Elections 2015

AAPA Veterans Caucus President Elect Platform Statement – Charles H. Haney III PA-C; MMS
Greetings fellow caucus members, please allow me to introduce myself and let you know what an honor it is to be counted as a nominee for the office of President Elect. My name is Charles Haney. Foremost, I am a husband and father of five great kids – one of which has just joined the Navy. Over the past 23 years, I have worked in the department of cardiothoracic surgery at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA. I am an Army veteran and lifetime member of the Veterans Caucus currently serving on the board as a member at large. I chair two separate committees and have served on others since 2012. I also serve local and national veterans as a current board member and past commander of a local American Legion Post. Over the years I have been blessed to know many great people outside and within the Caucus that I greatly respect, and have experienced many different leadership styles. Lessons I have learned from this are many –especially that we are all gifted with diverse talents and experiences. Often, the most effective leaders are ones who recognize this and organize individual talents toward a common goal. Through this type of shared governance, some of the most affective organizations I have seen are ones that bring diverse talents in focus towards a common mission.

Many challenges face the future of the Veterans caucus – some of which are already bringing about change to tradition and may place hurdles in the way of helping our Veteran colleagues. Change is a constant- it is our response to it that is lasting. I have faith in the mission of the Veterans Caucus and believe it to be a vital part of the AAPA, a vital part of who we are and where the profession started – with Veterans. In coming years, as the Veterans Caucus moves forward facing challenges, I would like us all to contemplate the following: Remember our roots of service, in and out of uniform, and the mission to help our fellow comrades. Renew your faith in the mission of the Veterans Caucus and take personal responsibility to be an active part by supporting the Caucus with your time, talents and resources. Remember that we all come with unique talents which, when arranged right, can form the solution to large puzzles. Change is constant – it is our positive response that is lasting. However in this change, we must remain a steadfast reminder within the AAPA, and our profession at large as a reminder of where the PA profession started, and its rich history of service to our Country and to each other. In any capacity, I look forward to serving an organization of men and women whom I have a great “heart” for. I believe in the mission of the Veterans Caucus because in the field the “mission” is each other. We should all take great honor in the duty of service to our fellow comrades, watching their backs just as ours were watched once. Keeping watch for our younger colleagues, the history of our professions beginnings – Veterans rich heritage of caring service to one another.

Sincerely,
Chuck

 My fellow Caucus members, I'm writing to ask for your vote for the Directors-at-Large.

I have been actively involved in the business of the Veterans Caucus in several positions over the last ten years. We have made some significant progress in increasing our scholarships, presenting some outstanding Memorial Day Ceremonies at our annual AAPA conference, developing programs that benefit veterans in general, speakers bureau and others.

We are now entering a new era, with significant changes made by AAPA that greatly affect the Veterans Caucus. More specifically the Annual AAPA Conference will now be held one week or so prior to what has been our custom. This tremendously affects us in the fact that we will no longer be able to have a Memorial Day Ceremony as we have for the last 30 years.

Over the last ten years, I have been directly involved as Chair or Co-Chair of the Memorial Day Committee, responsible for organizing and executing this wonderful ceremony. I ask for the privilege of re-election so I can be part of this change and help to lead our Caucus in developing a similar or better ceremony/celebration of our military members, remembering our roots of the Physician Assistant profession.

Obviously, there are more issues that are important to us an organization that I would devote my efforts to address but in my humble opinion this issue of the AAPA led changes are top priority!

I humbly ask for your vote to continue to serve as your representative on the Board of Directors.

It would be and honor and privilege to receive your vote.

Respectfully

Miguel V Valdez

Platform Statement for Michael R. Milner, DHSc, PA-C

My name is Mike Milner. I am a PA and served nearly 39 years in uniform with the Air Force, AF Reserves and the US Public Health Service. I am currently working part time with the Veterans Health Administration as a compensation and pension examiner. I retired from active duty in May 2012; my last position was as an Assistant United States Surgeon General and Regional Health Administrator for the US Department of Health and Human Services based in Boston, MA. In that role, I supported the nation in many leadership positions including service as the Chief Health Services Officer/ Chief Professional Officer and represented nearly 1300 PHS officers from 57 health disciplines (including PA’s) to the Surgeon General of the United States. I have served in many PA organization leadership roles during my 32 year career as a PA including service on the BOD of the Veterans Caucus, a member of the AAPA federal services Chief PA working group, served as a PA Foundation Trustee, and numerous state and special interest PA organizations including the Society of AF PA’s and the US PHS Academy of PA’s. Below, please find why I would appreciate your vote in this upcoming Veterans Caucus election.

My interest in returning to the BOD is based on a vision that I would like to see the Veterans Caucus LEAD OUR PROFESSION and ALL OTHER HEALTH PROFESSIONS in preparing for and meeting the needs of our veterans and their families for the next 50 YEARS!! PA’s are in a great position to do this across our country and the Caucus needs to be a loud voice to rally our teammates. We need to be much louder than we have been in the past. In a climate of shrinking DOD and VA budgets, health care will be delivered to our veterans and their families in all the towns and cities across America and PA’s will be there to serve them. Our CAUCUS needs to help give our PA colleagues, their clinical teams and their communities the tools they need to care for our brothers and sisters so that lessons identified from past generations of returning veterans can be applied to reduce morbidity, mortality, negative family impacts as well as reduce the financial impact on our nation. PAs can LEAD this effort.

We need a mission much like our profession undertook a few years ago to promote PA awareness and orient our PA education system towards the needs of our nation’s minority communities to reduce health disparities. “Military Cultural Competence” for non-prior service PA’s, physicians and our other health professional teammates should be our comprehensive goal. Our national AAPA, our PA educational programs, our PA accreditation body and our PA certifying body all need to work together to bring all PA students and graduate PA’s up to speed with meeting the needs of our servicemen and servicewomen. Our Caucus can LEAD the way in making this vision a reality. I would like to work on this mission as a member of the Veterans Caucus Board of Directors; pulling together all of my professional contacts, longstanding trust relationships and the extensive national public health and health professional executive network amassed over the years.

If you believe that the Veterans Caucus of the AAPA should LEAD our profession on a mission like the one I have outlined above, then I ask for your vote and support in the upcoming election. Thank you for your interest in the making the Veterans Caucus of the AAPA a stronger organization for the future of our profession, our service members and our Nation.

Respectfully,

Mike Milner, PA-C
RADM, USPHS (Retired)