Murphy Deming Taps New Leader for PA Program

Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences has chosen an expert in the area of child maltreatment as director for Mary Baldwin University’s emerging physician assistant (PA) program.

David Paulk is widely published in professional journals in the field and speaks nationally and internationally about the subject. He also is a visiting lecturer with several colleges and universities on the East Coast. Because of his work with child maltreatment prevention and intervention, the National Exchange Club honored him at both their national and Georgia state conferences. He is a recipient of Arcadia University’s Vitetta Professorship for his work and research in child maltreatment prevention and intervention.

“I am so pleased to welcome David, his wife, Sarah, and their children to the Mary Baldwin University community,” said Linda Seestedt-Stanford, vice president of health sciences. “We are so very lucky to have David as a part of our team. He is passionate about PA education and brings a high level of enthusiasm and many innovative ideas that complement the inter-professional healthcare focus we are trying to achieve in our new college.”

Paulk served as an appointed member of the board of education for Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He is ordained as an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a member of the Assessment Institute of the Physician Assistant Education Association, and a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

Paulk is co-author of the Physician Assistant Review Guide, published by Jones and Bartlett, currently undergoing second edition revision, and is one of the authors of the seventh edition of The Resident’s Guide to Primary Care.

In seeking consensus guidelines for the acute diagnosis and management of mild traumatic brain injury in children and adolescents, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sought Paulk — the only PA selected — as one of its experts.

A native of Georgia, Paulk spent a number of years as a paramedic before attending PA school at Alderson-Broaddus College in West Virginia. In college and beyond, he worked as a whitewater guide on the Cheat and Gauley rivers in West Virginia. Paulk holds a master’s degree in health education from West Virginia University and a doctorate in education from Rutgers University. He served as a clinical coordinator in the Rutgers University/University of Medicine and Dentistry PA Program, as an academic coordinator in the Arcadia University PA Program, and as the founding director of Ohio Dominican University’s PA Program.

With Lisa Shoaf, director of physical therapy (PT), and Ben Herz, director of occupational therapy (OT), Paulk completes the program leadership team in the college of health sciences. PT and OT programs are on track to enroll students on a new satellite campus in Fishersville in June 2014, and Murphy Deming’s PA program is scheduled to open in fall 2015.