Highest Position a PA can Achieve?

[medicallyours]

Generally speaking, the highest position a MD can achieve is probably becoming the director at a hospital.

I am wondering what is the highest position a PA can achieve?

[UGoLong]

Nothing you ever learn is lost and people travel roads that branch in unusual directions:

Shari Shebairo serves as the director of PA services in the Department of Surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center managing a staff of approximately 60 people.

Rear Admiral Epifanio (Epi) Elizondo was a U.S. Assistant Surgeon General in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. 

Karen Bass is the first physician assistant to be elected to the US House of Representatives.

 

[GetMeOuttaThisMess]

Retired

[EMEDPA]

Albert Simon served as a Dean at the ATSU School of Medicine

The Chief admin officer of the Johns Hopkins EM group is a PA James J. Scheulen, P.A., M.B.A.

Freddi Segal is the director of the USC Alzheimers research program

Joseph Costa is a primary surgeon in the dept of transplant medicine at NY Presby https://columbiasurgery.org/joseph-costa-dhsc-pa-c

Admirals Elizondo (as above) and Milner at the Public health service. I have met Admiral Elizondo. Great guy. 

Matt Dane Baker is a provost(that is the step above dean) at Thomas Jefferson University. He taught one of my doctoral courses at Nova. Great guy: https://www.jefferson.edu/university/provost/leadership/baker.html

Jeff Evans is an internationally known climber of Everest and other peaks and an EM PA. He is on my disaster medical team. http://jeffbevans.com/

[PAtoMD]

2 hours ago, EMEDPA said:

 

Joseph Costa is a primary surgeon in the dept of transplant medicine at NY Presby https://columbiasurgery.org/joseph-costa-dhsc-pa-c

 

Just read Joseph Costa's page and talk about impressive. 

[medicallyours]

Thanks for the all the examples. They are very useful references.

Maybe to me, these examples seem more of outliers than actual achievable positions that say, if you were to work hard 10x, 20x years, you have a 30-50% chance getting there. 

[UGoLong]

7 hours ago, medicallyours said:

Thanks for the all the examples. They are very useful references.

Maybe to me, these examples seem more of outliers than actual achievable positions that say, if you were to work hard 10x, 20x years, you have a 30-50% chance getting there. 

To someone starting out, those at the top of their careers pretty much always look like outliers. The "pyramid" of jobs is alive and well.

For example, if you wanted to be a a general officer (a general or an admiral) in the military, going to a service academy would seem like a good route. And it is.  After all -- based on Army data -- about half of general officers are graduates of a service academy. But, of the 51,691 graduates of the Air Force Academy since its first class graduated in 1959 through 2019,  only 757 became generals. That works out to be 1.46% "outliers." (Source: https://www.usafa.af.mil/News/Article/1860921/the-breakdown-the-stats-on-the-air-force-academys-class-of-2019/)

Once upon a time, people held jobs for x years in lots of careers, but not so much anymore. As you move forward in your career, I suspect you will learn that -- in these times anyway -- advancement probably won't work that way either. What's "actual achievable" for you will be a combination of what you do, how your interests change, and some good luck along the way. 

Look closely at where people end up and where they started; I submit that -- for better or worse -- many of us turn out to be outliers in one way or another.

Edited July 5, 2020 by UGoLong