Board of Directors

Mayra Martinez

Executive Board President

I have been practicing medicine with a focus on rural medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics and built my pediatrics practice's telemedicine department over 3 years. I am excited to bring with me experience as president of Society For PAs in Pediatrics and Rio Grande Valley PA society. I am looking forward to leading PAVMT this year and can't wait to meet our constituents!

Hina Mazharuddin

Executive Board Vice President

Being your VP since PAVMT's inception, I am a familiar face leading CME presentatinos and telehealth talks for practicing PAs and PA students, presenting at the PAEA highlighting our collaborations with various institutions and helping to bring telemedicine education curriculum into PA programs nationwide. I am happy to continue to be a part of this team of leaders!

Jessica Bhavsar

Executive Board Treasurer

I am passionate about both leveraging technology to enhance healthcare delivery and the advancement of PAs working in this setting. I have been a PA for 11 years and have worked exclusively in a telemedicine setting over the past 4 years working in addiction medicine providing care to underserved and rural populations. I'm happy to be part of this great team!

Sara Gallo

Executive Board Secretary

As a passionate advocate for health equity and a seasoned expert in healthcare transformation, I am eager to continue as secretary on the executive board after the two years as president and president elect. I aim to leverage my network and partnerships to forge stronger connections with industry stakeholders, ensuring that PAVMT remains at the forefront of telehealth advocacy and practice.

Ifeanyi Osunwoke

Executive Board Student Director

My recent leadership experience as a student delegate at the 2024 AAPA HOD meeting inspired me to continue to serve in leadership at PAVMT as student director. During PA school, I became passionate about telehealth. I am dedicated to impacting the growth of this area of medicine because I can testify of it benefits to health care quality and accessibility.

Samantha Myers

Midwest Director at Large

I believe that telehealth will continue to play a pivitol role in expanding access to care. I'm excited about the opportunity to continue my leadership experience and grow my role at PAVMT as Director at large for the Midwest. I enjoy networking and am looking forward to serving the physician associate community as well as expand telehealth resources and promote compact licensing.

Anthony Quintana

Northeast Director at Large

For nearly a decade, I have had the privilege of working in the Tele-Intensive Care Unit (Tele-ICU) as a critical care Physician Assistant, where every day, technology bridges the gap between distance and life-saving care. In an era where the shortage of ICU medical providers is palpable, I have seen firsthand the transformative power of virtual medicine.

Michelle Lipke

Legislative Co-Chair

I have been on the WAPA LGA Committee since 2015 and helped to get the PA Compact Legislation in the WI passed in 2023. As co-chair of the Legislative Committee, my goal is to help improve legislation so there are more telehealth employment opportunities for PAs and improved telehealth access for patients.

Mercedes Dodge

Past Executive Board President

PA Dodge graduated from UC Davis in 2008, worked in primary care, women’s health, urgent care, pediatrics and psychiatry. Additionally, Mrs. Dodge holds a Specialty Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Psychiatry from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). Prior to being a PA, she worked in laboratory and clinical research and worked as an EMT. She has served several leadership roles including working on the California Academy of PAs, first as a student board member and then board member during her PA career in California. PA Dodge has served as President of San Diego Society of PAs for two terms. In her work, she has spearheaded and implemented several initiatives and process improvements. Some include leading behavioral health programs, developing Grand Rounds and CME sessions for 2 large organizations. Her passion is in working collaboratively with providers from a wide range of service lines, and promoting provider wellness in committees in my prior organizations. PA Dodge currently works as an independent contractor and provides telepsychiatry serving the Alaska population and provides telemedicine services in addiction medicine in Austin, Texas. She is passionate in providing support and education to her clients, and works as a Parenting Coach and Educator. In her free time she enjoys running, fishing, hiking with her 2 boys, husband and 2 dogs, and learning new sports, most recently golf, tennis, and skateboarding.

Desmond Watt

Founding President

Desmond Watt, PA-C, is a co-founder of PAs in Virtual Medicine and Telemedicine and founding president of the executive board. He has practiced in virtual care for over 6 years with a national independent primary care organization, and has spent a significant portion of that time in virtual care design, delivery and workflow optimization. He is a passionate advocate for the PA role in virtual care as a critical part of our healthcare future, and believes strongly that PAs must take a leadership position within the rapidly growing virtual care space.

During his tenure as PAVMT Board President, Desmond has spoken to large audiences of PA and healthcare executives, professionals, PA program faculty and students regarding telemedicine and PA advocacy and leadership within this field of care. He is also chair of the AAPA ad hoc committee on PAs in telemedicine, under the Board of Directors of AAPA, lead by President David Mittman.

Desmond makes his home in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, and is a 2012 graduate of the Midwestern University - Downers Grove PA program.

Sarah Purdy

Past Executive Board President

Sarah Purdy PA-C is a physician assistant graduate of University of Florida class of 2010. A military spouse traveling the county collecting state licenses led her to pursue telemedicine. Sarah has extensive experience in emergency medicine, primary care, urgent care, workers compensation/occupational medicine, psychiatry, and addiction medicine with X waiver of 275 patients for MAT. She is currently doing full time telemedicine for addiction medicine and full-time sole owner operator of a telemedicine psychiatry, primary care and urgent care practice opening during peak of pandemic. She was PAVMT first legislative co-chair (2019), president-elect (2020) and current president (2021). She helped to create PAVMT state by state telemedicine guide to help navigate the state by state regulation for PAs doing telemedicine. During the pandemic in 2020 she participated in some consulting PRN work advocating with telemedicine companies wanting to expand services to PAs. She is experienced with startup telemedicine companies on business strategy and expansion especially for creating PA jobs. Current and active member of the AAPA and state license in IL, CA, FL, WA , MA, VA, NC, AZ and pending numerous more. She is also a very proud mom to a 3 yr old son and 18 month oId daughter and wife to a US Navy Commander who is currently actively deployed.