DMS Bridge Alumni Profiles

Karina White, DMS, MPAS, PA-C immediately felt confident in her decision to enroll in Butler’s Doctor of Medical Science (DMS) Bridge program. 

“It was a no-brainer for me,” White says. “I didn’t have to think about it for very long.”

At Butler, the benefits of doing so were obvious. 

“It’s just a great deal,” White said. “It’s fairly affordable, and it’s a short time commitment in comparison to the work you’ve already put in to get to PA school and in PA school. So, I highly recommend it to people. I try to get as many people to do the program as I can, even if they’re not sure what they want to do in the future.”

In 2020, White enrolled in Butler’s Master’s of PA Studies program after spending the previous seven years as a stay-at-home mother to her two children. She joined her DMS Bridge program cohort in the summer of 2022 and finished in December of that year.

The flexibility of the program’s online courses and capstone project enabled her to manage her demanding schedule and schoolwork. 

“It worked out beautifully for me, even with my kids,” White says. “During that time, I think we even did a little bit of traveling. Being online gives you a lot of flexibility. You can do it wherever.” 

Today, White is a family medicine PA with Pike Medical Consultants, an independently owned practice on the northwest side of Indianapolis. She splits her time between primary care and urgent care.

On a weekly basis, she sees the advantages of her DMS, and she’s even more excited about what it could do for her future. 

“It really helped me understand the way I looked at the data, evidence-based medicine, and how I practice medicine,” White says. “It’s going to help me tremendously as I move toward potential opportunities in academia, most PA schools want their professors to have doctorates.”

White is already dipping her toes into the world of academia. In May, she’ll also be transitioning into a primary care clinical professor role with Butler’s PA Master’s program. In this position, she will help onboard and further prepare students for their primary care clinical rotations, help guide their progress, and more.

While she’s unsure if or when she’ll fully dive into the world of PA education, White loves knowing that the option is always there for her, thanks to Butler’s DMS Bridge program. 

“Even without knowing 100 percent that I’d work in leadership or in academia or do research or anything like that, I knew that sometimes circumstances change,” White says. “I didn’t want to be five years into my PA career and then look back and say, ‘I should have done that program. That would have been a good move for me.’ 

“I would have regretted that.”

Teaching high school may look like an odd blip on Muhammad Jan’s healthcare-heavy resume. In actuality, this PA and 2023 graduate of Butler’s Doctor of Medical Science (DMS) Bridge program has followed a thoughtful plan to become a practicing healthcare educator.

“My entire journey to this point has revolved around education. Knowledge is like an unquenchable thirst. I love learning, teaching, and learning through teaching,” Jan says. “It’s in my blood. As I grew up in America, my mom and dad always emphasized how important education is and how no one can take it away from you. I’ve held that to my heart.”

Jan, his siblings, and his mother left Pakistan when he was 8. He credits his “remarkable and supportive” parents for nurturing his long-held interest in both teaching and medicine; he double majored to earn two bachelor’s degrees at once: in Education and in Science, graduating summa cum laude with the former and magna cum laude with the latter. But instead of heading to the medical school where he was accepted, he became a high school teacher at the same inner-city school his siblings had attended as youths.

After two years in teaching he returned to medicine, enrolling in PA school with a plan to become a PA program director/instructor; he was one of just 15 students nationwide selected as a Future Educator Fellow by the PA Education Association. Three months after graduating, Jan started a job as a hospital emergency department PA.

One week later, he began Butler’s DMS Bridge Program.

“I realized that if I want to be taken seriously, having a terminal degree gives you a better seat at the table to make a difference. I saw an opportunity with the Butler DMS Bridge to finish in two semesters. It was rigorous and demanding, but I learned a lot and made great friends. It’s a challenge, but anybody can do it,” he says.

And because of his Bridge Program experience, Jan says he now thinks about healthcare more holistically.

“Instead of just thinking about the medical treatment in a situation, I also think about the administrative aspect, the team, and other components. The Program taught me there’s a whole integrated, interacting system.”

He plans to stay in emergency medicine as a DMS and learn more about the hospitalist/inpatient side. Eventually, he wants to become a PA program faculty member, then one day run his own PA program at a university—returning full circle to his dream of being a healthcare educator.

Drew Lasley wants to bring quality healthcare to people who are underserved and uninsured, no matter where his medical career takes him. The best way to prepare for this, he decided, was Butler’s Doctor of Medical Science (DMS) Bridge program.

“It goes back to my faith. I’ve always wanted to work with people who don’t have good access to good medical care. They can’t afford medicines, they don’t have access to specialists, and frankly, a lot of them aren’t listened to, just pushed through the system,” he says. “I wanted to start myself off well in my career with a really good foundation.”

Timing, cost, and experience influenced his decision.

“Butler has been in PA education for a long time and has such a good reputation. I was super pleased at how my Butler Master’s in PA Studies prepared me for clinical practice, and I trusted Butler to deliver a good DMS program, too,” Lasley says. “Plus, the Bridge program nests nicely between starting a job and getting your licensing stuff figured out. I started the program in May, accepted the job where I am now in June and began working in late August.”

Looking back, he said he was more nervous about enrolling in the accelerated Bridge program than he needed to be.

“I was ready to put in the same hours studying as I did in PA school. The Bridge program was rigorous but more flexible than my master’s program. If I had known, it would’ve helped me relax.”

The Butler DMS Bridge program gave him new tools for addressing more than just the medical needs of the population of patients he intends to serve.

“I think sometimes the medical part of being a clinician needs to be secondary to lending someone a caring ear for 20 minutes,” he says. “Part of meeting that medical need is to stay up to date on current research. The DMS Bridge program, particularly its immersion in medical literature, taught me how to process research to see if I can apply something to my practice and how to translate the information for my patients.”

Lasley’s new communication skills help with other medical professionals, too.

“The DMS Bridge degree also touches on the language of healthcare administrators and translating what management is asking you to do. Long term, if I choose to pursue leadership or teaching, something I’ll definitely do in the future, I’ll be able to share what I’ve learned from working with my patients so that more minds can explore together how we might better serve them.”

“I don’t see a single downside.”

That’s how Zachary Simons, DMS, PA-C, views Butler’s Doctor of Medical Science (DMS) Bridge program, through which he earned his doctorate in August 2022.

The Bridge program’s accelerated timeline appealed to Simons. Open only to recent PA graduates, the program applies their already-completed clinical hours to their doctoral requirements.

“It takes two years off earning a DMS degree. That’s a lot of time saved,” says Simons.

Becoming a certified PA, awaiting your credentials, and securing your first job can take months—time best spent improving your skills. Butler DMS Bridge students use this time to gain research and leadership skills, becoming more attractive to employers.

As someone who came late to the PA profession, Simons wanted to save all the time he could.

Wanting the light bulb moments

Simons was ready to become an analytical chemist in 2015. Unable to find the right position, he took a job as a dermatology office medical assistant despite having “no interest in medicine. None,” he says.

Nevertheless, he became immersed in supporting four PAs and a doctor and came to understand the significant role a PA plays in patient care. He’d held the job for two years when an overheard conversation crystallized a desire to become one.

“A PA was going back and forth with a patient, having a lot of trouble figuring out what was wrong. Then, with the answer to one specific question, a light bulb went off in her head. She suddenly knew what was wrong from something she’d read in a research study. I wanted to be able to do that,” Simons says.

He became a certified PA in 2021 but felt he didn’t know how to effectively explore research data. So, he sought out a doctoral program and chose Butler.

“When a PA has tried x-y-z with a patient and gets stuck, we don’t have the intrinsic medical-school knowledge a physician does. We must assess risks/benefits without having been taught how to identify sound vs. skewed research,” Simons says. “In the DMS program, we get a fuller understanding of properly interpreting statistical data.”

Saving money while learning

Another appeal of Butler’s DMS Bridge was how soon after PA school he could start.

“Once you leave school, you’re juggling life, paying off loans, you’re off the school pace. DMS Bridge sets you up for your future while you’re still focused on being a student,” Simons says. “It’s just another seven months of classes, and you have a complete educational experience.”

The fully online DMS Bridge program also relieves students of substantial costs.

“As I said, I don’t see a single downside. If you’re anticipating getting a doctorate education and you’re still in PA school, plan on enrolling in the DMS Bridge program. The experience is something I’ll never forget,” Simons says.

Today, Simons works at Schweiger Dermatology Group and is a postdoctoral researcher with DMS Bridge Program Director Cody Sasek on a project directly affecting PA education, a field Simons may enter someday.

“We are examining certain personal attributes of PA program directors to understand the deciding factors around attrition,” Simons says. “As the number of PA programs grow, stability in good leadership is key to ensuring that the PA profession is successful in years to come.”

Choosing to become a PA in the military means more stress and responsibility, says Dr. Aubrey Brown, 1st Lt. in the U.S. Air Force and a PA-C.

Immediately studying to become a Doctor of Medical Science (DMS) added even more—but as someone who takes the branch’s “Faster and Smarter” objective to heart, Brown found the structure of Butler University’s DMS Bridge program irresistible.

The two-semester accelerated program is fully online. By applying a recently graduated PA’s clinical hours, the program can be finished in less time and at a lower cost than waiting until later in a PA’s career.

As soon as she learned about it, the newly minted PA (and woman who had never intended to go to college at all) signed up.

Out of planes and into PA school

Brown had grown up with a lofty career goal. “I wanted to jump out of airplanes and save people,” she says. “As soon as I turned 17, I asked my mom if I could join the Air Force.” Brown enlisted right after high school graduation. Six years later,

“I realized enlisted life is great but didn’t fulfill my passion. I’d become a medic and did get to save people but there was no jumping out of planes,” she says.

Brown was with a Special Forces unit when she discovered the Interservice Physician Assistant Program (IPAP), an accelerated path toward a Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) degree.

“I didn’t even know what a PA was, just that they knew more than I did,” Brown laughed. “Someone let me shadow them, and right away I thought, ‘This is definitely for me.’”

She went “crazy” (her word) to quickly finish the prerequisites, graduating in 35 months and moving to Andrews Air Force Base in October 2022 to await her PA credentials.

Brown admitted she soon “got bored” waiting. Then, “One of my PA friends said he was getting his doctorate. I didn’t even know a PA doctorate existed. That’s when I found Butler.”

Getting smarter faster

The timing and accelerated nature of Butler’s DMS Bridge program appealed to Brown.

“It was fast, I was still in the school mindset, and it was so cost competitive. So, I did it,” she says.

Brown developed a network of PA contacts she’d never had before and believes she’s a better researcher and critical thinker because of the DMS Bridge program.

“You’re able to look at things from a different standpoint, further away than you could before. I can solve problems through scientific research like nobody’s business now,” she says. “It certainly has helped me in my practice.”

Now Dr. Brown (she’ll also become Capt. Brown in October 2023) is happier for having earned her doctorate through Butler.

“The military doesn’t have as many PA specialties as civilians do, only about five. One of those is education, so you can go back to where you learned all this and teach. That’s definitely an option for the future now,” she says. “And if I ever decide not to be in the military anymore, I have even more options.”

“Butler’s DMS Bridge is one of those rare things, literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I would challenge anyone to find a better one.”