or to the medically underserved.
Over his 34-year medical career, Colonel David Hamilton, MPH, PA-C, the 2019 recipient of the Military Service Award, has helped to streamline healthcare, advocate for PAs, and help others. Throughout his career, he has completed many firsts for Army PAs. Read More
AAPA/PAEA Preceptor of the Year Award
This award honors preceptors who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in the clinical education of PA students as a mentor and instructor.
B. Andy Le, MD and Linda Som, MD, serve underserved refugee populations in Phoenix, Arizona, and have precepted PA students for 10 years – providing them an opportunity to care for a diverse population, and earning them this year’s Preceptor of the Year Award. Read More
Publishing Award
This award is granted to a PA who published, during the prior calendar year, a new clinical or research article expressing original and/or scientifically rigorous ideas substantiated by best practices and contributing to the advancement of the PA profession.
Bettie Coplan, MPAS, PA-C, is the recipient of this year’s Publishing Award as the lead author of the paper, “Burnout, job satisfaction, and stress levels of PAs,” published in the Journal of the American Academy of PAs. Read More
Outstanding Student Society
This award recognizes one student society for outstanding service to the profession in the areas of public education and advocacy; public service and outreach; promotion of diversity; and professional involvement.
This year’s recipient of the Outstanding Student Society Award is the Tufts University PA Student Society, whose members made a commitment to educating and giving back to their community through service, and educational events about the PA profession. Read More