The Physician Assistant Foundation has awarded Arcadia University with a Robert K. Pedersen Global Outreach Humanitarian Assistance Grant in the amount of $14,660. Funding from the grant, titled Medical and Public Health Mission in Nicaragua, will be used to purchase medical and dental supplies for physician assistant students, faculty, and providers to use during clinic days in Nicaragua. Diana Noller, chair of the Department of Medical Science and Community Health at Arcadia, will serve as project director on this grant.

Approximately 50 physician assistant students will travel to Nicaragua during spring break in 2016 with Assistant Professors of Medical Science and Community Health Mike Huber, Melissa Justice, and Mary Laxton, along with Kathy McGovern and Arcadia alumna Renee Langstaff, to treat roughly 1500 patients over a three-day period.

This Humanitarian Assistance Grant will decrease the necessary fundraising done by physician assistant students to support the trip to Nicaragua, which is conducted through Arcadia University’s chapter of Global Brigades.

The Physician Assistant Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), representing a profession of more than 104,000 certified PAs across all medical and surgical specialties throughout the U.S. and on American military bases around the world.