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Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences - Wayne State University
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Physician Assistant Studies Program News • Fall 2021


Dear Physician Assistant Studies program alumni,

I hope this finds you well and enjoying the season wherever you may be. We are having a late color change in Michigan so the program’s annual trip to MAPA in Traverse City this year left me yearning for more of those red and orange colored leaves!

Program Director Mary Jo Pilat

It was so wonderful to see some of you at MAPA this year. The pandemic has certainly made me realize the importance of in-person connection and how we often take moments like these for granted. We were so happy to have an in-person MAPA Student Quiz Bowl (the MC was our own Class of 2008 alum and MAPA president-elect Ryan Desgrange), where our student team crushed the first round and made it to the finals. While we lost to the reigning champs (we’ll get you next year, Western!), our students definitely won the prize for the best — and loudest — cheering! If you get a chance, check out their Ferris Bueller-themed video and be sure to stick around after the credits. It is a hoot — especially for some of us who actually saw the movie in a theatre and not part of the “classics” seen on Netflix!

We have had many changes in the program over the last three years. Two of the program’s founding members have moved to develop other programs in Michigan while one of our alums who was also faculty, Lindsay Gietzen from the Class of 2010, has moved on to develop a third program.

With their departure, I am thrilled to say we have added several new faculty members, many of whom are alumni. Corinne Gratson (Class of 2006) joined us in May 2018 as an instructional faculty member, taking over Health Care Issues. She then joined us as an assistant professor and clinical coordinator for our senior students in April 2020. Yes ... during a pandemic — what a brave soul!

Sara Lolar (Class of 2005) joined us in June 2018 as an assistant professor, taking over site visits and the dreaded “write-ups,” which I know I didn’t appreciate fully until I graduated. We are so proud of all that Sara has done, winning the PAEA New Faculty Award for Professional Excellence in 2020 and for all the exciting research she has done since she has joined us.

Bindiya Nandwana (Class of 2008) joined us in October 2018 as clinical coordinator and now director of Clinical Education. Bindiya is quite the firecracker and, together with the two Cs of the CBC team (Corinne and Cherri Calhoun, our program specialist), has worked tirelessly to place students in their clinical sites over the pandemic. Because of their amazing work and the help of our clinical preceptors (many of whom are you!) both the Class of 2020 and 2021 were able to graduate on time and take their boards. Kudos to them and all who helped us!

Leadership has also changed in the program. I stepped into the program director role officially in August 2019 after being interim for a year.

Jamie McQueen (Class of 2009) has been a phenomenal director of Academics and Assessments and has tried to get us all on the same page with all the new standards that are associated with our accrediting body. This is truly a daunting task (for those of you in the clinical realm, it’s like preparing for JCAHO but on steroids!) and Jamie has attacked it with vigor! Jamie reluctantly gave up the course coordinator position to our newest addition, Courtney Doty (a graduate of the CMU PA program). Courtney has added so much to our program with her enthusiasm and fashion flair — the students love her!

We cannot forget Doug Howell, who has continued with us as the master of the physical exam and definitely #1 in our students’ eyes; Phil Pokorski (aka Dr. P — remember ugly Christmas sweater day?) who teaches pathophysiology; Michael Wimmer, our pharmacology instructor (yes, he still does his half-time jokes) and Dr. Bee, our beloved anatomist. I am so grateful to be part of such a great team whose passion and dedication to our students is unmatched. They have been true Warriors.

Don Gemus

Katie Dilland

Ryan Desgrange

Doug and Sara

Don Gemus Katy Dilland Ryan Desgrange Doug Howell and Sara Lolar

Congratulations again to our award winners for the past two years. We honored Lecturers of the Year Don Gemus in 2020 and Katy Dilland in 2021; Preceptors of the Year Matt Hockman in 2020 and Ryan Desgrange in 2021; and Dale Sillix Teaching Award of Excellence Winners Sara Lolar in 2020 and Doug Howell in 2021. Thank you all!

I hope you enjoy our first newsletter. We wanted to spotlight our alumni as well as some of the work our faculty and students have done. In the future, we hope to highlight more of you. With close to 1,200 WSU PAS alums, all of you have your own unique story to tell and we would love to hear from you about what has been happening in your life, both professionally and personally.  

Finally, words cannot express the gratitude we all have to you who have given back to our program in some way. Whether it’s a lecture, being a clinical preceptor, or helping with procedures or the admissions process, you have made a huge impact on the education of future PAs. We simply could not do it without YOU!

We would love to have more of you involved if your schedule permits. Please feel free to reach out to me or our alumni organization. Meanwhile, I wish you and your family all the best and look forward to hearing from you!

In Warrior Spirit,

Mary Jo Pilat, PhD, MS, PA-C
Physician Assistant Studies Program Director
WSU Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Class of 2001

Ford Field


WATCH: Congratulations to our 2021 scholarship recipients

Physician Assistant Studies: All 2021 scholarship recipients


A marathon at sprint pace: Alum Katherine Bechard reflects on COVID care
A pandemic is a hard thing to comprehend until you have lived through one. We all learned about pandemics during our training, of course, and maybe even tried to envision what it must have been like to provide care during one. If I am being honest, that is how I thought of it — in the past tense. I also believed if one should one occur, our level of knowledge, our technology, and our contingency plans would have us better prepared to readily combat such an occurrence than those of the past. COVID-19 quickly changed those thoughts to present tense as my team and I suddenly found ourselves in the midst of an overwhelmed emergency department. Read more>

Katie Bechard


Pandemic Warriors: How WSU Applebaum is helping during COVID-19
Sara Lolar in PPE From the earliest days of the pandemic through the vaccination rollout and beyond, WSU Applebaum alumni, students and faculty (like PAS Assistant Clinical Professor Sara Lolar, pictured here) have rallied. Because much of our work takes place behind the scenes, here's a look at just a few of the ways PAS and every other
program in the college are involved with our community’s coronavirus response. Read more >

WATCH: A look at the program through our students' eyes

WSU PA Interview Tour Video


Recent grad Joe Tocco tested his mettle as a student on COVID-19 front lines
If he’s being honest, Joe Tocco was a little disappointed to still be in school when the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Then a second-year PAS student, he suspected this global health crisis would change the course of civilization, and that one day he’d be telling stories to his grandkids about living through

Joe Tocco

this era. But Tocco didn’t want to just live through it. He wanted to make sure others did so as well. “Back in March, I just really wished I was already a PA so I would be able to help more,” Tocco said. A month later, he got his chance. Read more >

Alum Kimberly Hurst expands Detroit nonprofit for assault survivors

Kim Hurst

This is not the life Kimberly Hurst saw for herself when she graduated from WSU Applebaum with a master’s from the PAS program in 2001. She never could have imagined building a sexual assault nonprofit from the ground up and introducing herself as an executive director — let alone being named a 2020 Health Care Hero by Crain’s Detroit Business. But she wakes up every day knowing this is the life she was meant to live. “I went to school to be a PA, not run a nonprofit,” Hurst said. “But I saw a critical need, and the past 15 years have been
an honor and a privilege.” Hurst does in fact work as a PA — twice a week in the Beaumont ER — but the job that fills her with passion and purpose is running Detroit’s only nonprofit provider of sexual assault exams. Read more >

Dr. Brian Cummings steps into role as WSU Applebaum dean
After an extensive search and selection process, Brian Cummings, PhD, was selected to serve as dean of the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and assumed his new role in August 2021. A Wayne State University alumnus and native Michigander, Cummings earned his PhD in pharmacology at WSU in 1999 and ultimately moved on to

Brian Cummings

the University of Georgia, serving as department head of its College of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Services prior to joining WSU Applebaum. One way he's familiarized himself with the college is through Conversations With the Dean, during which select students from every program were invited to sit down for a casual group discussion (take a look at the PAS event on Sept. 28). Welcome to the WSU Applebaum family, Dean Cummings! Read more >

Social Spotlight: PAS helps athletes chase their dreams

Head over to the PAS Instagram page for a look at all the pics we snapped during the sports physicals students performed on approximately 130 Special Olympics of Detroit athletes this fall. Be sure to follow us — as well as the WSU Applebaum account — for more photos of students, faculty and alumni in action!

Social spotlight


Share your news and updates

If you have news of your own to share or just want to say hello, please get in touch! We'd love to hear from you. Feel free to email Dr. Pilat directly at mjpilat@wayne.edu. You can also update your alumni record online to make sure we have your most up-to-date contact information for future newsletters.