Yale School of Medicine’s (YSM) first Physician Associate (PA) Program class graduated in January 1973. To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of this event, PA Program alumni from around the country returned to New Haven on the weekend of October 6-7, 2023, for a celebration and reunion.
The gathering began Friday evening, with a New Haven-style pizza taste-off, with offerings from Sally’s, Modern, and Est Est Est! Good food and good company provided a warm welcome back to campus.
The following day, a symposium in The Anlyan Center began with an Advocacy and Leadership panel featuring speakers Tricia Marriott ’86, former senior director for regulatory and professional advocacy at AAPA, incoming AAPA President and former ConnAPA Legislative Chair Jason Prevelige PA-C, and Kara Stencel ’16 PA-C, former congressional staffer and PAEA health policy fellow. Next on the agenda was In the Beginning…, a look back at the early days of the Program, presented by PA Program founders Fred Sadler, MD and Blair Sadler, JD, alumna and former Program Director Elaine Grant ’74, and Jack Cassidy ’73, a graduate from the Program’s second class that graduated in September of that year.
Symposium attendees also learned about the State of the Program from Associate Dean for PA Education Alexandria Garino PhD, PA-C, and heard an update on Our Alumni from the current PA Program Director David Brissette MMSc, PA-C. YSM Dean Nancy J. Brown, MD and Deputy Dean for Education Jessica Illuzzi, MD, MS each shared a welcome message with the attendees. The symposium ended with recent graduates Hannah Carson ’21, Zachary Perez ’22, and Jay Gandhi ’23 presenting original research briefs.
As part of the day’s events, alumni participated in student-led tours that included the Yale Center for Healthcare Simulation, the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, the PA Program offices and facilities, and the anatomy lab, where Charles Duncan, MD, senior research scientist and professor emeritus of neurosurgery, and William Stewart, PhD, associate professor of surgery (gross anatomy) welcomed the alumni and provided updates on YSM’s state-of-the-art Anatomy curriculum.
The weekend events concluded with a cocktail reception and buffet at the Refectory in the Yale Divinity School. It was a joyful evening and a fitting celebration of YSM’s PA Program alumni and fifty-three years of PA education at Yale!