Leigh Anne Pickup, MMSc, PA-C, DFAAPA, assistant professor and assistant director of clinical education in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has been selected as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA).
The Distinguished Fellow program was established by AAPA in 2007 to recognize the exceptional contributions of PAs to the profession through professional achievement, leadership, professional interaction, learning, and community service. Distinguished Fellows of AAPA, represent only two percent of the entire AAPA membership.
“I am certainly proud of this designation and love serving my patients, attending physicians, colleagues, and profession,” said Pickup. “My career has been quite rewarding, and I am grateful to have chosen this career path. It has been a true honor.”
Pickup has been a physician assistant since 2003. She attended Brevard College as an athlete on a basketball scholarship and graduated as valedictorian in 2001. She entered PA school at Emory University, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with her Master’s Degree in 2003.
Her PA career began in general surgery, but quickly transitioned to emergency medicine, her concentration since 2005. She has worked in the Level One Trauma Center at Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, North Carolina; Tristar HCA Centennial ER in Nashville, Tennessee and Maury Regional ER in Columbia, Tennessee. Pickup earned her Certificate of Added Qualification in Emergency Medicine in March 2014, at which time less than 10 physician assistants in Tennessee had earned this certificate. She joined UTHSC in 2016.
Pickup has served on the board of the Tennessee Academy of Physician Assistants, the Fellowship of Christian Physician Assistants, and is currently a legal reviewer for the Committee on Physician Assistants for Tennessee. She has served as adjunct clinical faculty in the physician assistant programs at The Medical University of South Carolina, Lincoln Memorial University, and Trevecca Nazarene University.