The Well
Hosted by Mount St. Mary’s University Physician Assistant Program leadership, The Well brings together clinicians, educators, and healthcare professionals to discuss and explore advancements in clinical practice, healthcare education, and the wide-ranging issues impacting the future of healthcare.
The Well
Introducing Caitlin Eby, Administrative Manager
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In this Faculty Spotlight episode of The Well, we're joined by Caitlin Eby, Administrative Manager for the Mount St. Mary's University Physician Assistant Program.
Welcome back, everybody, to the Well Podcast, our source of insight, inspiration, and growth for future PAs. I'm one of your hosts, Mary Jackson. I'm the program director here at the Mounts PA program. And I have with me our associate program director and my co-host, Leanne Hedges. Hi, everyone, welcome back. And today we are honored to have our guest, Miss Caitlin Eby, who is our administrative manager at the PA program, and we are introducing our entire faculty and staff team. And we would be remiss not to highlight the amazing work that Caitlin does here, which is often described as herding cats. So, Caitlin, welcome to the podcast. You among everyone on this team have worked for the Mount for the longest period of time. So we'd love to hear a little bit about your journey and your ties to Mount St. Mary's University.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um before I came to the Mount, I had previously worked in higher education for a couple years and then I moved to Maryland. And I so I left that job and I really loved working in higher education. I think it was probably one of the best careers that I had had because I I've held a couple, quite a few different types of jobs. Um and so I really wanted to get back into higher education, and then this opportunity came up at the mount for the assistant director of alumni engagement. So I started there in 2016 as the assistant director, and I worked my way up all the way uh to director before moving over to the PA program back in 2023. Um so I've been with the program now for about two and a half years. Um in my prior role of um in alumni engagement, I did a lot of event planning and fundraising, um, just networking with alumni um and and donors. And now I get to work with all of you.
SPEAKER_02And you can be our PA mom.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. Sometimes I feel like the PA mom. You're all you also teach at the Mount. I do, yeah. So I've been teaching at the Mount um as an adjunct professor for gosh, probably seven or eight years now. Um, I have a background in uh my bachelor's degree is in communications, specifically mass communications. And so I uh teach video design and production um in the Department of Communications here uh at the Mount. And you're pursuing your doctorate. Do you want to share a little bit about that? I am, I am. So um I got my master's degree in business administration and a graduate certificate in organizational development from the university here, and then I just graduated with that and I decided I'm not done yet. So what's two more years? Let's just throw on a doctorate degree. Um, so I am currently pursuing my doctorate in educational leadership, which will be great because I still have 30 plus years till I retire. So I have a doctorate degree in education while I stay in higher education. I love it.
SPEAKER_01We're just a whole bunch of overachievers over here, but fantastic. So you have been a part of this team for over two and a half years, so you have really seen it and contributed meaningfully to building it from the ground up. What would you say makes our program distinctive, or what why students should join us here and what our students who are coming in January should look forward to?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I think that the, you know, I was new to just medical education in general when I moved over to this program. And I will say that I've learned a lot, so I can only imagine what our students are going to learn. Um, I think that our first our team, um, I think our team brings a little very diverse background. Um, you know, we've got a bunch of different specialties, and everyone has had different paths to get here. Some people have experience in education, um, some people are military. So I think that, you know, having all those different perspectives really brings a very diverse kind of faculty team to our to our program. Um, I love the the what the program's foundations are, right? Um, compassion, um, well-being, service, um, equity. I think that those are all extremely important. And I think that especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, they're even more so and they're more prominent, they're more in the forefront of this type of field. And so I think it's great that our students are going to get, you know, hands-on learning experiences. They're going to be experiencing well-being and learning how to uh combat burnout, even before they get into their professional field, which is just amazing. And then I had never heard of um systems-based learning before. So the way that our curriculum is designed in, you know, pharmacology, you're going to be learning about heart medication. In pathophase, you're going to be learning about the heart. And so it's it all ties in together. So you're not learning about all these different pieces and trying to figure it out. You can see each individual part as the whole system. And I think that is just fascinating. So I hope that our students feel the same way that I do about that.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. And I can see your passion just shining through. And that's I feel so honored to be a part of a team where everybody is just so passionate and working towards the same goal.
SPEAKER_00I love learning too. And so, you know, during your lectures, leave the leave the lecture hall door open so that I can absorb all the information as well. You know, I think that there's a lot to learn. And I think that our students, they're going to be learning too, not just the the medical knowledge and the medical terminology, but they're also going to be able to hone their humanity, if you will. They're going to be able to see each person as an individual person and not just a chart number, um, not just a list of symptoms. And I think that's something that we really bring to our program.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think our students are so lucky that, you know, I know when I walk in, you're the first face I see every morning, and you'll be the first face they see every morning. You're just such a wealth of knowledge, not only about our program, but the university in general.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
unknownWelcome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I agree. I think something that we all hope that the students recognize is that there's a whole community behind them. There are so many resources and opportunities within the Mount community. While we have special resources for our students here and things that are directly applicable to healthcare education, there really is an entire community behind them within the Mount.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, having been here for so long too, I know people personally in the in those departments that, you know, can help the students. I know the way that the university process works for certain things. So I think that, you know, if students have troubles with something, come to me. I can I can try to direct you in the right and put you in the right direction. Um so I I think that there's there's a lot more to it too. I think they're constantly adding new programs and new initiatives here, just you know, as the need arises. And I think that says truly says something about the the progressiveness of the university and how you know they they want our students to be as successful as possible.
SPEAKER_01I love that. So something we always do on the podcast is we wrap by saying, What seed would you plant with future healthcare leaders? So what seed do you have to plant?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that you know, just there's a just like we talked about, right? There's a lot of resources here that the university can offer. And the worst case someone's gonna tell you is no. So it doesn't hurt to ask. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Um, and I I think too that while some programs you are um, you know, you're competing with each other. I think that in our program too, your cohort members are the people who know exactly what you're going through. And so they need to rely on each other. And um, it's really, you know, what I'm learning is that this profession is not single siloed. It is a team profession. And so you need to work with your cohort members as a team in order to be successful. And we're part of that team too.
SPEAKER_01That's right. This is not a journey that anyone is taking alone. They have we have each other, we have our program, we have the Mount community. That's a wonderful seat to play at. Awesome. All right, well, thank you so much for joining us today, Caitlin, and we will see you all back at the well. Thanks.