Kirsten Thomsen, PA

Kirsten moved to Maine in 2010 from Washington DC where she was faculty at George Washington University PA Program since 2003, served with Emergency Medical Reserve Corps (sent to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina) and headed up the Healthcare for the Homeless community service team at GW. Prior to DC she lived in New Mexico for 13 years, practiced family medicine/urgent care in Albuquerque and served 5 years (2 as chair) on the NM Board of Medicine PA Advisory Committee. Hired by The University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 1994 she developed and implemented the first PA program for the state, was faculty in the department of Family and Community Medicine and the first director of the UNM PA program.

Active on the local, state and national level with healthcare and policy issues, as well as with professional PA organizations, she also served on the board of directors of numerous organizations among them: Physician Assistant Education Association, NMAPA, DCAPA,and MEAPA. She has had articles published on healthcare and professional issues and has presented on these issues at national and international conferences.

In 1996 she was selected to do a U.S. Public Health Service Primary Care Policy Fellowship in Washington DC and served twice as president of its interdisciplinary alumni organization, the Society of Primary Care Policy Fellows. Thomsen has served as Ambassador for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) since 2003, Commissioner on the National Commission of Vision and Health (NCVH), national CHIPRA Expert Panel, faculty at UNE until June 2012, Maine Health Policy Study Group, among others and as AAPA HOD delegate or alternate since 1992.