More than 60 physician assistants celebrate at dual convocation ceremony

Barry University’s Physician Assistant program recently celebrated the class of 2010 graduation in dual convocation ceremonies. Sixty-six graduates from both the Miami Shores and the St. Petersburg University Partnership Center, at St. Petersburg College, graduated recently joining the more than 450 Barry University Physician Assistant program graduates and the more than 75,000 physician assistants eligible to practice medicine in the United States.

Class presentations and special recognitions included Teacher of the Year 2009, awarded to Dr. Richard Finkel; the Teacher of the Year 2010 given to Dr. Richard Fein, and the Lifetime Achievement Award given to Dr. Charles Culver.

Juliet Aleene Summers, a student in the St. Petersburg campus, was presented with the Dean’s Award as the class valedictorian, and Brittany Gene Klepac and Elaine West Hajisafari in Miami Shores shared the Program Director’s Award as the class salutatorians. Timothy Nickolaus in Miami Shores and Paul Grenelle in St. Petersburg were honored with the President’s Award for demonstrating overall excellence that epitomizes the values of the PA profession. Bradley Herold and Michelle Supraski , in Miami Shores and Jennifer Macholz in St. Petersburg, both received the Vernon A. and Virginia M.Culver Memorial Scholarship for excellence in research analysis through the Literature Review Paper and performance in clinical epidemiology. The Marc and Mildred Rice Memorial Award for Excellence in Pediatrics was presented to Christian Leigh Neller in St. Petersburg based on an essay “What a Child Taught Me.” The Dr. Jules Ross Award, a memorial to one of the PA program’s first and finest faculty members, was awarded to Carol Ripple in St. Petersburg and Brittany Gene Klepac in Miami Shores.

This year, ten students were inducted into the prestigious Pi Alpha Honor Society, the national PA honor society for the promotion and recognition of significant academic achievement, leadership, research, community/professional service, and the encouragement of a high standard of character and conduct among PA graduates. Michael Ray Arnold, Paul Grenelle, Elaine Hajisafari, Brittany Klepac, Jennifer Macholz, James Quinn, Carol Ripple, Juliet Summers, and Lauren Widner were honored.

Barry’s PA program has grown tremendously since its inception in 1997. The first class had 28 students; the program now has 68 students total. Through the use of interactive videoconferencing, the program has successfully undertaken the training of PA students on two campuses and has now graduated four classes using this unique teaching methodology. Barry’s Physician Assistant program has received federal funding of $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to offer a third site for PA training in the U.S. Virgin Islands via interactive videoconferencing.