2025 AAPA Award Recipients
The AAPA Awards Committee has announced the recipients of the 2025 Awards, which 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.
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.
Colonel James J. Jones, PhD, PA-C, is the 2025 recipient of the PA of the Year Award. Committed to advancing the PA profession, military healthcare, and public health initiatives at the local, national, and international levels, Jones is the first PA in history to serve as Director of the White House Medical Unit. 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.
Phoebe Zhang is the 2025 recipient of the PA Student of the Year Award. A PA student at Long Island University, Zhang is an active volunteer leader and founder of a healthcare advocacy website dedicated to improving healthcare literacy. 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.
Brigadier General Bill A. Soliz, DMSc, MBA, PA-C, FACHE , is the 2025 recipient of the Military Service Award. A leader in U.S. Army medicine with more than 30 years of military service, Soliz currently serves as Chief of the Specialist Corps, leading over 2,500 Army and civilian PAs across the Department of Defense. 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.
PAs of Color is the 2025 recipient of the Diversity Award. Also known as ThePAC, PAs of Color is a nonprofit organization serving as a pipeline to the PA profession for underrepresented in medicine (URiM) individuals, from pre-matriculation to PA professional practice. 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.
Emily Monahan, PA-C, CPAAPA, ATC, OTC , is the recipient of the 2025 Preceptor of the Year Award. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Monahan felt called to become a preceptor. Along with precepting students from two PA programs, she also co-manages a social media platform that offers shadowing opportunities to pre-PAs. 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.
James Kilgore, DMSc, PhD, PA-C, DFAAPA , is the recipient of the 2025 Publishing Award as the lead author of the article, “Characteristics and career effect on PA graduates of a doctor of medical science program,” a comparative analysis study of DMSc program graduates that was published in JAAPA. 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 2025 Outstanding Student Society is the James Madison University PA Program , whose members lobbied the Virginia General Assembly, conducted outreach to local high schools, and received a PA Foundation IMPACT Grant for their Healthcare for the Homeless Suitcase Clinic. Read More
CO Outreach and Advocacy
AAPA’s Outreach and Advocacy Awards are presented each year to recognize constituent organizations (COs) for their outstanding programs, projects and initiatives.
The recipient of the 2025 CO Outreach and Advocacy Award is the Maine Academy of Physician Associates (MEAPA). MEAPA participated in public health events related to gun safety and opioid use disorder, advocated for the adoption of the PA Licensure Compact in Maine, and more. Read More