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Foster Participates in Groundbreaking for Center


Members of the NCAPA break ground on the new NCAPA
building in Research Triangle Park. From left, Roger Page,
Stead Center Task Force and NCAPA director; Ron Foster,
Stead Center Task Force and NCAPA director; Bud Shelton
NCAPA secretary, Eugene Stead, Jr., Paul Hendrix, NCAPA
 treasurer; Bill Vaassen, NCAPA president; and John Sallstrom,
Stead Center Task Force.

Ron Foster, director of Student Health Services for Campbell University, was one of five members of the board of directors of The North Carolina Academy of Physician Assistants (NCAPA) who participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the new NCAPA center to be located at Research Triangle Park. Foster, a charter member of the NCAPA, was elected to the board in 2003.

“North Carolina is where the profession was born and I think that it’s appropriate that an NCAPA center should be built here,” Foster said. “It’s certainly something that is needed and wanted for physician assistant professionals to have a place where they can go for continuing education and professional services. The center will help them to be better clinicians.”

With an estimated budget of $1.5 million, the building will be dedicated in honor of Dr. Eugene Stead, Jr., father of the physician assistant profession. Designed to perpetuate his vision, the center will serve as a national resource for all physician assistants. The building will house the administrative staff of the NCAPA, as well as a collection of Dr. Stead’s personal and professional memorabilia. It will serve as a venue for continuing medical education programs and provide additional professional services for PAs.

The NCAPA is one of 57 constituent chapters of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and represents 2,200 PAs in North Carolina. The very first PA Program in the nation was developed at Duke University by Dr. Stead in 1965. North Carolina was among the first states to grant PAs prescriptive authority and was recently rated the best practice environment for PAs by the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

As the medical officer for Methodist College in Fayetteville, NC, Foster began developing a Physician Assistant Program in 1994. He went on to become the director of Methodist’s Medical Science Division and assisted in taking Methodist College to a graduate level institution with the development of the Master of Medical Science degree in Physician Assistant Studies.

Foster received his Physician Assistant Certificate from the Marshfield Medical Foundation of the University of Wisconsin in Marshfield, WI. He went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree from Methodist College, a Master of Education Administration from Fayetteville State University, and a Master of Physician Assistant Studies in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the University of Nebraska.

He is also a member of the North Carolina Medical Society, the Association of Professors in Gynecology and Obstetrics, the American Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and the Association of Physician Assistants in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has served as a member of the Physician Assistant Advisory Committee to the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners and as the director of Research and Development for the Association of Physician Assistants in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Foster joined the Campbell University staff as director of Student Health Services in 2003.


Bulletin 0173-06/02/04

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