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Second-year PA student Hallie Hmiel was introduced to multiple opportunities within FAPA by Assistant Professor Allison Justice, PA-C, president-elect and director of the organization’ s Northwest Region.
“ Sharing her experience as the regional director and encouraging my classmates and me to compete in the FAPA Challenge Bowl last year definitely sparked my interest in advocacy and leadership,” Hmiel said of Justice. The Challenge Bowl is a competition at the FAPA Annual Conference testing medical knowledge among in-state PA programs.
Assistant Professor Elise Elegeert, DMSc, PA-C, FAPA’ s Leon County representative who also serves on its education committee, and Justice helped prepare Hmiel and Challenge Bowl teammates Daniel LeGros, Noel Miller and Basak Gorgec. The four students were part of a large contingent of FSU PA students attending the July 2025 conference in Tampa.
“ Their [ Elegeert and Justice ] involvement and interest in FAPA rubbed off on me,” Hmiel said.
As did the holistic approach of Debra Cole, Ed. D., PA-C, associate professor and director of didactic education, who was Hmiel’ s academic advisor as a first-year student. Cole is steeped in experience and leadership positions across multiple organizations and currently serves as the FAPA House of Delegates representative to the AAPA, which runs the elections for the national organization.
Cole also serves on the PA Education Association’ s End of Curriculum Exam Workgroup, which is tasked with making sure graduating PA students have been properly prepared to pass the PA National Certification Exam( PANCE)— a requirement to enter practice.
“ I’ ve worked in four different PA programs and feel like that that’ s our job, to make sure we have a good, robust [ academic ] program to make them good clinicians, who become great clinicians when they get out there,” Cole said.“ The standard has to be set from advocacy to education, throughout the whole process.”
It was Cole who inspired Hmiel to apply for the PAEA Student Health Policy Fellowship.
“ She was my biggest supporter as I was applying and when I was selected,” said Hmiel, one of 11 PA students nationally— and the first from Florida State University— representing the next generation of policy-minded professionals committed to advance PA education and healthcare.
“ We also were lucky enough to have Rebecca Mangali, the current FAPA president, come speak to our class about advocacy and again at our White Coat Ceremony.”
Mangali is a proud FSU undergraduate and currently a clinical associate professor in the PA program at the Daytona Beach Regional Campus. She will be succeeded in July 2027 by Justice, who is absorbing as much as possible in an understudy role on FAPA’ s Board of Directors, with an eye to the future.
“ What I find really exciting is the opportunity to work alongside our College of Medicine dean, Dr. Alma Littles, president-elect of the Florida Medical Association, and continue our work to enhance healthcare for all Floridians,” Justice said.
Being home to the presidents of both the state’ s highest-ranking M. D. and PA organizations reflects the rise in prominence of the individual programs and the FSU College of Medicine overall. It’ s especially notable for the PA program, which will enroll only its 10th class of students in August.
When it comes to leadership experience among PA faculty, John Byrnes, PA-C, DFAAPA, has a significant edge, counting 47 years in the field. An associate clinical education director and assistant clinical professor at FSU’ s Orlando Regional Campus, Byrnes has served in leadership positions within the profession at the state, national and international levels.
Byrnes currently chairs the Council on Physician Assistants of the Florida Board of Medicine, on appointment by the Florida Surgeon General.
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