From left: Brigham patient care associates Aysia Levy and Ashley Figueroa, pictured at their undergraduate commencement ceremonies last year, are on the path to becoming physician assistants, thanks to a new program designed and launched by Brigham PAs.

Between the application fees, long list of prerequisites and cost of tuition, the road to attending physician’s assistant (PA) school can be a long, often inaccessible one. Those barriers are even more pronounced for would-be PAs from historically disadvantaged communities, which continue to experience the consequences of systemic racism — diminished educational and economic prospects for people of color across generations. This is reflected in who becomes a PA: As of 2022, just 2 percent of PAs in Massachusetts identified as Black and 3.6 percent as Hispanic, according to a recent survey by the National Commission on Certification of PAs (NCCPA).

This inequity inspired a group of Brigham PAs to launch a yearlong, intensive mentorship and scholarship program in 2022 for patient care associates (PCAs) who come from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine and wish to become PAs. Now in its second year, the BWH PA Mentorship Program is open to a broader set of roles involved in direct patient care, due to increased interest.

The program also recently marked a significant milestone: Its first two graduates — Ashley Figueroa, of the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, and Aysia Levy, of the Neurosciences Intermediate Unit — will soon enter PA school.

“I’m the first person in my family to go into medicine, and as I’ve learned about this process, they’re also learning because they weren’t aware of how much training is involved and how expensive everything is,” said Levy, who was awarded a full tuition scholarship for the MGH Institute of Health Professions’ master’s program in PA studies.

“The support system this program has given me made it so much easier to get to where I want to be. I am now recommending it to my co-workers and peers who are interested in the PA profession. It changed my life. I don’t really think I would have been able to get to where I am without this program.”

Levy and Figueroa were delighted to encounter each other at an interview for the same PA school one day.

The program, spearheaded by Jessica McCarthy, PA-C, of the PACE Hospitalist Service, was created with the goal of having the PA profession better reflect the diverse patient population the hospital serves. Numerous studies have shown that a more diverse health care workforce results in improved access to care, better patient outcomes and a more positive patient experience.

“I’ve been here for eight years or so,” McCarthy said. “It was wildly apparent to me the inequities that I was seeing within health care, and in thinking about a mentorship program, we really wanted to focus on encouraging candidates of diverse backgrounds who are interested in becoming PAs to apply to our mentorship program.”

McCarthy applied for a NCCPA Health Foundation Step Up grant in 2022, and her proposal was accepted the same year. With the grant, she and several PA colleagues designed the program to offer a wide range of resources and mentorship opportunities to support participants as they embark on the path to PA school. For example, mentees had the opportunity to hear directly from Brigham PAs about their career paths in personalized panel discussions.

“I had panels created specifically for me, full of practicing PAs who talked about their experience navigating through PA school,” said Figueroa.

In addition, Levy and Figueroa had the opportunity to shadow PAs in various departments and received assistance with their applications, letters of recommendation, educational opportunities and $1,000 each to offset costs associated with PA school application.

“The scholarship aspect of the program gave me the opportunity to branch out,” Levy said. “Before I was only applying to a few schools because that’s what I could afford at the time. In the back of my mind, I felt like I was limiting myself, but this opportunity allowed me to apply to as many schools as I wanted.”

For McCarthy, seeing the program already have such a substantial impact has been profoundly rewarding.

“I think when we started the program, like most new things, I had no idea what to expect,” McCarthy said. “But it was such an absolute pleasure to work with them. I remember getting the texts when they each got their first acceptances into PA school and just how exciting that was. I learned so much from them, and getting to work with people who are interested in becoming PAs reminded me of how lucky I am to do my job and to have this role.”

The BWH PA Mentorship Program is open to BWH employees who are underrepresented in medicine and working in direct patient care roles. Learn more about the program and eligibility requirements here. Applications for the next cohort are due April 30, 2024. To apply, complete this form. For questions, contact jmccarthy@bwh.harvard.edu.