How do I know? What makes me an expert? Simple –I have lived it, so I am speaking from my very own firsthand experience. Sadly, implicit and explicit ageism exists even to this day in PA faculty hiring and retention practices.
And what I am about to say/share with you in this post, I suspect most likely will not be embraced by some if not by most of my peers. Moreover, I am very aware & very prepared for the barrage. Yet, I feel it is my duty to be truthful and transparent on a few PA taboo issues such as this one– the huge Elephant in the room, sort-of-speak and everyone tends to be oblivious to it.
In all fairness to PA faculty recruitment practices, I will be the first one to admit that these faculty search committees often times strive for hiring fairness. Fair, perhaps, but in many instances not even close; sadly to say even as holistic their candidate selection criteria is advertised on their job postings.
Why? Because even with all the talk of practicing hiring inclusivity and aiming for diverse faculty retentive practices, etc., the reality is a very different one in academia when it comes to PA faculty selection. Unfortunately, there remains and unexplained gap; a dissonant one seen in many instances.
For example, while earning & shortly after obtaining my master's degree and working full-time as an EMPA, I was able to be a PA adjunct faculty member in one program and a guest lecturer at another one in the state. All while receiving excellent evaluations from my PA and non-PA undergraduate students from another local university. Doesn't my decade long teaching track record account for anything?
To date, after applying for several local PA programs within the past 4 years, having published over 95 non-clinical articles & commentaries in various PA Journals, spoken at various state yearly conferences, & served as an advocate at the state level for my profession through the years, all I have received has been only 2 phone interviews, but no invitations for a face-to-face interview.
If we (they) are as serious as they say they are in hiring qualified diverse faculty members, then they may have to rethink their hiring policies or protocols when hiring younger & much less experienced peers over older/senior seasoned colleagues. Because ageism (the unspoken practice) is still alive and practiced in many subtle ways is detrimental to potential experienced PAs by sidelining and disallowing them to be enriching contributing faculty members to the next generation of PAs.
Furthermore, practice what you preach w/o exceptions if you're a social justice advocate and authenticity & credibility is a core value of your system. Better yet, actively combat this myopic hiring practice. Lastly, who gets to be your faculty is just as important as who gets to be your PA student.
