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“Celebrating the PAst, Embracing the Future”
10 Years old, what a landmark to reach, and what a journey. We celebrated in the USA, and the beautiful University of Kentucky campus in Lexington, with a wonderful warm Kentucky welcome, and a theme that would set us on course for the next 10 years.
The conference began with a parade of nations and all of the countries present paraded onto the platform carrying their national flag, it was an impressive sight to see the xx countries present. The Dean and Provost welcomed the delegates to Kentucky and to the University. The traditional welcome reception and the conference dinner were held in the lovely Boone Center, where we were entertained by the Acoustic Cats, and acapella male voice choir.
The programme was packed with excellent keynote speakers:
- Dr Lucy Kibe (USA) working in Kenya. Dr Kibe spoke on “The development of the next generation PA academic community”
- Professor Yoswa M. Dambisya from Tanzania. Discussed the need for “The global professional term”
- Dr Lisa Mustone Alexander – President Elect of PAEA (USA). Presented on “Learning from the past, together leading international education into the future”.
We saw the biggest conference to date in the IAPAE history with well over 120 delegates, participating over the 3 days of the conference. The conference was oversubscribed for short papers and we saw the largest number of posters being presented. We were grateful for the support from our commercial partners CME Inc, and Exam Master.
This year’s conference saw the first set of parallel workshops being run, which included topics such as:
- International Resources – sharing and developing core learning
- Case Based Learning (CBL) – a case study approach to PA learning
- Developing eye care programs with low resources
- Teaching clinical skills in entry level PAs
The organisation gave a special award for an Outstanding Contribution to Mrs Jennifer Beems Jarmin. Jennifer had been an instrumental part of setting up IAPAE in 2008, without whom the organisation would have most definitely never had been birthed. This recognition was welcomed by all.
One of our founding members and past President and chair, Professor Phil Begg, also received two awards, one for international leadership and the other for continued contribution to IAPAE. Phil has served the organisation in many capacities since its envisaging in 2007 and has attended every conference since.
We had made it to 10 years old, and recommitted to the next 10 years, to continue to be the international voice of the PA in all its analogues across the globe and to grow our family, in conjunction with our partners both educationally and commercially.
The conference concluded with the announcement, we were going back to Africa to Zambia in 2018 for the 11th international gathering of PA academics from across the globe.
