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Director, Physician Assistant Program
M.J. Ellis is the Director of the Physician Assistant Program at the University of Arizona. She will be leading the development of the PA program for the College of Health Sciences, which is scheduled for accreditation review in March 2026. The program plans to begin educating its first class in August 2026.
Ellis is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, where she led the Interservice Physician Assistant Program as director from 2020-2023. She was also a consultant to the Air Force Surgeon General on PA specialties for the Air Force and Space Force from 2020-2023.
Ellis had a 36-year career in the Air Force, where she practiced primary care medicine as a physician assistant. She was also the commander of the Medical Operations Squadron at Misawa Air Base in Japan, the chief of medical operations and plans for Allied Command Operations with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Belgium, and the chief of the Europe and Africa international health specialist teams while stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Ellis retired from the Air Force in 2023 as a colonel.
