Our Story
As certified Physician Assistants and BIPOC, we understand how a lack of diversity can impact PA students, PA-Cs, and patients of color. Oftentimes, students of color are underrepresented in their programs or departments, and severely lack the resources and mentorship they need to navigate their careers. To fill this gap, ThePAC was founded with a simple mission: to support PAs of color, diversify medicine through advocacy and education, and empower diverse patients through representation.
IMPACT
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December 2017
Physician Assistants of Color, colloquially known as ThePAC, was started by Jasmine Cofield, when she was a PA student at the University of Detroit-Mercy PA program. As one of the few African-American students in her class, Jasmine was seeking a community where she could openly communicate and seek support from individuals she could relate to. With this in mind, she decided to create a discussion forum on Group Me and then later Facebook, where PA students of color across various universities could connect. -
January 2018
Samora Charles was one of those students who came across the group during didactic year of Harding University, a rural PA program in Searcy Arkansas. Like Jasmine, she was attending a PA program where she was one of four minority students in her cohort, and loved the sense of community, support, and advice that the group offered her during the most stressful months of PA school. She shared in Jasmine’s vision of wanting to promote awareness of the PA profession amongst minority populations. As such, the two joined forces and embarked on their mission to help diversify the physician assistant profession. -
June 2018
ThePAC holds its 1st networking event in Atlanta, GA with a small group of 25 prePAs, PA students, and certified PAs of color. -
January 2019
ThePAC holds its 2nd networking event in Brooklyn, NY with a turnout of 62 prePAs, PA students, and certified PAs of color. -
March 2019
ThePAC holds its 3rd networking event in Washington D.C. with a turnout of 110 prePAs, PA students, and certified PAs of color. This event also hosted 4 PA programs, 1 major healthcare recruiter, resources such as financial education, 1 on 1 mentorship, educational tools, and giveaways. -
September 2019
ThePAC holds its 4th and largest networking event in Detroit, MI with a turnout of 189 prePAs, PA students, and certified PAs of color. This event also hosted 7 PA programs, 2 local universities, 3 major healthcare recruiters, and resources such as financial education, 1 on 1 mentorship, educational tools, and giveaways. -
2018-2019
ThePAC is proud to have 172 group members successfully gain acceptance to PA school through either direct mentorship and application prep from Jasmine and Samora, or via the advice, mentorship, and advice shared within the discussion forums and networking events. -
May 2020
ThePAC was in the midst of planning its 5th and largest event in Nashville, TN however, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, this event was postponed. -
August 2020
Menerva Lobe joins the leadership team and is apart of rebranding and transitioning Physician Assistants of Color to a nonprofit org. -
October 2020
ThePAC is officially established as a charitable non-profit organization.
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February 2021
ThePAC launches website and membership site.