North Carolina PAs leading the way.
Joshua Smith, PA-C, is the Chair of the Continuing Education Committee and the Conference Management Panel. He was born in Olney, Maryland but grew up in Charlotte and Lake Norman, North Carolina. Josh went to Wingate University, where he majored in Biology and graduated in 1994. After graduation, he worked with physicians and PAs at Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat. Josh knew he wanted a job dedicated to helping people and, after seeing how “the PAs were capable, autonomous, and well respected,” he applied to PA school and graduated from the Wake Forest University PA Program in 2004.
Josh first became aware of NCAPA while working at Charlotte EENT, as the PAs who mentored him were active in the Academy and encouraged him to join. He became a member when he began PA school in 2002 and was elected to be the Wake Forest NCAPA Student Representative to the NCAPA Board of Directors in 2003. After a few years of PA practice, Josh was elected to the NCAPA Board of Directors as a Director-at-large, serving in 2008-2009 and for two more consecutive terms, from 2012-2015. In 2017, he served as President-Elect, followed by a term as NCAPA President in 2018, and Past-President in 2019.
Early in his PA career, Josh attended an NCAPA conference and started assisting the conference volunteers and staff. He realized how much he enjoyed the work and volunteered to join the Conference Committee (now the Conference Management Panel) and has been an active member for 18 years. He served as Chair of the Professional Development Review Panel in 2016 and 2017, and remains an active member of the committee today, helping to choose and evaluate speakers and content for NCAPA Winter and Summer conferences. After the retirement of long-time volunteer and founding member Paul Hendrix, PA-C, Josh took over as the Chair of the Continuing Education Committee as well as the Conference Management Panel in 2019. He has also served on the Nominating Committee and the Finance Committee.
Josh is dedicated to NCAPA and PAs in North Carolina and feels strongly that “NCAPA is always working hard for our PA practice rights, through advocacy and education.” He believes that membership is important, sharing that there is “strength in numbers. The more members we have, the more we are able to influence legislators to protect our profession and help it to progress.” He hopes that North Carolina PAs will achieve Optimal Team Practice and believes that PAs should “be able to practice without administrative and outdated barriers. It is time for our profession to evolve.”
Josh currently lives in Durham with his family and works at Duke in the ENT department. When asked what he loves most about being a PA, he shares:
“My patients. I have been so lucky to be allowed into their lives. I truly appreciate the trust that they place in me. Over my career, I have been able to meet tens of thousands of people that I would otherwise never have known. When I think about the sheer number of lives I’ve been allowed to touch and heal, I am humbled.”
