Meet the New GAPA President -Brian Wingrove, MHS, PA-C, DFAAPA

Dear GAPA Members,

I am truly honored to be taking on the role of president of GAPA, your state organization that seeks to provide Georgia PAs a voice advocating for our profession, work towards getting PAs the ability to practice at the top of their scope, arrange opportunities to engage with each other, and provide quality educational programs.  Many thanks to Megan Timpone, who is now our immediate past president, for all of her hard work and dedication over the past year. I look forward to continuing to work with her to advance the mission of GAPA, along with our president-elect, Jonathan Hill, and the rest of our board members.  We are here for you.

By way of introduction, I have been a PA for 26 years. After graduating from the Duke PA program I worked in primary care pediatrics at a rural clinic in NC for about 3 years.  I moved to Atlanta in 2003 joining the staff at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in primary care, and ultimately transitioning to pediatric pulmonology in 2005 where I have been practicing since.  My partner and I live in the Edgewood neighborhood of Atlanta with our 3 cats, Sisko, Dax, and Odo.

We recently wrapped up a successful summer conference in Jekyll Island that was well attended and provided high quality CME. Our students were out in full force and actively engaged in the Challenge Bowl and volleyball tournament.  Congratulations to South College for taking the Challenge Bowl trophy, and to Emory University who went undefeated in the volleyball tournament! We hope to see you next year in Ponte Vedra, Florida.

There are many things happening in the world of PAs, perhaps most significantly is the proposed professional title change and the state compact agreement. The AAPA has encouraged constituent organizations to change the name of their societies to reflect the movement towards title change. GAPA will be looking into doing this over the next few months; this does not mean that we are proceeding with title change at the state level yet, only the organization’s name.

North Carolina recently passed legislation joining the state compact agreement for licensing, bringing the total number of states to 19, with legislation pending in 4 other states.  Now that our neighbors, Tennessee and North Carolina, are part of the compact, we are hopeful that Georgia will soon join. GAPA will work with our lobbyist to present this to our state legislature. With these important items, including pending legislation for PAs to order home health care and provide artificial insemination, GAPA will again host a Hill Day to invite PAs and PA students from across the state to be a presence at the capital and speak directly with our legislators. We invite you to come join us in January, so look for the upcoming announcement for date and time.

GAPA is also seeking to bolster our Engage program targeted towards pre-PA students. We will again host the HBCU Pre-PA fair in February, inviting the Georgia PA programs to meet with aspiring PA students. If you are interested in allowing someone shadow you at work, please reach out as pre-PAs are always looking for these opportunities.  At our recent conference, I had two current South College PA students came up to me and thanked me for allowing them to shadow – pay it forward.

I look forward to an exciting year with GAPA. Please reach out with any questions or ideas, and if you want to get more involved with GAPA.

Brian Wingrove, MHS, PA-C, DFAAPA
GAPA President 2025-2026