Physician associate director takes on a new role with teaching, alumni as the focus

After 25 years as director of the Physician Associate Program, Elaine E. Grant, PA-C ’74, M.P.H. ’92, has stepped aside to become the program’s first director of clinical development and special projects. Her new position, which took effect October 15, will encompass clinical education and alumni affairs.

Grant, an assistant dean who was among the first to graduate from the Yale program in the early 1970s, announced her move in a letter to students, faculty and colleagues. She said that over the past year, while also overseeing clinical curriculum, she came to realize that much can be done to enrich the clinical experiences of students.

“I am going to be interacting on a much higher level with clinical rotation faculty and educating them on the difference between medical student education and physician associate student education,” Grant said. She’s also trying to organize an alumni association and hopes to establish a new program of “miniresidencies” for physician associates who wish to enter new specialties or who are returning to work after an absence from the profession.

Mary L. Warner, M.M.Sc., PA-C, the program’s assistant director for didactic curriculum, has been named interim director. After receiving her degree as a physician associate from Emory University in 1991, she practiced in cardiac and orthopedic surgery for nine years. She came to Yale in 2000 to oversee curriculum for the program’s first-year courses. She also works at Bridgeport Hospital in emergency medicine and serves as the physician assistant member of the Connecticut Medical Examining Board.

A committee will be formed to conduct a national search for a permanent director.