Nold Named GAPA Faculty Member of the Year

September 18, 2020

Assistant Professor Carrie Smith Nold, MPA, PA-C, who has been a faculty member in the PCOM Georgia Department of Physician Assistant Studies since its inception, was recently named the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants’ 2020 Faculty Member of the Year.

GAPA President Negin Bauer, MMSc, PA-C, said, “Carrie Nold has proven to care deeply for her PA students in their education and training. She is a superstar PA professor and her students often speak highly of her. GAPA is proud to recognize her achievements and present her with the 2020 Faculty of the Year award."

Nold was nominated by Christy Wilson, a practicing PA, who chairs GAPA’s Student Affairs Committee. The award was presented by the GAPA Board of Directors at the recent GAPA 2020 CME Conference held September 5-9, 2020.

Nold said, “I am extremely honored and humbled to receive this award. I started at PCOM Georgia five years ago and it has been so rewarding to be a part of the physician assistant program expansion to Georgia. There is something special about being there at the beginning of something new and seeing the first cohort of students matriculate and then graduate. I also have wonderful co-workers on the Philadelphia and Georgia campuses who are all invested in the success of each of our students.”

Nold noted that her favorite part of her job is working with students in either lecture, lab or a small group setting. She said, “Our students have to learn so much in such a relatively short amount of time. Anytime I can engage them beyond PowerPoint slides and include active learning activities in the classroom, I do so.”

According to Nold, one of her favorite activities occurs during the program’s yearly lecture on viral hepatitis. She divides students into groups and assigns them to either draw a picture or write a poem or a song about hepatitis B. She said, “The students are always so creative! At the end of the day, they typically perform very well on those test questions because they have done something to make the material their own.”

The GAPA award is not the first one Nold has received. A graduate of the Augusta University Master of Physician Assistant Program, Nold received the Eugene Stead/John Palmer Award of Professionalism and the Teaching and Service Award from the Physician Assistant Department at Augusta University.

Professor Laura Levy, DHSC, PA-C, chair of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies, said, “Carrie Nold is most deserving of this award. She is an exceptional educator, evidenced by consistently outstanding student evaluations of her teaching and the respect her peers have for her insight and judgment.”

Before coming to PCOM Georgia, Nold worked in outpatient neurology and rehabilitation medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in the Neuroscience Department. During this time, she co-managed the myasthenia gravis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and muscular dystrophy clinics, while diagnosing and treating other neuromuscular diseases. She later completed an Academic Teaching Fellowship with the physician assistant program at MUSC.

Nold is a nationally board certified physician assistant and holds a license to practice as a physician assistant in both Georgia and South Carolina, as well as current Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support licensure. She has authored several publications and has served as a peer-reviewer for the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

Rebekah Thomas, PharmD, PA-C, PCOM Georgia site director for the PA program, said, "Carrie is a gifted professor. She is a tremendous asset to the program and is most deserving of this honor."

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