PAs in Administration: TV News Reporter Finds Her Calling in PA Leadership Role

By Dave Andrews

Dec. 18, 2014

For Sheri A. Shebairo, MBA, PA-C, getting to the bottom of an issue has been a driving force throughout her professional life. Her first career was as a television news reporter in New York, but she always knew she wanted to have a more personal impact on the lives of others. Shebairo’s curiosity and eagerness to learn led her to make the life changing decision to pursue a career in healthcare. “While volunteering on weekends in the oncology unit at a New York-based children’s hospital, I felt compelled to continue giving back on a full-time basis,” she said. “I learned more about the PA profession and knew that was what I wanted to pursue.”

After graduating from the PA program at Hofstra University in 2005, she accepted her first position as a PA in surgical and critical care at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, just outside of New York City. Shebairo’s interest in process improvement and team engagement prompted her to seek out ways to get more involved, and she soon began taking on administrative and leadership roles in addition to her clinical duties. These days, Shebairo serves as the director of PA services in the department of surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in Manhattan. Shebairo dedicates much of her time ensuring compliance with regulatory standards for her staff, developing her department’s organizational structure for PAs and managing a staff of approximately 60 PAs.