Yale School of Medicine Physician Associate (PA) Program student Ana Eliza Souza Cunha, who will graduate in 2023, was chosen as a student delegate to the American Academy of Physician Assistants’ (AAPA) House of Delegates (HOD). The position is selective, with only 21 seats available for all student AAPA members.
According to the AAPA, the HOD “is responsible for enacting policies establishing the collective values, philosophies and principles of the PA profession.” The HOD votes on a wide range of policies, including those focused on: innovative health care delivery models; Medicare coverage; PA privileges; health promotion and disease prevention; medical liability reform; and leadership excellence. As a delegate, Souza Cunha is expected to provide testimony on issues of importance at HOD reference committee hearings.
Souza Cunha, who has been involved with volunteer and health organizations that use parliamentary procedure since she was young, explains that she feels “pulled toward a future career in PA advocacy.” When she attended the AAPA conference in Spring 2022, as a student academy representative, she had the opportunity to watch a House reference committee meeting where delegates, who were current and future PAs, advocated and amended health policy in real time. “The moment instantly inspired me,” Souza Cunha says, “as I saw the opportunity of being a student House of Delegate member as an experience where I could make a national difference while in PA school and where I could teach myself the necessary skills for future PA health advocacy after graduation.”
The moment instantly inspired me, as I saw the opportunity of being a student House of Delegate member as an experience where I could make a national difference while in PA school and where I could teach myself the necessary skills for future PA health advocacy after graduation.
Ana Eliza Souza Cunha, Cass of 2023 PA Student
Along with the student members, the HOD consists of 58 AAPA constituent organizations representing 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and five federal services; 27 officially recognized PA specialty organizations; 12 caucuses comprised of individuals sharing a common goal or interest related to health care access or delivery; and delegates-at-large, which consist of current and immediate past house officers.