|  Anne
M. Summer, PA, RN
Clinical Nurse, Maine Veterans' Home
Project Director, "Our Stories: Life Stories of Elders"
Scarborough, ME Class of 1982
Induction: 2002 Ms. Anne Summer is a graduate of Georgetown University (BSN), Washington,
DC, and Duke University Physician Assistant Program (BHS), Durham,
NC. She is practicing currently as a geriatric nurse, while completing
her graduate studies in adult education, and is serving as Project
Director for "Our Stories," a community based, oral history project
facilitating elders in telling their life stories. Ms. Summer had a decade of diverse and rich experiences working
as a registered nurse prior to entering the Duke PA Program. As
a PA, she practiced clinically in emergency medicine, primary care
and family practice. While in Atlanta, GA working as the first PA
employed in the Grady Memorial Hospital, Gynecologic Emergency Room,
she established the PA role in providing primary and emergent health
care services to a medically under-served, urban population of women
and served as a clinical preceptor for students of the Emory University
PA Program. She later joined the medical staff at the federally
funded Oakhurst Community Health Center in Decatur, GA. Her contributions
in both practices included development and successful institutionalization
of tailored, multi-service, oversight systems to track and improve
the care being delivered at the sites. She introduced the PA role
to the public health sector by becoming Director of Georgia's statewide
Family Planning Program. This high-volume program delivered health
care services through the health departments in Georgia's 159 counties.
Under Ms. Summer's leadership, during very controversial times,
the Program sought, and often found, "common ground" for delivery
of services to at-risk populations, and flourished as a model of
creative collaboration among federal, state, local, public and private
partners. After relocating to Maine, Ms. Summer joined the faculty of the
College of Osteopathic Medicine of the University of New England
(UNECOM) to help restructure the physical diagnosis and clinical
skills courses taught to medical students. It was the first time
that an interdisciplinary teaching faculty had been used to teach
these skills. Later she developed a Geriatric Practicum course that
included both students and faculty from the medical school and from
the physician assistant, dental hygiene, and social work programs,
as well as elders and community leaders. Ms. Summer has written
articles and presented papers at national conferences highlighting
her work in academia. While at UNECOM, Ms. Summer served as a member
of the University's Planning Committee that established the first
PA program in northern New England. Upon implementation of the Program,
she served as adjunct faculty, taught clinical courses and assisted
in design and supervision of the curriculum's research component.
In addition to her clinical, administrative and educational roles,
Ms. Summer has provided leadership and service to the Georgia Association
of Physician Assistants (GAPA) and the American Academy of Physician
Assistants (AAPA). During her term as President of GAPA, legislation
was passed expanding PA services to rural medically under-served areas
of the state, and organizationally assured the continuation of leadership
development activities by the Association. Nationally, she was a prominent
articulator of social policy within the AAPA House of Delegates for
over a decade. Currently, she is a contributing member of the American
Public Health Association and the Association of Clinicians for the
Underserved.
Ms. Summer received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Duke
University PA Program in 1990. She has received certificates of
appreciation from the GAPA, the Physician Assistant Programs at
Emory University and the University of New England and the Department
of Family Medicine, Division on Aging, at UNECOM. < < < Back
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