Clinical Educators
The UNC PA Program is always looking to partner with medical educators, both in the preclinical and clinical phases of the curriculum. There are many benefits to becoming an instructional faculty member, including adjunct faculty appointment, consideration for teaching awards, Category 1 Continuing Medical Education for clinical preceptors, participation with the Clinical Preceptor Recognition Program and access to various professional development and teaching resources through the UNC School of Medicine.
Interested in becoming instructional faculty? Email paprogram@unc.edu
We offer adjunct faculty appointments within the Division of Physician Assistant Studies in the Department of Health Sciences of the School of Medicine. Adjunct appointments include access to the UNC Health Sciences Library online resources (journals, eBooks, Dynamed, etc.) and other campus resources. To learn more about this opportunity please email paprogram@unc.edu.
Preclinical education offers classroom experiences including clinical medicine topics, diagnostic methods and reasoning topics, patient evaluation and assessment topics, and procedural skills. If looking to contribute to preclinical education, consider what type of classroom experience you’d be most experienced and/ or interested in providing.
- Lectures – providing specific content discussing a focused set of diseases and/ or organ system pathologies within the realm of PA scope of assessment and practice.
- Best aligns with coursework in Clinical Medicine I, II, or III; Diagnostic Methods I, II, or III; or Fundamentals of Surgery
- Patient Evaluation and Case Workshops – providing specific content discussing components of patient evaluation and assessment and/ or facilitating practice patient case encounters and providing formative student feedback.
- Best aligns with History & Physical Exam, Patient Assessment I, and Patient Assessment II
- Procedural Skills – teaching indication, contraindication, limits, clinical utility, and steps to various procedures within the PA scope of assessment and practice using task trainers and the clinical skills lab space and providing formative student feedback.
- Best aligns with Fundamentals of Surgery (lab)
- Grading – grading of standardized patient encounters and OSCE skills assessments occurs throughout the entirety of the preclinical year. Grading often includes a 2 – 4-hour time commitment in which a student is provided formative and/ or summative feedback using a standardized rubric.
- Best aligns with History & Physical Exam; Patient Assessment I and II; and Fundamentals of Surgery
If interested in preclinical teaching, please reach out and share what classroom experience and/or specific class you’d be interested in contributing to, as well as what content you’d be interested in teaching, with consideration of the preclinical curriculum and calendar. We welcome all interested educators!
The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) recognizes the hard work of preceptors through its Clinical Preceptor Recognition Program, developed in cooperation with the PA Education Association (PAEA). We are pleased to endorse those instructional faculty who are current AAPA fellow or sustaining members and have served as an instructional faculty for an average of eight weeks or more per year for the past two years. You will receive recognition on the AAPA website as a clinical preceptor, a professional designation of clinical preceptor AAPA after your name (e.g., CPAAPA), a certificate of recognition, and an AAPA clinical receptor lapel pin.
Excellence in Education Award
This award is in recognition of outstanding contributions to the educational mission and development of future physician assistants during the didactic phase of the program.
2024: Allison Phillips, MPAP, MHPE, PA-C | Director of Clinical Education
Prior Recipients: Excellence in Education
- 2023: Jennifer Woody, NP-C, UNC Orthopedics
- 2022: Kunal Jakharia, MD, Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine
- 2021: Winston Li, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry
- 2020: Dorey Glenn, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
- 2019: James Fiordalisi, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology
- 2018: Ed Kernick, DPM, Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology & Physiology
- 2017: Jonathan Gerkin, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Preceptor of the Year
The Preceptor of the Year recognizes a UNC-CH MHSPAS Program instructional faculty who made outstanding contributions to the educational developments of future physician assistants by demonstrating high standards of professionalism, ethics, and clinical practice. Nominations for the award are submitted annually by the programs graduating class and voted on by the UNC-CH MHSPAS Program Clinical Affairs Committee.
2024: Jonathon Heath, MD | Associate Professor of Medicine | Division of Hospital Medicine
Prior Recipients: Preceptor of the Year
- 2022: Aaron Peterson, PA-C, Family Medicine
- 2021: Jessica Curcio, MPAS, PA-C, Division of Vascular Surgery
- 2020: Benjamin Linthicum, DNP, FNP, Department of Emergency Medicine
- 2019: D. Wayne Overby, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
- 2018: William Mills, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Pediatrics
- 2017: Jonathon Heath, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Hospital Medicine
Individuals (PA or non-PA) who have rendered distinguished scholarship, as well as leadership or professional service to the PA profession, and those who are not eligible for election through other means are eligible for consideration with honorary status.
Academy of Educators is designed to emphasize teaching and support faculty development both in Chapel Hill and across the state. Clinical instructional faculty interested in seeking membership should inquire with the clinical education team for additional information.
Effective in 2022, clinical instructor faculty may be awarded AAPA Category 1 CME credits at a rate of 2 AAPA Category 1 CME credits per PA student per 40-hour week, with no limit.