As a young adult, Ashley Tolliver was surprised to learn that people in small rural towns and big cities experience the same barriers to healthcare. Now a physician associate in Maryland, Tolliver founded Redicare to provide urgent care and primary care services in the home—an important step in beginning to tackle these barriers.

AAPA has released the third annual Health Equity Report to give AAPA members and the physician associate community a look into how AAPA worked to advance health equity and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in 2025.

Howard Straker, EdD, MPH, PA-C, is the 2026 recipient of the Eugene A. Stead Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor—AAPA’s highest distinction—recognizes individuals whose work has made a lasting, far-reaching impact on the physician associate profession.

EDGE-PA, the recipient of AAPA’s 2026 Diversity Award, began as a pipeline program to increase the representation of African American men in the PA profession. In 2025, the program expanded to support students of all genders, races, and ethnicities who have faced significant challenges on their path to PA education.

The recipient of the 2025 CO Outreach and Advocacy Award is the LBGT PA Caucus for advancing health equity, strengthening PA leadership, and fostering inclusive professional communities during a period of rapid change and increasing need within healthcare.

Justice Gray, a physician associate in psychiatry, encourages her young patients and kids everywhere to accept themselves just as they are through her picture book, “What is Normal Anyway? Because the Best Kind of Normal is Being You.”

Since its creation, the Joyce Nichols Memorial Scholarship has awarded financial support to nearly 40 PA students across the country, each one carrying forward a piece of her legacy through their studies, clinical practice, and dedication to their patients and communities.

In January 2026, Mount St. Mary’s University will welcome its inaugural class to a new PA program. The program will emphasize service within underserved and under-resourced communities and offer tools for students to sustain long-term professional resilience and prevent burnout.

Ivy Spadone, DMSc, PA-C, AAHIVS, found her calling by caring for the HIV-positive patient population in Nevada. Over 26 years, she has developed a care philosophy centered on open-mindedness and human-centered medicine—guiding principles that she aims to impart on her students in her most recent academia role.

In the early 2000s, eight-year-old William Lara was diagnosed with a tumor in his lower back. He grew up in Mesquite, Nevada, where healthcare access was a challenge. Lara had to travel about an hour away for surgery and follow-up care. Now, having recently graduated from PA school, he has a long-term goal of returning to Mesquite to open a much-needed family practice to care for the underserved.

Captain Bechara Rahbani, a physician associate with the U.S. Air Force, fulfilled a long-held dream when he was chosen for a 10-day medical mission in Nuevo Progreso, Guatemala. Rahbani provided much-needed care at the local hospital and in the villages and taught his specialized skills to Guatemalan providers.

Sabrina Leonard was inspired to join the healthcare field after a traumatic event impacted her family. Now, as a PA student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Leonard has made time for advocacy efforts that are important to her. She hopes to encourage other PAs to use their voices to make an impact in the PA profession and their communities.

As a physician associate in psychiatry, Carlos Amaya is bridging gaps in mental health care for his patients by building language skills and more. Amaya also draws on his pharmacy background to improve medication access, and, as a preceptor, regularly introduces PA students to the field of psychiatry.

AAPA has released the second annual Health Equity Report to give AAPA members and the PA community a look into how AAPA worked to advance health equity and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in 2024.  

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.