2022 AAPA Award Recipients
The AAPA Awards Committee has announced the recipients of the 2022 Individual Excellence Awards. These prestigious awards honor PAs and PA students who have served their patients, their communities, and the PA profession with great distinction. The awards are the highest recognition bestowed on members by the Academy.
(Photo courtesy of JPS Health Network)
PA of the Year Award
This award honors a PA who, within the course of a one-year period, demonstrates exemplary service to the community; exemplifies the PA profession’s philosophy of providing accessible, quality healthcare to all; and furthers the image of the profession in a positive, meaningful way.
Joel J. Hunt, PA-C, is the 2022 recipient of the PA of the Year Award. A pioneer in street medicine, Hunt works as the Acclaim Director of Street Medicine at the JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, Texas, where he has dedicated his career to providing primary care to unsheltered and homeless individuals. Read More
PA Student of the Year Award
This award honors a PA student who furthers the image of PAs and PA students; gives self-sacrificing time and effort in service to community; demonstrates leadership and professionalism; and exemplifies the PA profession’s philosophy of providing accessible, quality healthcare to all.
Cassidy McCandless, MS, RD, is the 2022 recipient of the PA Student of the Year Award. A PA student at Missouri State University, McCandless leads nutrition education outreach projects and advocates for improving the PA student experience as the Student Member at Large on the PAEA Board of Directors. Read More
Military Service Award
This award recognizes a veteran or active duty PA who demonstrates exemplary healthcare service and exemplifies the PA profession’s philosophy of providing accessible, quality healthcare to current members of the military, veterans, or a medically underserved community.
With over 30 years of military service, including 17 as a PA, Col. Amy L. Jackson, DMSc, MPAS, PA-C, is the 2022 recipient of the Military Service Award. Jackson is the commander at Keller Army Community Hospital at the United States Military Academy, West Point, where she is the first PA to hold this position. Read More
Diversity Award
This award recognizes a PA or PA group that serves as a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the PA profession and/or the patient population or community that they serve.
Shani Fleming, MS, MPH, PA-C, is the 2022 recipient of the inaugural AAPA Diversity Award. An associate professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore PA program whose scholarship addresses the need for greater diversity in the PA profession, she also serves as the graduate school’s chief equity, diversity, and inclusion officer. Read More
AAPA/PAEA Preceptor of the Year Award
This award honors a preceptor who demonstrates exemplary service in the clinical education of PA students as a mentor, role model, and instructor; and furthers the image of PAs by exemplifying the PA profession’s philosophy of providing accessible, quality healthcare.
Kelly Gassman, MPAS, PA-C, is the 2022 recipient of the Preceptor of the Year Award. Gassman is a PA in Psychiatry in Omaha, Nebraska, helped design a psychiatry rotation schedule for University of Nebraska PA students, and has precepted over 40 PA students throughout four-week rotations. 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.
Harrison Reed, PA-C, is the 2022 recipient of the Publishing Award as the lead author of the paper, “Reasons PAs leave their jobs,” using AAPA survey data and 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.
The 2022 Outstanding Student Society is the Campbell University Wallace Student Society, whose members demonstrated their commitment to community service through volunteering at vaccine clinics, high school health fairs, and a local medical center. Read More