The New York State Society of Physician Assistants honored Keith Young, Ph.D., Bonaventure’s director of St. Bonaventure University’s physician assistant studies program, as New York’s Physician Assistant Educator of the Year. He received the award earlier this month at the society’s 51st annual Clara Vanderbilt Gala Dinner.
To win the award, Young said it had less to do with only the work he did at Clarkson University and more to do with his promoting of the profession.
As grateful as Young is to have received the recognition he did, he said it was never his goal. He only wanted to live by the words he told his classmates when he graduated from PA school. “I was elected to do the speech [at graduation]. One of the things I sort of charged my classmates to do was to be a role model,” said Young. “So, I’ve always tried to do that. Be a role model, promote the profession. So, for just doing those things, it’s still really nice to be recognized.”
In May, the university named Young, hiring him from Clarkson University. There, Young served as a clinical associate professor of physician assistant studies, as well as chair and program director of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies.
Young spent 15 years in family practice, and at the same time, he taught part-time at Le Moyne College. For Young, he said he did is best learning hands on, and he wanted to be able to pass that on to the next generation of physician assistants.
“When I was working, I would have students follow me and work with me,” said Young. “I would teach them one on one… I’ve always done a little bit of teaching with practice, whether it was as a respiratory therapist or as a PA.”
In 2010, Young decided he would no longer work a full-time clinical position in a family practice. Instead, Young became a full-time educator at Clarkson University.
A graduate of the Essex Community College PA program, Young has been tasked by Bonaventure to build a graduate program in physician assistant studies.
Joseph Zimmer Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bonaventure, said Young’s experience compelled the university to let him spearhead this new program.
“Dr. Young was attractive to us because he has experience building a Physician’s Assistant program both at Le Moyne College and at Clarkson,” said Zimmer. “He knows how to navigate the accreditation process, secure internship sites and recruit the faculty we will need to make our program successful. He also fits the mission of St. Bonaventure.”
Young worked as the didactic director in developing Clarkson’s program, and said he wrote most of the curriculum for it. He did this by looking at other programs to see, not only how they built their curriculum, but how successful they were as well.
Young said he is going to use what he’s done at Clarkson and bring it to Bonaventure’s campus in a new style.
“I’m taking my past experience, looking at other programs and making it the Bonaventure way,” said Young. “Clarkson was a pretty successful program, so I’m taking the bits and pieces that I really like, and just tweaking it.”
With his son off to college, Young knew it was time to go for his goal of building a program of his own. That led him to several interviews with Bonaventure being the final one on his list.
“The other interviews I was like, ‘Yeah, this would be okay. I like this, I don’t like this.’ I left the interview [at Bonaventure], and said this is the job I want. It was a very easy decision for me.”
He said he was bound and determined to make this opportunity a reality, and Young is proud of the position he is in.
“As the founding program director, I get to set the culture for the program. That’s been really intriguing for me to get to do that,” said Young. “Being involved with it prior, it wasn’t really my program, or something I had built by my own from scratch. I am going to get help, but this time I get to be the leader.”
The plan is for Young and company to enter the first class of students into the program in January of 2021.
