MC’s New Physician Assistant Studies Chair Strives to ‘Raise the Bar’ of Academic Excellence

Rachelle Dye, a seasoned clinical physician assistant and director of preclinical education, succeeded Steve Martin June 1 as chair of physician assistant studies.

How does Mississippi College’s Physician Assistant Program respond when its students achieve a 100-percent pass rate on the National Certifying Exam for two years running?

By following former National Basketball Association coach Pat Riley and aiming for a “Threepeat.”

Riley coined the term when referring to his back-to-back champion Los Angeles Lakers’ attempt at a third consecutive NBA title. MC’s PA Program may not have a legendary basketball mind at its disposal, but it does have a new leader poised to help her students make a serious run at a third straight perfect score.

Upon this spring’s retirement of Steve Martin, professor and chair of physician assistant studies, Stan Baldwin, dean of the School of Science and Mathematics at Mississippi College, led a search for Martin’s successor. Rachelle Dye, a seasoned clinical physician assistant and director of preclinical education in the program, was tapped to serve as chair of the department, effective June 1.

“I am supremely confident in the leadership that Prof. Dye brings to the Physician Assistant Program,” Baldwin said. “She has been an integral part of MC’s PA Program for many years, working with Dr. Martin and the rest of the PA faculty team, to put together an outstanding program.”

Baldwin’s confidence in Dye’s leadership capabilities was shared by Physician Assistant Program faculty and staff. Katryna Horton, assistant professor and director of preclinical education who has worked closely with Dye for the last three years, lauds her friend’s focus on academic excellence.

“Rachelle strove to continually raise the bar for our students academically by revising our assessment methods, improving the quality of instruction given, and ensuring adequate coverage of all required topics,” Horton said. “The result was consistent year-over-year improvement in test scores and a two-year-in-a-row 100-percent PANCE pass rate.

“When it comes to leadership style, she is very direct and driven, and gives the faculty the support and direction needed to continue improving on all the hard work that went into our program’s recent successful accreditation site visit. I am thrilled for Rachelle to have this well-deserved opportunity to be a program director, but am even more excited for the MCPA Program to have such an excellent leader for the outstanding team Steve brought together.”

Dye said Martin had prepared her well to lead the program.

“After I was named director around the first of April, I had a ‘right-seat-ride’ next to Dr. Martin, where I got to observe him in meetings and help with his tasks throughout the day before his term ended,” she said. “If I have any questions now, I know where he lives.”

When it comes to the PA Program, Dye shouldn’t have many questions. After obtaining her B.S.N. cum laude from Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia, she earned her B.S. in physician assistant studies magna cum laude at South University in Savannah. She obtained her master’s degree in PA studies with a concentration in gastroenterology and hepatology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

She worked in education for several years and was serving as an adjunct professor of clinical education at South University when she first met Martin and Robert Philpot, MC’s initial chair of PA studies. Philpot was the program director and Martin had been hired to do program assessment in advance of a reaccreditation visit and the institution’s self-study report. When Philpot left the university, Martin landed a program director job in Tampa, Florida, and Dye joined the faculty full-time as clinical director.

Years later, she made her way back to clinical practice but was seeking an opportunity in education when she noticed a social media comment Martin had posted asking potential PA educators to contact him.

“I messaged him and asked where he was, and he said Bob Philpot had recruited him to Mississippi,” she said. “He said I needed to see the campus and feel the atmosphere here at Mississippi College.”

She came to Clinton for an interview and fell in love with the campus immediately.

“I was impressed by the friendliness from everybody, from the college staff to the hotel staff,” she said. “Everybody was so kind. Dr. Martin said it was not the type of educational environment that I was used to. He said the college likes us, respects what we do, and supports us in every way it can.

“So, I took a leap, moved here from Savannah, and promised to stay through a reaccreditation cycle. I told him three years, I’ve been here for five-and-a-half, and now I’m program director.”

She found that MC already had a strong PA program with PANCE rates around 97 percent. But Martin was always striving for improvement.

“Dr. Martin told me the program needed some tweaks,” she said. “We started looking at where we could improve. He started building a faculty that would be long-lasting and quality. I started looking at the curriculum, raising the bar on the difficulty of exams, and eliminating some of the assignments that didn’t contribute much to the students’ professional development.

“The students were less than thrilled when we started making some of these changes, but we made a few tweaks every year, we began to look at course and instructor evaluations more critically, and we slowly incorporated some needed revisions.

“The students and faculty took these steps to heart and over the course of time, we’ve evolved to what is an excellent program.”

Her leadership style is straightforward, matching her upfront personality.

“I’m a rule follower, and generally, I expect others to follow the rules as well,” she said. “My main interest is fostering open communication and teamwork, because I want everybody to have a strong work-life balance.

“I was in the Army Reserve for several years and I have served as director of clinical education – which is probably the hardest job in PA education because you never get any downtime. It requires a lot of organization and a little bit of luck, too. Dr. Martin did a lot to foster teamwork, and my goal is to make sure everybody can go home at the end of the workday, both on the didactic and the clinical side.”

Trying to capably fill two open faculty slots is commanding her attention, but Dye remains vigilant about making sure PA students’ needs are being met. Her long-term goals include maintaining a well-trained faculty for a long period of time, facilitating the highest pass rates and lowest attrition rates possible, and helping the program become recognized as one of the finest in the region.

“I don’t intend to maintain the status quo, but to continue to improve the standards of excellent education so our students can provide the best possible care to their patients,” she said.

The quality of students who show interest in MC’s PA program remain high. Last year, the program matriculated its highest class GPA – 3.78; this year’s class has a matriculating GPA of 3.80.

“The level of our applicants seems to be improving and will continue to get better,” she said. “Mississippi is a very rural state and recruiting high-quality applicants our of those rural areas to go back and fulfill a role in those areas would be nice to see.

“We’ve batted around a few ideas, but that’s an evolving goal for the future.”

She draws inspiration from her family: husband Michael, who retired from the military after 34 years of service; their three adult sons, Corry, who is pursuing a degree in geospatial information technology, Andrew, who is nearing completion of a Ph.D. in high-energy particle physics at the University of Mississippi, and Sean, an expert in finance and economics who has a career in property management; and their two chihuahuas. Dye and her husband live in Jackson and attend Pinelake Church and First Baptist Church of Jackson.

Dye said the support she has received since joining the Mississippi College faculty has been amazing.

“I love that this institution emphasized Christian values and integrity,” she said. “That’s why I fell in love with MC. I know I have the support I need to make our future goals for the program – a 100-percent pass rate with a zero-percent faculty attrition for all classes – possible.”

Which sounds like a viable shot at a possible “Three-peat.”

“We’ll definitely go for it,” she said. “Our students have recently taken the PA-C (physician assistant, certified exam) so we have a good idea of where they stand and how that will equate to the certification exam they will take in December.”