James F. Cawley, PA-C, MPH, DHL (Hon.), DFAAPA, is Professor and past Chair of the Department of Prevention and Community Health in the Milken Institute School of Public Health, and Professor of Physician Assistant Studies in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at The George Washington University, where he has been on the faculty since 1982.

Cawley earned his bachelor’s degree in political science (BA) from St. Francis College in 1970, and a second bachelor’s degree in science (BS) as a physician assistant from Touro College (New York) in 1974. He joined the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University in 1974 in the Health Associate Program of the School of Health Services and practiced as a primary care PA at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1979, he earned his MPH degree (infectious disease epidemiology) from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; from 1991-1995 he was a doctoral student in the PhD program (health policy) in the Department of Health Services Administration in the GWU School of Business. Cawley has held faculty appointments in the PA Programs at Stony Brook University, Yale University School of Medicine, and holds current adjunct appointments at A.T.Still University and the College of Medicine at Florida State University.

Cawley was hired as Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Care Sciences in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences in the Physician Assistant (PA) Program in 1982 and promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure) in 1984. In 1985, he served as the interim Program Director of the Physician Assistant Program. In 1987, he worked with Dr. Richard Reigelman, MD, PhD to found the GWU MPH Program and taught courses in Epidemiology, Public Health, Community Health, Evidence-Based Medicine, and Community-Oriented Primary Care in these programs for many years. From 1987 through 2018, he was Founding Director of the GWU Physician Assistant/Master of Public Health Program, a 3-year joint health professions educational program that was the first of its kind in the US.  

In 1988, he was appointed as a fellow in the Epidemiology Program Office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where he developed skills and knowledge in infectious disease outbreak investigation. During these years, Cawley also held numerous consultancies, committee appointments and invited paper presentations with audiences that included the Health Research and Services Administration (HRSA), the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME), and the American Board of Internal Medicine.  

In 2006, Cawley received an appointment as a Visiting Scientist in the Department of the History of Medicine in the School of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University where he used his sabbatical leave from GWU to complete and publish several book chapters on the history of the emergence of the PA profession in US medicine.

From 1989-1995, he served as a member of the U.S. Public Health Service National Coordinating Committee on Clinical Preventive Services. In 2003, he served as a Primary Care Health Policy Fellowship in the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 1994, Cawley was Chair and principal writer of the Report of the Advisory Group on Physician Assistant in the Workforce for the Council on Graduate Medical Education. He has served as a consultant and grant reviewer for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Veterans Administration, and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services. He has also served as a consultant on the PA profession and PA education to the Veterans Health Administration and dozens of educational institutions nationally and globally. 

In 2008, he served for a second time as Interim Program Director of the Physician Assistant Program and oversaw the effort for the Program to attain continuing accreditation. Cawley has worked tirelessly on behalf of the physician assistant profession for four decades and has placed PAs and PA educators in the best possible light. He has a stellar academic record as a PA Program Faculty member, PA Program Director, Department Vice Chair and also a period as interim Department Chair at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. In 2013, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters form the Pennsylvania College of Osteopathic Medicine in Philadelphia in recognition of his expertise in health workforce research and policy. In 2011, Cawley was the first PA to receive the prestigious Eugene A. Stead Award of Achievement by the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). This award of excellence focused on his pivotal role in moving the PA field forward throughout his distinguish career. He has served as a consultant to a number of PA programs in colleges and universities in the US, and to educational institutions in the Netherlands, Taiwan, Australia, and Canada. 

University Service

Professor Cawley has served in a wide variety of roles in University governance in the prior GWU Medical Center, in the  GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the School of Public Health and Health Services, and in the Milken Institute School of Public Health. For many years, Cawley was a representative from the Health Sciences Programs division in the GWU Medical Center Faculty Assembly. In the early 1990s, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the Medical Center Faculty Senate where he served many terms, was elected as Chair, and served as the Chair of the Quadrennial Review Committee which revised and updated the By Laws of the body. Additionally, Cawley served for several terms as the Chair of the Appointment Promotion and Tenure Committee for the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and was the first non-physician to be elected to that position in the School. When the School of Public Health and Health Services was chartered in 1997, Cawley was appointed to be the first Chair of that Schools’ Appointment Promotion and Tenure Committee and represented the School on the University Faculty Senate for 2 3-year terms. During this time, he helped to found and organize the Department of Prevention and Community Health, wrote and obtained approval for the Departmental By Laws, and served as the department Vice Chair. In 2008, he was appointed for the second time as a member and later Chair of the Schools’ Appointment Promotion and Tenure Committee. Since 2010, when the name of the School was changed to the Milken Institute School of Public Health, he served on the Deans Search Committee and on search committees for School associate deans. In 2010, he was appointed for a second time as Departmental Vice Chair and in 2013 was named Interim Chair of the Department. Cawley has since served as the primary author of the initial By Laws Committee of the School and a member of subsequent By Laws committees. He served on the Department of Prevention and Community Health Appointment Promotion and Tenure Committee since it was created (and was Chair on several occasions) as well as on the Department By Laws Committee and numerous Departmental and School search committees. From 2014-2017, he was a member of the Professional Ethics and Academic Freedom Committee (PEAF) of the GWU Faculty Senate.

Professional Service

Cawley has held numerous leadership positions within the organizations of the physician assistant profession, including serving twice as President of the Physician Assistant Foundation, President of the Maryland Academy of Physician Assistants, and President of the Physician Assistant Education Association. He served for five years as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants and was a former member of the Board of Governors of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. He also served as Chair of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.  He was also Chair of the Research Advisory Committee of the American Academy of Physician Assistants and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Physician Assistant Education. In 2011, he was awarded the Patron of the PA Profession Award bestowed by the University of Utah Physician Assistant Program.