Jodi Cahalan, Ph.D., M.P.H.’01, M.S.’93, PA-C’89, recently earned six more letters to put after her name: DFAAPA, or Distinguished Fellow, American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). The dean of DMU’s College of Health Sciences (CHS) achieved the distinction, according to the AAPA, for her “service to the physician assistant profession, commitment to advancing health care for all people and exemplary personal and professional development.” The designation is awarded to fewer than one percent of physician assistants nationally.
Cahalan has been a physician assistant for 23 years and a DMU employee for nearly all of that time, having joined the physician assistant (PA) program faculty after working in internal medicine. For 16 years while on the faculty, she maintained a part-time clinical practice in the areas of family medicine, student health and occupational medicine while training hundreds of future health care providers. She also served 12 years as director of the PA program.
Named academic dean of the College of Health Sciences in 2005 and then dean in 2006, Cahalan has served as a member of the United Way of Central Iowa’s Health Cabinet, a leadership circle donor to United Way; a DMU President’s Society and Dean’s Society donor; a peer reviewer for the Journal of Allied Health; and a reviewer for the annual J. Peter Nyquist writing competition. She is president-elect of the Alpha Eta National Honor Society.
