Breinigsville Resident Brienne Marks Helps DeSales Physician Assistant Students Win State Challenge Bowl

CENTER VALLEY, PA (10/29/2013)(readMedia)-- Brienne Marks of Breinigsville, Pa., was one of a team of DeSales University physician assistant (PA) students who won the State Challenge Bowl, held by the Pennsylvania Society Physician Assistants (PSPA) in Erie, Pennsylvania, on October 18.

Teams from colleges and universities with PA programs compete against one another in a medical question and answer format.

This is the fourth consecutive year DeSales student won the state Challenge Bowl and previously DeSales won the title consecutively from 2000 to 2006. Members of this year's team, in addition to Marks, were graduate students John Zerfass of Nazareth, Pa., Brianna Reilly of Centerreach, N.Y., and Chloe Palma of Burlington, Conn.

Kathleen L. Ehrhardt, MMS, PA-C, assistant director of the DeSales PA program, is the faculty advisor to DeSales Challenge Bowl team. Jane Arenas, clinical coordinator in the physician assistant program, and Bernie Childs, clinical assistant, accompanied the team to Erie. In May, the team will go to the National Medical Challenge Bowl in Boston. DeSales has previously won 5 national titles, three of which were consecutive. No other PA program has ever won more than two national titles.

Physician Assistants are licensed medical professionals who work under the supervision of licensed physicians. They practice in both general and specialty medicine and surgery, and perform routine duties normally reserved for physicians. According to the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, there are 86,500 certified PAs as of 2012.

The highly regarded PA Program at DeSales first admitted students in 1997. Since its inception, a total of 15 classes have graduated from the DeSales PA Program. Graduates of the program have consistently ranked first in the nation in the national standardized in-training examination known as the PACKRAT (Physician Assistant Clinical Knowledge Rating Assessment Test).

For the past 12 years, 100% of DeSales PA graduates have passed Physician Assistant National Certification Examination, which must be passed to be eligible for licensure in all 50 states.

For more information regarding the Challenge Bowl, contact Kathleen Ehrhardt, assistant director of the physician assistant program, at 610.282.1100, ext. 1483.

DeSales University, in Center Valley, Pa., is a private, coeducational, four-year liberal arts university affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Founded by the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales in 1965, the 480-acre suburban campus is located 50 miles north of Philadelphia and about 90 miles south of New York City. A total enrollment of nearly 3,300 includes undergraduate day and evening students and graduate students. DeSales has approximately 100 full-time faculty members and offers more than 35 bachelor's degrees and eight graduate programs in a wide range of disciplines.