Pamela Adelman, Clinical Coordinator, 越南直播 PA Institute<\/p>\n
Defense Meritorious Service Medal. Joint Service Commendation Medal. Three Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals. Lieutenant for the White House Medical Unit at Camp David, responsible for the medical care for our nation\u2019s leaders. It\u2019s not every day that one encounters an individual with such an impressive background\u2014unless you are a student, staff, or faculty member at PAI. These accolades and accomplishments are but a few attributed to PAI\u2019s Director of Clinical Education, Lieutenant Commander Michelle Lea. In her 20 years of service in the US Navy, she has crisscrossed the country and the globe, landing here in Bridgeport to helm the Clinical Education department. In honor of Veterans Day, The PAI Pulse<\/em> spoke with Professor Lea to learn more about her.<\/p>\n These opinions are Michelle Lea\u2019s alone and do not reflect those of the Department of Defense.<\/em><\/p>\n PAI Pulse:<\/strong> What influenced your decision to become a PA?<\/p>\n Michelle Lea:<\/strong> I worked for the Armed Forces Medical Examiner\u2019s Office during the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom\/Operation Enduring Freedom and assisted with the examination of our fallen service members. I knew that I wanted to do more. As a Navy Hospital Corpsman, I learned about PAs and the military\u2019s PA program, and I felt it aligned with my goals the closest.<\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> Astronauts have shared that after viewing the planet from orbit, their perspective on global citizenry changes. Did your time in the service impact you similarly?<\/p>\n ML:<\/strong> While deployed to Afghanistan, my peers came upon a package on the side of the road. In fear that this was an improvised explosive device (IED), they sent robots in to investigate and possibly detonate the device. Upon closer inspection, it was not an IED, but a newborn baby girl with a fresh umbilical stump still in place. I was tasked with assisting in the child\u2019s care and finding placement for her within the local Afghan community. There are many reasons that the baby might have been left \u2013 she was born female, perhaps she was illegitimate or even the result of an assault, the family did not have the resources, maternal death, undiagnosed\/untreated mental illness, and many others. This experience put an actual face to so many challenges that the Afghan people encounter. These challenges aren\u2019t unique and don\u2019t just happen \u201cover there\u201d; they\u2019re OUR battles to fight. We need to work as one united front to educate, empower, and make change happen.<\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> How has your time in the service informed your medical practice?<\/p>\n ML:<\/strong> After the last 20 years at war, the Department of Defense (DoD) has had to realign their goals and focus their efforts for sustainability. Part of that is distinguishing critical wartime medical specialties in the Defense Authorization Act and allocating staffing, training, and funds to support these fields of medicine. Emergency Medicine is considered a critical wartime specialty, so I have been trained from the very start with a focus in Emergency Medicine and Trauma with the goal of returning the warfighter to the battlefield. Our elective rotations in PA school were dictated for us with a focus in Trauma and I completed an Emergency Medicine Fellowship to increase the medical capabilities on the \u201cfront-lines.\u201d<\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> Which of your deployments was the most challenging or most interesting?<\/p>\n ML:<\/strong> This is not deployment related, but an interesting fact about one of my duty stations. I was stationed with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner\u2019s Office from 2005-2008. There, we performed federal death investigations all over the world. The TV show NCIS used our office to develop their character \u201cDucky.\u201d Ducky\u2019s actual name in the show is Dr. Mallard, which is maybe not so coincidentally similar to the Chief Medical Examiner at the time, Dr. Malik.<\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> What was it like being a woman in a leadership position in what is traditionally a male- dominated field?<\/p>\n ML:<\/strong> For me, it was shifting my mindset from thinking I\u2019m sitting at their<\/em> table to I\u2019m sitting at our<\/em> table. Male or female, when you\u2019re new or junior, you have a short window of time to demonstrate your value to the organization. I did feel that I had a slightly shorter window to accomplish this and narrower left and right limits. I worked hard to maintain my moral and ethical compass and not let [those limits] dictate who I was. Interestingly, I found this to be less of an issue when working with more senior personnel and teams on higher stack projects.<\/p>\n