Arcadia’s Physician Assistant (PA) program is home to several faculty members who are veterans or currently serving in the United States military. Juggling their military obligations, along with their academic and community duties, can be difficult. Here’s a peek into how they handle their responsibilities.

Kaitlyn Gamber ’11, PA-C
Kaitlyn Gamber, an assistant professor, is busy, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Along with educating the next generation of physician assistants and seeing patients in Newark, Delaware, Gamber is a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, currently deployed in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

“I love being in the military because I think it’s fun and I meet great people,” she said. “But I also think that it’s really cool to be able to tie everything together–experiences and cool stories–that helps students remember why we do what we do in the PA profession.”

Gamber joined the military after completing her undergraduate degree in Biology at Arcadia and her master’s at Lock Haven University. She was stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, before moving back to the Philadelphia area and starting as a professor at Arcadia in 2019. During this time, Gamber moved to the Pennsylvania Army National Guard to continue her service.

“Here in Africa, there is a task force of a little over 1,100 soldiers that we are responsible for,” she explained. “I serve as the lead PA, there’s another PA with me, and more than 50 medics under us. If something happens, we’re there. We’re in the trenches, essentially.”

“We also have outstations in Somalia and Kenya, so I will jump around monthly and travel to see patients there for a few days at a time with a colleague who is a behavioral specialist,” she added.

At Arcadia, Gamber serves as the assistant director of didactic education, helping to coordinate most of the first-year curriculum. She also runs labs and oversees various “Skills Days,” where students are given the chance to put into action what they’ve learned and receive real-time feedback.

“The University has been great to me and my family,” Gamber said. “They are so veteran friendly. I’m able to attend to all of my obligations, and they are just super flexible with everything. If I tell my colleagues I have to go, they tell me that it’s no problem and that they’ll make sure things are covered.”

Gamber sees patients a couple of times a week at Christiana Care-Go Health Urgent Care. While there, she gets to team up with some of her students to provide care.

“Go Health is very supportive of the Arcadia students,” she said. “There’s a lot of students that will pass through the urgent care, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh! I’ll see you in class in an hour.’ It’s really cool.”

Dr. Zachary Weik
Gamber is not the only faculty member in the PA program to split their time between current service to the military, Arcadia, and the wider community.

Dr. Zachary Weik, an associate professor, is a medical provider in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. Weik has provided trainings on patient safety, bloodborne pathogens, infection control, and more to Air Force medical personnel at the Biddle Air National Guard Base in Horsham, Pa. 

“Although my position is technically a ‘deployable position,’ I see my job as more taking care of the other 1,000+ Air Force members on the base, making sure they’re healthy and ready to deploy worldwide,” he explained. “Being part civilian, part military is very helpful. I think one informs the other and gives you more of a broad perspective.”

Weik joined the Arcadia PA program as a full-time faculty member in 2017. He supports students through their seven required clinical rotations and three elective rotations in his role as interim director of clinical education. 

“PAs are expected to be general practitioners and have broad knowledge across the board,” he said. “So those clinical rotations are all about gaining exposure, learning, and soaking it all in. My role is about building relationships with the health systems, hospitals, private practices, so our students can gain that experience in different medical disciplines and settings.”

In service to the wider community, Weik works at Grandview Hospital in the general surgery unit. He has experience in all surgical specialties, with a focus on vascular, trauma, and renal transplant surgery. Until recently, he worked at Lankenau Medical Center, where he was also involved with the hospital’s graduate medical education and helped develop their Level II Trauma program. 

“I tell my students and advisees that I’m so blessed to have the roles that I do. I work clinically in the hospital, I teach here at Arcadia, and I have my military position. I could do any of those things full-time and be happy. But they are all so different, and that’s what I love.”

Jaime Shaffer, MPAS, PA-C
A third member of the PA faculty, Jaime Shaffer, an assistant professor, is a military veteran. Shaffer has worked as a PA for more than 10 years in areas such as family medicine, urgent care, and emergency medicine. Prior to becoming a PA, she served in the Army as a military intelligence officer, including two deployments to Iraq.

Student Veterans
Arcadia is a proud Yellow Ribbon School. The Yellow Ribbon Program is made up of higher education institutions that help veterans pay for tuition. The program is available to all undergraduate and graduate students at Arcadia who qualify for the benefits, provided they are matriculating into a VA-approved program.

Support given to veterans admitted into Arcadia’s PA program includes: accommodations for military responsibilities, such as deferred admission, time off for military obligations, or help with compliance with the public service requirements of a service-related scholarship.

“Following graduation, many newly-minted physician assistants seek employment through the Veterans Administration, Commission Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, or become a commissioned officer in the U.S. Armed Services,” Weik said. “Having multiple veterans on our core faculty offers the ability to truly guide students through those somewhat arduous application processes and provide real-world insight as to what those obligations may entail.”