This award was established in honor of Carl Fasser for his sustained demonstration of visionary leadership toward the physician assistant profession through education, research, clinical practice, and service. The award is given annually to a Baylor College of Medicine physician assistant faculty or program alumnus who demonstrates exceptional leadership in these same domains.
2024 Award Recipient
Zachary "Zac" Gray is a key asset to the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. He is the sole inpatient advanced practice provider for the robotic cardiothoracic surgery service line and has been providing high-quality patient care with the team for years. He has developed evidence-based and data-driven pre-and post-operative clinical guidelines for patients under his team’s care. Because of the guidelines he developed, his team achieved the shortest lengths of hospital stay, lowest mortality rates and highest performance in cardiac robotic surgery nationally. The number of surgeries performed by the program has grown 30% since 2019.
Zac has also addressed a critical gap in essential services for one of his patient populations, liaising with oral surgery to develop a protocol for endocarditis patients requiring tooth extraction, which has become the new standard of care at his facility. This effort required leadership, dedication and a willingness to work with others.
In addition to patient care, Zac leads monthly education sessions for the team and onboards new faculty and fellows. His supervisors say that he has the unique ability to orient the incoming residents and guide them to run an efficient service in their short time with the team, while also maximizing the learning opportunities. In research, he has been the top contributing advanced practice provider in Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery for the past several years, resulting in numerous publications and presentations at national and international venues. He serves as the lead representative for cardiovascular surgery on several hospital-based committees, further driving changes that improve patient outcomes and satisfaction.
2023 Award Recipient
Eric Martinez is a key asset to the Emergency Department at Ben Taub, where he has consistently delivered high-quality patient care. His clinical expertise, combined with his compassionate approach, has significantly impacted the well-being of countless patients. Eric's leadership extends to the educational realm, where he serves as the Director of the PA Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program and the Emergency Medicine Clerkship Coordinator for the BCM PA program. Recognizing a need for a more formal onboarding process for newly hired PAs within the Emergency Department, he developed and implemented an official onboarding program for them.
One of his distinctive qualities is his commitment to mentorship. He actively contributes to the professional growth of PAs through the Texas Gulf Coast PA Mentorship Program, Aggie Mentors, and AAPAs Mentor Match. In these capacities, he guides those at the beginning of their careers, offering insights, assistance with job searches, and interview preparation for aspiring PAs and PA school candidates. He has been an advocate for the PA profession at both the state and national levels. His tenure with the Texas Academy of PAs (TAPA) and the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) has been marked by his active involvement in pushing for legislative changes to improve PA practice regulations. His continued service testimony in the Texas state legislature and his advocacy within the AAPA House of Delegates have played a crucial role in shaping the profession in Texas and beyond.
2022 Award Recipients
Elissa Love and Isabel Valdez
During the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, these two awardees combined efforts to help implement and staff a telehealth-based clinic for COVID-19 positive patients. This program was initially developed a joint project within General Internal Medicine and Pulmonary aimed at allowing over-burdened hospitals to transition patients with COVID-19 to the ambulatory setting in a safe and carefully monitored manner. However, under their leadership, the program quickly evolved into a collaborative across multiple departments and affiliates working to reduce disease burden, minimize the need for hospitalization, and decrease length of stay for COVID-positive patients.
They have spent countless hours developing scheduling and care delivery workflows, educating multidisciplinary physician, physician assistant, and nurse partitioner colleagues on the frequent COVID-19 care recommendation changes, coordinating with affiliates to ensure limited resources would be available for patients who need them most, and delivering care directly to patients. This program has proven highly successful and has delivered over 1,000 telehealth visits to patients with COVID.
In addition, both awardees are highly motivated and dynamic collaborators who consistently demonstrate remarkable leadership skills and serve as role models for PAs at Baylor College of Medicine. Both have a long history of participating in the education of students at the School of Health Professions and beyond.
2021 Award Recipient
Janie is a 1985 graduate of the BCM Physician Assistant Program and has been a PA in the Department of Family and Community Medicine since that time. She has contributed significantly to the education mission of the institution, serving as a long-standing preceptor for our program since 1986 in family medicine. She works at Casa de Amigos, serving the underserved population in Houston. Her supervisor calls her a “natural leader” and a “problem solver”, also saying that Janie has demonstrated her dedication and compassion for her patients in an exceptional way, particularly during the trying times of the pandemic. In addition to her service to her patients, Janie is a long-time supporter and volunteer for the Houston Rodeo, now serving as captain for the Health Committee. This is a significant time commitment outside of her patient care and demonstrates her continued commitment to not only community service, but to an organization that supports the education of Texas students.
2020 Award Recipient
Susan is a 2008 graduate of the University of Kentucky PA Program. After starting her career at St. Jude's Children's hospital, she came to Baylor College of Medicine in 2011 as part of the hematology team at Texas Children's Hospital. She has been heavily involved in research throughout her career. In addition to her own research, she serves on editorial boards for several journals and is involved in abstract reviews for both local and national conferences. She speaks regularly at the national level and has served in many leadership capacities. Not to be outdone by these contributions, she also participates heavily in the education mission of our institution as a clerkship director and educator across many programs, including our own PA Program at BCM. Her reach with her clinical practice and research even extends internationally to Angola, where she worked between 2011 and 2013 to educate clinicians, families, and the Ministry of Health about the PA profession while working clinically. She serves as a contributor to an international handbook, which is distributed to six sub-Saharan African nations to provide education to clinicians and trainees. In her "spare time", she also volunteers with several organizations locally and internationally. Her nominator calls her "driven, motivated, and a real trailblazer." She works tirelessly to give back to the PA profession and has certainly paved the way for many to follow in her footsteps.
2019 Award Recipient
Peggy is a 2010 graduate of the BCM PA Program and currently practices in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Children's Hospital Colorado. She is the current president of the Colorado Academy of Physician Assistants and has held several leadership roles within the American Academy of Physician Assistants. She has a long history of advocating for PAs and issues that affect PA practice on both the state and national levels.
