COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Stephen Willis, PA-C

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Stephen Willis PA-C, has worked at Rockwood Clinic Endocrinology and Advanced Diabetes Center in Spokane, WA since 2008. Stephen has worked with Dr. Carol Wysham since 2008 and together they have completed many clinical trials in diabetes and endocrine health. He is currently the department chair overseeing the Endocrine Providers (MD’s and APP’s) and diabetes educators at Rockwood Clinic. 

Stephen is a University of Washington MEDEX graduate and remains active teaching endocrine /diabetes lectures. Stephen is involved in clinical leadership and population health. Stephen strives to have a clinical practice of wellness helping patients with endocrine health and advanced diabetes care. Stephen welcomes collaboration with PAs to help improve care and knowledge. Stephen is the House of Delagates representative for ASEPA to AAPA for 2020-2021.

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House of Delegates

The AAPA Delegate will chair the AAPA Delegation committee. They will act as the liaison between the AAPA and ASEPA. They will also work in conjunction with the Bylaws / Legislative committee to assure that the ASEPA bylaws do not conflict with the AAPA's bylaws.

Membership Committee

The Membership Committee shall encourage and promote the increase of ASEPA membership by coordinating the recruitment, retention and development of the organization's members. They are responsible for maintaining up to date membership records, which will be available to the membership at all times.

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Sarah Logan, MPAS, PA-C

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My name is Sarah Logan and I serve on the Membership Committee for ASEPA. I graduated from Arcadia University in 2002 with my Master’s Degree in Physician Assistant studies. From 2002 until 2014, I worked in private practice in general pediatrics in an outpatient setting. While I enjoyed working with children, it was time for a change. I always had an interest in endocrinology, and in 2014, I accepted a position at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA in the Endocrinology Department. Our main focus was Oncoendocrinology. We treated patients with various endocrine malignancies, with a special focus on thyroid cancer. We also treated patients who developed endocrine issues from their cancer treatments for non endocrine malignancies. This included osteoporosis and endocrinopathies from treatment with immunotherapies. I also served on the Immunotherapy work group to come up with institutional guidelines for managing immunotherapy related adverse events. We also focused on educating clinicians outside of the oncology realm about recognizing and managing these adverse events.

In July of 2019, I started a new position at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. I am a part of the Head and Neck team in the Endocrine section, and I just accepted the position as APP Supervisor for the Head and neck Team. I am enjoying working at Moffitt, and I am excited about my new role. My family and I are also enjoying our new life in the Florida sunshine. 

I am proud to be a part of the American Society of Endocrine Physician Assistants. This group has done amazing things to support endocrine Physician Assistants and establish a place for us in many other organizations.

Newsletter & Website Committee

The Newsletter / Website committee is responsible for the development and publishing of the groups Newsletter and the group’s web page. They are to create subspecialty areas with these two communication media for the purpose of disseminating educational material to the membership.

Sonia Bahroo, PA-C, Chair of Newsletter/Website Committee

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Sonia Bahroo, PA-C is a board-certified Physician Assistant at Capital Diabetes & Endocrine Associates in Camp Springs, Maryland. 

 

She received her B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry from NC State University and then went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Medical Science from Methodist University. She initially worked in a private Endocrine practice in North Carolina before joining  GW MFA in Washington, DC where she practiced for 15 years. She specializes in the treatment of diabetes, gestational diabetes, and thyroid disease. 

 

She is a member of several professional societies to include the American Academy of PA’s (AAPA), the American Society of Endocrine Physician Assistants (ASEPA), and the District of Columbia Academy of PA’s (DCAPA), the last of which she is also a past president. She is currently the DCAPA treasurer. 

 

She encourages her patients to be active participants in their health care and emphasizes the importance of physical activity for overall health. In her free time she enjoys beaded jewelry-making, gourmet vegetarian cooking, and spending time with her family. 

Maria Argoud, PA-C

 

My name is Maria Argoud and I am an Endocrinology PA-C in San Diego, CA. I work in small, private practice office with my father as my supervising physician. We work together to provide care to a diverse patient population, and I love my job!  It was a natural choice to go into Endocrinology since my father is an Endocrinologist. I think all the conversations of prolactinomas, diabetes, carbs, and other endocrine issues were ingrained in me since these topics were always interesting conversations at the dinner table. I have worked as an Endocrinologist PA-C since I graduated from USF Master’s program in Albuquerque, NM 10 years ago. I am excited to be involved in the ASEPA newsletter and I hope to continue to be involved in such a great organization. Anytime, you are in SD please let me know and my husband and I would love to show you around! 

Noelle Lalonde, PA-C

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Noelle graduated from Lincoln Memorial University’s PA program in 2016. Since graduating, she has been working as a hospitalist PA with Spectrum Health in Michigan. She is passionate about helping patients understand and manage the complexities of endocrine disorders, especially diabetes, in the acute care setting. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, cooking and reading. 

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Megan O'Neill, PA-C

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Megan O’Neill, Physician Assistant and CDE, currently works as a Scientific Affairs Manager with Abbott Diabetes Care. She has past industry experience as a Medical Science Liaison with Intarcia and  AstraZeneca Cardiometabolics division and as a clinical specialist for Roche Diabetes Care.  She completed her physician assistant training at the University of Iowa and practiced family/internal medicine in a variety of settings including community health clinic, private practices.  She went on to specialize in endocrinology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she also served as a director of the diabetes center. While at University of Kansas Medical Center, her enjoyment of working in endocrinology and diabetes grew, particularly with interest in technology.  After tiring of the Midwestern winters, she moved West to Monterey, CA and continued clinical endocrinology in private practice.

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Personal interests include travels, any outdoors adventure and exercise (especially long runs, cycling, swimming, yoga, hiking), wine, spending time with friends and trying anything new. Her 14.5 year old miniature dachshund Fiona keeps her company and still enjoys the beach! 

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Social Media Committee

The Social Media committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of content of social media platforms used by ASEPA. The purpose of the these social media platforms are to engage members, increase networking opportunities, and disseminate educational material to the membership.

David Doriguzzi, PA-C, Chair of Social Media Committtee 

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David Doriguzzi is a certified PA that works in a private practice in Lancaster, California. He graduated from the Loma Linda University PA program in 2002 and has been working in endocrine care/diabetology since 2007. In addition to patient care, he has been involved in diabetes clinical research for over 10 years and has served as an Investigator in over 35 different diabetes clinical trials. He also served as a guest lecturer to teach the endocrine and diabetes segments of the Loma Linda University PA program for six years. He has been a presenter on endocrine and diabetes topics at the AAPA and the California Academy of PAs annual conferences. In his spare time, he enjoys time at home with his family and create & hosts his own Diabetes YouTube channel called Sugar High.

Nalani Hunsaker, PA-C

 

Nalani Hunsaker is a PA board-certified in advanced diabetes management. She serves as the Associate Director of the Diabetes Program and the PA Student Clerkship Director for Seven Star Medical Group in the Inland Empire, CA. She graduated from Barry University in St. Croix, USVI in 2016 and has been working in pediatric and adult diabetes since. Diabetes has a special place in her heart, as she has had type 1 diabetes for 23 years. 

 

In her spare time, Nalani educates people with diabetes and their caregivers through her website diabetespa.net and Instagram @diabetes_pa. She also enjoys traveling, anything outdoors, and spending time at home with her family and two puppies.

Shannon Bauer, PA-S

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Shannon Bauer is a second year Physician Assistant student at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She received her undergraduate degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of South Florida in 2018. Shannon wrote her undergraduate thesis on Growing Up with Type 1 Diabetes where she conducted a study to examine the experiences of individuals growing up with Type 1 Diabetes assessing the effects on their childhood, family life, and friendships.  She is currently a member of the America Academy of Physician Assistants and is involved in the Interprofessional Diabetes Education and Awareness Initiative at NSU.

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Sydney Franco, PA-S

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Sydney Franco is currently a senior and first-year physician assistant student. She is enrolled in Duquesne University’s five-year direct entry Physician Assistant program in Pittsburgh, PA. In May 2021 she will receive a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences degree and in August 2022 she will receive a Master of Physician Assistant Studies degree. Sydney is currently a member of the AAPA and the treasurer of her university’s chapter of SAAPA. She has been interested in endocrinology ever since she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s at age of 12. When she is not studying, she enjoys running, reading, and hanging out with friends and family. Sydney also has the traveling bug which started after her semester abroad in Italy in the spring of 2019. ​

Publication Committee

The Publication committee shall act as the intermediary between ASEPA and publication companies. Publication committee responsibilities include petitioning a request for article submissions, communicating requests for submissions to the general membership or secretary/membership committee, and coordinating logistics between the author and publication companies.

Courtney Wilke, PA-C

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Courtney Bennett Wilke is a nationally certified and Florida licensed Physician Assistant. She attended Florida State University where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Science Summa Cum Laude. Subsequently she attended the University of Florida where she received her Master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies in 2010. Since that time, she has worked in Cardiology and more recently in Endocrinology. Additionally, Ms. Bennett Wilke teaches as an Assistant Professor at Florida State University College of Medicine in the School of Physician Assistant Practice. She currently volunteers for ASEPA as part of the publication committee and is contributing to efforts to create a patient and provider education pamphlet for SGLT2 inhibitors. 

Education Committee

The Continuing Medical Education Committee shall coordinate the planning of CME activities for ASEPA. The CME committee shall be in charge of coordinating the notifications of the membership of upcoming events and of actively pursuing fund-raising for activities.

Amy Butts, PA-C, Chair of Education Committee 

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Amy Butts MPAS, CDE, BC-ADM is a physician assistant and diabetes educator that has worked in endocrinology since 2001.  She attended Saint Francis University where she received her masters in physician assistant sciences in 2001.  She became a certified diabetes educator in 2003.  She earned her board-certified advanced diabetes management certificate (BC-ADM) in 2019.  She was a certified insulin pump trainer for Medtronic diabetes and Animas Corporation for 8 years.  She has been actively involved with the American Diabetes Association’s Primary Care Advisory Group since 2015.  She has contributed to the publications of the yearly ADA Abridged Standards of Care for Primary Care Providers.  She has also participated with this group on various publications to promote ongoing diabetes education to providers and spoke at the annual Diabetes in Primary Conference in 2018.  Amy spoke at the 2016, 2018, and 2019 AAPA Conference on insulin initiation and intensification.  She has been on advisory boards for Amylin/Astra Zeneca/Bristol Myers/Sanofi/Merck.  She is currently on speaker bureaus for Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Novo Nordisk.  She currently works as an endocrinology physician assistant for Wheeling Hospital at the Wellsburg Clinic in Wheeling, WV.  Amy is passionate about educating providers and patients on managing diabetes care. 

Kathy Shull, PA-C

Kathy’s career in health care was sparked by her father’s LADA diagnosis during her teenage years. Seeing the impact of nutrition in diabetes management lead to a career in dietetics at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA. While there, her interactions with Physician Assistants inspired her to join their ranks by attending Saint Francis University PA Program. She spent 11 years caring for families in an independent practice and then returned to Geisinger to become a hospitalist PA for the next 9 years. In 2017, joining the same clinic that diagnosed and treated her father seemed like the natural choice. She works with three other advanced practitioners, a dietitian, a nurse/diabetes educator and five endocrinologist to care for a variety of endocrinopathies in the inpatient and outpatient settings. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge with others through writing and speaking.

In her spare time, she enjoys the outdoors, seeing her college-age kids and traveling with her husband to wherever there is great food!

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Liaison Committee

The Liaison committee shall act as the intermediary between the ASEPA board of directors and other professional entities including but not limited to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the American Diabetes Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Association of Diabetes Educators. The committee will work to foster and support professional relationships between these organizations for the advancement of the endocrine PA profession and improved patient care.

Joy Dugan, MPH, DHSc, PA-C

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Current Position

• Touro University California, Vallejo CA

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Education

• A.T.Still University / Arizona School of Health Sciences, Doctor of Health Sciences

• Touro University California, Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies and Master of Public Health

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Science with second degree in Psychology

 

Academic Appointments

• Associate Program Director/Associate Professor, Touro University California

• Diabetes Research, Education, and Management Team, Touro University California

• Peer reviewer for Diabetes Spectrum, Clinical Diabetes, and Journal of Osteopathic Medicine

• Primary Care Advisor Board Member/American Diabetes Association

• Active lecturer at state and national conferences for various medical topics

• Multiple publications on various endocrine topics

 

Professional Affiliations

• American Society of Endocrine PAs

• American Diabetes Association

• American Academy of PAs

• American Academy of PA Veteran Caucus

• California Academy of PAs

• Society of Army PAs