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���ϲ����� alumna Jamie Lytton G’15 always knew she wanted to help others, and after earning her physician assistant studies degree in ���ϲ�����’s inaugural class, she has led a career of service. Now, Lytton is being recognized for that commitment to others with the 2026 Humanitarian Service Award from the American Academy of Physician Associates.

“When you are someone who naturally wants to help others, like you do in the PA profession, you’re drawn to finding the need and fixing it. We’re trying to help in the best way we can,” Lytton said. “You don’t take on a title to do this; it simply comes from the heart, and it comes from an intention to be good for others. It’s very rewarding to have the benefit of knowing that you made a difference in someone’s life.”

The��AAPA is the national organization that advocates for all PAs and provides tools to improve PA practice and patient care. The Humanitarian Service��award��recognizes��a PA or group of PAs that��demonstrates��clear, lasting dedication to expanding access to care for vulnerable and underserved populations, and/or populations in crisis.��Lytton, who works in pain management in Alaska, is the president of the Alaska Academy of PAs and has made significant efforts to address the state’s opioid crisis.

“I see a lot of opioid addiction and chronic opioid dependency from high use opioid levels, but unfortunately, even in Alaska today, there are very high levels of opioid use disorder. It was very evident when I arrived in 2020, in the heart of the pandemic,” she said. “You see the escalating death rate nationally, and also here in Alaska, and that really prompted my heart to do something.”

Lytton partnered with Project HOPE, a global health and humanitarian organization, leading a 12-member team to create 1,200 Narcan kits, helping to save over 300 lives. According to Lytton, two individuals specifically credited kits from their distribution site with saving a neighbor and a family member.

In addition to responding to the opioid crisis, Lytton has worked to improve access to healthcare services for Alaskans who face persistent barriers to care.��She is��a volunteer��with Remote Area Medical,��a nonprofit organization that provides mobile medical clinics delivering free dental, vision, and medical care to underserved and uninsured individuals��in Alaska. Lytton supported��screenings��for��more than 700 uninsured Alaskans.

As Chair of the Associate Board of Ambassadors for the American Cancer Society of Alaska,��Lytton has played a key role in advancing cancer awareness and support across Alaska.��Through coordinated events and sponsorship initiatives, she��has��helped raise��more��than��$100,000 for cancer patients. She��serves��on the Serve Alaska Board, supporting AmeriCorps programs in rural and urban communities, ensuring funding reaches vulnerable youth and families.

Her path to ���ϲ����� started while she was working as a nurse assistant in North Carolina. When she expressed a desire to become a PA, a patient encouraged her to apply soon, and she took the advice. Lytton applied to eight schools, and ���ϲ����� jumped at the opportunity to interview her for its inaugural Physician Assistant Studies cohort.

“You just felt alive on campus, and I knew in my heart this is where I wanted to come,” she said. “The PA profession is the right balance for me because I ultimately wanted to have a family of my own, I wanted to provide care to patients, and I wanted to be able to change specialties and have that versatility.”

���ϲ�����’s Physician Assistant Studies program continues to grow. The 2026 cohort was the largest in the program’s history. ���ϲ����� doubled the size of its physician assistant class from 38 to 76 students, growing its capacity to prepare clinicians for communities across North Carolina and the Southeast. A PA program on the university’s Charlotte campus is expected to launch in January 2027.

“I am so grateful to ���ϲ����� because they truly invested a lot in us. They gave us opportunities to not only do volunteer work in the community but also invest in the community,” she said. “My learning experience started like a seed, and it blossomed over the years.”

The Health Professionals Scholarship Program also provided Lytton with a financial path to her goals. The HPSP award pays a participant’s school tuition and required fees as well as a monthly stipend to help with living expenses and an annual book stipend for instructional materials.

HPSP recipients incur an active-duty service obligation based on the number of years of scholarship support received. Following graduation and commissioning, recipients are assigned to a military installation where they serve as active-duty officers until their service commitment is fulfilled.

Lytton says her military service, along with her family, faith and ���ϲ�����’s commitment to service learning, helped instill values that have guided her throughout her PA career.

“Leadership begins with recognizing where help is needed and stepping forward to serve. I would advise anyone seeking to become a leader in their profession to look for unmet needs in their community and work to address them,”��Lytton said. “Even if the job seems somewhat small, the skills that you learn from community service and from community coming together and collaborating, they will foster in you this confidence that you take into your profession and become a natural part of who you are.”