The School of Medicine has hired two key faculty to lead the new Master of Medical Science program that will train skilled physician assistants (PA) to meet local and national health care needs. Kathy Ervie, M.P.A.S., P.A.-C. will serve as program director and Beverly Graves, M.D., ’83, will serve as medical director of the School’s PA program.
Ervie completed her Physician Assistant training at Butler University and received her Master’s in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska. She has practiced in the areas of orthopaedic and cardiothoracic surgery with staff appointments at Saint Luke’s, North Kansas City, Research and Kansas City Orthopaedic Institute. In addition to serving as mentor and preceptor to PA students, she has also served as past president of the Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants.
Graves, a School of Medicine graduate, completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics. She joined the School of Medicine in 1986, previously working as a pediatrician and clinical assistant professor of community and family medicine. She also served as an affiliate staff pediatrician at Children’s Mercy and is a neonatal resuscitation program regional trainer.
The PA program at the School of Medicine is designed to address significant local and national shortages of physicians and other health care providers. Saint Louis University and Missouri State University offer the only other degree-granting PA education programs in Missouri.
UMKC School of Medicine has applied for provisional accreditation from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), and anticipates matriculating its first class in January 2014, pending provisional accreditation in September 2013. Provisional accreditation is an accreditation status for a new PA program that has not yet enrolled students, but at the time of its comprehensive accreditation review, has demonstrated its preparedness to initiate a program in accordance with the accreditation Standards.
