PAEA Adds PA Amanda Moloney-Johns to its Staff 

PAEA has been joined by another PA with an extensive history in education. 

Amanda Moloney-Johns, MPAS, PA-C, is a member experience specialist at PAEA, who will be working with the admissions, assessment and member experience teams although her role is new and will continue to evolve.

Because she has a background in the profession, Moloney-Johns brings some practical experience to her new role. As an associate program director, she got an overview of what programs face and some of the issues that are important to PA educators. 

“In talking with colleagues, from other programs, at the Forum and in various different capacities, a lot of these issues are shared among programs. A lot of the same things keep us all up at night. …. Those are really the issues I’m excited to work on with PAEA and be able to help develop solutions that can be very transferable to all programs,” she said. 

Moloney-Johns is the lates PA to take a job at PAEA, joining Olivia Ziegler, PA, Denise Rizzolo, PhD, MPH, PA-C, and Karen Hills, DHSc, MS, PA-C. She is not only a PA and a PA educator but the recipient of a PAEA Award. 

Moloney-Johns grew up in Wisconsin and later moved to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah’s PA program. She had been planning a career as a healthcare provider but became inspired to pursue PA training after getting treated by a PA herself just before she was scheduled to begin her medical training.  

“In that time, I really discovered that the PA profession was a much better fit for me, and it was much more aligned with what I wanted to do as a health care professional,” she said. 

She applied to the University of Utah PA program in 2004 and graduated in 2006. Moloney-Johns said one of her goals as a student and a PA was to give back by working with underserved populations which is part of mission of the program at the University of Utah. However, she also found herself interested in pursuing other avenues in addition to being a health care provider. 

“Even in school I knew that I had an interest in education. Both my parents are teachers, so I think it’s in my blood a little bit,” she said. 

In 2009, Moloney-Johns joined the faculty at University of Utah on the clinical side. In her 15 years there, she took on various roles including director of clinical education, associate program director and associate division chief. 

The most rewarding part about being a faculty member in a PA program was the students, Moloney-Johns said. 

“The unbelievable privilege of being able to be part of their journey as they become health care professionals, it’s just so fun to watch. You see a student start and they’re excited, they’re energized, and they’re motivated to get in the profession and then you watch them, over the course of their matriculation, turn into a very competent provider who is going to go take care of people and communities,” she said. 

Moloney-Johns added her favorite part of being a PA educator was watching students go on to their careers, including some who have done groundbreaking, trailblazing work for their patients and community. 

Moloney-Johns left the University of Utah because her family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. She was now much closer to the base of PAEA, an organization with which she had been involved through most of her time as a PA educator, starting as volunteer on a committee about 15 years ago. 

Moloney-Johns had also served on the Leadership MAC and taught workshops for PAEA. In 2017, she won the PAEA award for Clinical Educator. 

“I really have had wonderful experiences with PAEA, both as a volunteer and a member, so when the opportunity came along to join PAEA as staff, I jumped at it,” she said. 

Because healthcare is always evolving, Moloney-Johns said she tries to approach the field of PA education with an eye toward self-reflection and look for ways to deliver information in efficient and effective ways. 

“One of the biggest challenges, but also one of the biggest opportunities, is to be able to really look at the way we’re teaching students. Not only is medicine evolving but students are evolving and the way students learn is evolving. What is effective for different students varies,” she said. 

She said she believes one way the PA field is changing is an increase in opportunities for students who can benefit not just from learning the latest in healthcare but cultural competency which allows them to better serve the patients in their community. 

“We’re teaching students to be professionals, not just healthcare providers. They’re going to be leaders in their field while serving patients in their communities,” she said. 

Moloney-Johns said she’s looking forward to working with the programs who are PAEA members. 

“There’s a common saying in PA education, ‘If you’ve seen one program, you’ve seen one program.’ I’m really excited to get to know a lot of different member programs, see what people are doing, how people are training students. I think there’s a lot of innovation out there,” she said. 

Moloney-Johns said she’s not just looking forward to hearing about all the positive things happening at programs but also “what’s hard and what’s challenging and be able to help support those programs and come up with some tangible solutions to some fairly universal issues that all programs are facing.”  

This year, Moloney-Johns will be at the Education Forum, an event she has never missed since she became a PA educator. She said she’s looking forward to meeting any members who would like to talk about her new position with PAEA. 

Moloney-Johns shared that she comes from a family of Green Bay Packer fans and she and her husband have two daughters, 5 and 9, as well as a puppy and a cat. She enjoys traveling, music, and outdoor activities like skiing and mountain-biking.