Meet Todd Pickard, 2025-2026 President and Chair of the AAPA Board of Directors
President Pickard is a Longtime Leader Within the PA Profession
July 1, 2025
By Todd Pickard

Today, I officially assume the role of president and chair of the American Academy of Physician Associates Board of Directors. It is an honor and a privilege to take on this responsibility, and I want to thank you for entrusting it to me.
To many of you, I may be a familiar face. As an AAPA member since 1995, I’ve found community through advocacy and volunteer leadership. For fifteen years, I represented the Association of PAs in Oncology and the Texas Academy of PAs in the AAPA House of Delegates. I was honored to then serve three terms as Speaker of the House of Delegates.
I have always approached leadership with a simple mindset: If you encounter something that isn’t working, don’t wait. Fix it. And leave it better than you found it.
That has been my guiding principle through my 27-year career as a PA, and it’s one that I saw modeled by colleagues and mentors early in my career. When I began practicing at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1997, PAs could not yet prescribe or order. Shortly thereafter, TAPA achieved delegated prescriptive authority in Texas.
As a self-described policy nerd, I read the new law, and I went to our departmental chairs and asked how MD Anderson planned to implement it. Instead of giving me the answer, they tasked me with figuring it out. Though I was just a newly minted PA, I worked with stakeholders to create policy and processes to implement it.
That experience taught me a valuable lesson. Leadership isn’t about seniority; it’s about stepping up when change is needed.
In addition to my clinical practice in oncology, I’ve served as an administrator for the last 20 years, and I bring that mindset to my role as president. I’m focused on defining how we move forward, while also charting a clear path to help us get there. I want to be specific about our goals, take an outcomes-based approach, and be as transparent as possible with members.
It’s a unique and critical moment for our profession. We’re advancing at breakneck speed through progress on title change, the PA Licensure Compact, and removing barriers to PA practice that are impacting access to care for patients. We’re growing — and we’ve achieved broader recognition from patients and lawmakers than ever before.
But our healthcare system is under significant strain while operating in an uncertain and changing policy environment. That kind of instability has a way of exposing the cracks we’ve long known existed, because as PAs, we’ve seen them firsthand.

In my own experience, we have a great “rescue-based” healthcare system. If a patient takes a bad fall or is in crisis, they’ll likely receive the care they need in the short term. But when it comes to managing patients’ chronic disease, providing preventive care, or delivering care in a healthcare desert, our system falls short and leaves patients struggling.
That’s where PAs can make a difference.
I love this profession because it’s filled with clinicians who don’t wait for the ideal conditions to act. We step up the moment we see a need for change, adapting and thinking creatively even when the system makes it hard.
That’s why I’m optimistic about this current moment. I’m a staunch believer in advocacy and its power to drive lasting change — and I know from experience that this profession can get it done. For the last decade, I’ve been working for policy change in Texas and in the halls of Congress as a vocal advocate for the PA profession, and for increased cancer research funding.
Each of us has the ability to use our voices to effect change. So let’s keep pushing forward. Let’s leave our profession, our healthcare system, and our patients better than we found them.
Todd Pickard, DMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA, FASCO, is the president and chair of the American Academy of Physician Associates.
You May Also Like
American Academy of PAs Announces 2025-26 Board of Directors
AAPA Board of Directors General Election Results Are In!
AAPA Announces 45 New Distinguished Fellows
Thank you for reading AAPA’s News Central
You have 2 articles left this month. Create a free account to read more stories, or become a member for more access to exclusive benefits! Already have an account? Log in.