Sondra M. DePalma, MHS, PA-C, CLS, AACC
APAC President 

Sondra M. DePalma, MHS, PA-C, AACC is a Physician Assistant with over ten years of cardiovascular experience with national certification as a Clinical Lipid Specialist.  She completed a Master of Health Science degree in Physician Assistant studies in 2002 from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania after graduating summa cum laude with a B.A. from Mercyhurst University and receiving a post-baccalaureate premedical certificate with honors from the Pennsylvania State University.

Sondra is a member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and was one of the first Advanced Practice Clinicians to be honored as an Associate of the American College of Cardiology (AACC).  She has had the opportunity to participate as a guest lecturer for the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Chapters of the ACC and serves on the Cardiovascular Team Section's Physician Assistant Work Group.  She has been a member of the Association of Physician Assistants (APAC) since 2004 and was recently appointed as President.  Sondra is an active member of the American Association of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and is a Chief Delegate in the AAPA's House of Delegates.  She also serves on reimbursement committees of both the AAPA and PSPA (Pennsylvania Society of Physician Assistants).

She was a coauthor in an article published in the online content of the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology and has been a sub-investigator in numerous pharmacological and interventional clinical trials.  She has been involved with the American Heart Association, volunteering as a certified ACLS instructor and participating in many Heart Walk and Go Red for Women campaigns.  Sondra has spoken at several community education events.  She also serves as Clinical Faculty at the Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania Physician Assistant Program, and is a mentor and preceptor to physician assistant students of several other PA programs.

Sondra is currently employed at Capital Cardiovascular Associates in Camp Hill, PA.  Over the course of her career, her in-patient duties have included admissions, consults, rounds, discharges, and pre- and post-operative care of patients undergoing PCI, CABG, ablation and device implants.  Out-patient duties included new patient visits, follow-up visits, advanced lipid management, supervision of exercise and pharmacologic stress tests, interpretation of EKGs and holter/event monitors, and interrogation and reprogramming of pacemakers/ICDs. 

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Mark Jackson, PA-C
APAC Director at Large

Mark was born in South Texas and spent the better part of the last thirty years in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  He attended the University of Texas at Arlington as a Biology major prior to receiving his Bachelor of Science degree and PA Certification from UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1991.  His first position was at HeartPlace Arlington, involved with inpatient care (admissions, consults and daily rounds - including post-op care of PCI and CABG patients).  He then relocated to Michigan for three years working win an Inpatient Medicine Service.  Upon returning to Texas in 2000, he joined Advanced Heart Care in Decatur, working in an office-based practice (office visits, supervision of stress tests and nuclear studies, and ran the EECP and Coumadin Clinic).  He also briefly served as Office Manager.  Since 2005 Mark has been employed at Consultants in Cardiology-Texas Health Physicians Group in Forth Worth, Texas.  His initial duties included admissions, consults and supervision of stress tests and nuclear studies (at the time being the first non-physician credentialed by the hospital to perform these duties).  His current duties involve office-based practice where he follows adult general cardiology patients.

Mark is a member of the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants, American Academy of Physician Assistants, American College of Cardiology as a Cardiac Care Associate, and the Association of PAs in Cardiology.  As a Director at Large for APAC, he hopes to utilize his numerous years of clinical experience to help expand the PA presence in the cardiology community.

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Eryn K. Smith, MSM, PA-C
APAC North Central Regional Director

Eryn Smith is the North Central Regional Director of the Association of Physician Assistants in Cardiology, and a member of the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center Cardiac Electrophysiology Service.  Eryn graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology with a specialization in Law, Criminology and Deviance; and Western Michigan University's Physician Assistant program, where he received the Class of 2005 Writing Award along with his Master of Since in Medicine.  He is currently involved with clinical practice in both an inpatient and outpatient setting, as well as research both as a co-investigator and principal investigator through the University of Michigan.  He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and enjoys spending time with his wife and 5 year-old son, as well as competitive road and mountain biking. 

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John Tomasi, PA-C, MPAS

John grew up in Defiance, Ohio (NW Ohio) and attended Ohio State University and received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1997. He worked as an RN for 4 years in emergency medicine before attaining a PA certificate degree from Kettering College near Dayton, Ohio in 2001. His first job as a PA was with a private practice cardiology group, Cardiology Inc. affiliated with Mt. Carmel Health Network and OhioHealth Network of hospitals, in and around Columbus, OH from 2001-2007. During his stint with Cardiology Inc., he received a Master of Physician Assistant Studies degree with a specialization in Cardiology from the University of Nebraska in 2003. He moved away from clinical Cardiology for a few years and worked in Emergency Medicine with a private practice group called Immediate Health Associates in Westerville, Ohio at St. Ann's Hospital part of Mt. Carmel Health Network. He 'came to his senses' as he describes, and moved back into Clinical Cardiology in 2009 in his current position at The Reading Hospital Regional Heart Center in West Reading, PA. 

He currently supervises an outpatient ambulatory post cardiac procedure unit of 22 beds. This area is a 23 hour observation unit housing patients who received coronary stenting /POBA, pacemaker/ICD implant, lead revisions and catheter-based arrhythmia ablations. I also work in a noninvasive cardiovascular area where I supervise stress tests (stress echo, stress myocardial perfusion studies and pharmacological myocardial perfusion studies) and head-up tilt table studies. He is actively engaged in mentoring resident doctors, medical students, NP students, PA students and pre-PA students. 

John has been a part of APAC intermittently since 2005. He has gravitated towards Clinical Cardiology and enjoys the challenges that his job brings every day. He looks forward to continuing in Cardiology for the rest of his career as a PA. John especially enjoys his time bonding with patients and educating them on how to make heart healthy choices in their lives. He is excited to be involved in such a rewarding area of medicine and looks forward with great anticipation to the future of Cardiology.

Morton A. Diamond, MD
Founding Member of APAC

Raised in rural upstate New York, Dr. Diamond received his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and his Doctor of Medicine at State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center.  Postgraduate residency training in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology were at Indiana University Medical Center.

In 1994, after years of clinical cardiology practice in Hollywood, FL, Dr. Diamond became the full-time medical director of the Nova Southeastern University Physician Assistant Program, Fort Lauderdale.  In addition to his teaching and administrative roles in the program, he vigorously promoted the role of physician assistants in treatment of patients who have cardiovascular disease.

His published research is in the areas of neurogenic orthostatic hypotension, echocardiography, and valvular disease.  He and his wife, Louise, have 3 children and 3 grandchildren.  Dr. Diamond served as a battalion medical officer in Vietnam and is 100 per cent-service connected disabled as a result of that service.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (Emeritus), American College of Physicians, Council on Clinical Cardiology and the Council on Stroke (Councils of the American Heart Association).

Fellow & Student Members

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