PAs and future PAs recognized for leadership and community service
WAPA-Foundation awards three scholarships
Kimberly, WI – At its annual Awards Banquet and celebration of PA week earlier this month in Elkhart Lake, WI, the Wisconsin Academy of Physician Assistants (WAPA) Foundation recognized three well-deserving individuals with monetary scholarship awards.
Miranda Zuhlke, a student in the PA Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was presented with the 2016 Paul S. Robinson Leadership Award, and received a scholarship check in the amount of $1,000. Miranda was recognized for demonstrating exemplary leadership in the community and to her profession. She grew up underprivileged in rural southwest Wisconsin, and after September 11, she joined the WI Army National Guard, where she served as the convoy commander and as a team leader. Here ability to listen, learn and boost morale in the service has allowed her to lead by example in school and the clinic. Her program director writes that despite experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Miranda pushed on and completed several degrees and three triathlons. “Miranda is a courageous leader, with servant-leadership at its core, and is a role model for exceptional character, understanding the true meaning of duty, honor, loyalty, integrity, service and courage.”
The award honors the legacy of Paul Robinson, and active member and leader of both the American and Wisconsin Academies of Physician Assistants, who died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest in 2008.
The 2016 Norine Friell Service Award was presented to Colton Skenandore, also a student in the PA Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who received a scholarship check in the amount of $1,000. Colton is a registered member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and the first generation in his family to have attended college. Before attending PA School, he volunteered in the ER and burn units for two Madison area hospitals. He is very active in Native American healthcare, and was the first Native American PA student to complete a preceptorship with the Oneida Indian Reservation. The focus of his Capstone graduate project includes gatekeeper training for suicide intervention in global indigenous communities.
The award is named for Norine Friell, a past president of the WI Academy of Physician Assistants with a demonstrated commitment to community service, who died unexpectedly in an automobile accident in 2011.
Khou Xiong of Bayfield, WI received the 2016 Robert T. Cooney, MD Scholarship in the amount of $500. Khou works in the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas Tribal Clinic, and is a 2012 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse-Gundersen-Mayo PA Program. She was drawn to tribal healthcare because of her own underprivileged upbringing. The experiences and daily challenges she faces in her clinic setting have helped her grow both professionally and personally. Her medical director, Ian Butler, writes, “Khou has a wealth of clinical knowledge, practices sound medicine and exhibits superior judgement when treating her patients.” He goes on to state that Khou is dedicated to rural medicine and an invaluable asset to their tribal population.
The award is named for Doctor Cooney, who devoted 45 years of his life to serving patients in a family practice rural setting.
Created in 1990 as the charitable arm of the Wisconsin Academy of Physician Assistants, the WAPA Foundation is dedicated to the importance of health education and research, and promotes both service and leadership as fundamental components of advancing the PA profession. Its Scholarship Program offers financial support to PA students and practicing PAs who are committed to improving health, education, outreach and furthering the PA profession.
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