Cynthia Booth Lord, MHS, PA-C

Associate Professor, Center for Medical Education, Case Western Reserve University

A PA educator for 28 years, Cindy has spent most of her time as a PA program director. She helped develop the Quinnipiac University PA program in 1994 and went on to serve as program director from 1998 through 2014. In 2015, Cindy went on to become the founding director of the Case Western Reserve University PA Program. In 2022, after shepherding the program through the accreditation process and seven years of service as the program director, Cindy transitioned to a teaching role in the medical school.

Cindy received her PA certificate from Yale University School of Medicine and earned her Master of Health Science from Quinnipiac University. While at Yale, Cindy was elected to the Board of Directors of the Student Academy of the American Academy of PAs (SAAAPA) where she co-developed the AAPA National Medical Challenge Bowl.

She has spent much of her 31-year career working in both family medicine and academia. Currently, Cindy works as a volunteer clinician and preceptor at the Lake County Free Clinic in Painesville, Ohio. She also serves as a faculty advisor and a preceptor for an interprofessional team of students at the Case Western Reserve University Student Run Health Clinic.

Cindy’s career is distinguished by numerous awards for excellence in teaching, service and leadership roles. She has served as president and chairman of the board for the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) as well as the Connecticut Academy of Physician Assistants and the Connecticut Physician Assistant Foundation. A member of the nccPA Health Foundation Board of Directors from 2011-2017, Cindy served as chair and Immediate Past Chair. Cindy has also served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE).

In her capacity as a PA educator and a PA in primary care, Cindy has been a strong voice for primary care having served on the Primary Care Progress National Advisory Board and the Connecticut Center for Primary Care Board of Directors. As a co-investigator on a HRSA Primary Care Training Enhancement Grant (Primary Care Champion Fellowship) with the MetroHealth System of Cleveland, Cindy’s work focused on how best to develop, implement, and evaluate the didactic portion of a “practice transformation” curriculum for the CWRU PA students and to coordinate the students’ involvement in quality improvement projects in the community.

Cindy’s mentoring and precepting in primary care include serving as the faculty mentor for PA students selected for the APTR Paul Ambrose Scholars Program and precepting PA students at the Lake County Free Clinic. She is currently one of the faculty advisors for the CWRU chapter of Primary Care Progress.

Most recently, Cindy has focused her efforts and experience in the area of interprofessional education. She is a member of the Case Western Reserve University health professions Collaborative Practice (CP) I & II leadership team as well as an instructor in CP I and an active participant in the numerous IPE experiences offered at CWRU.

Serving as chair of the PA Educator Task Force and a member of the Teaching and Learning team, Cindy is a member of the Aquifer Educators Consortium, a unique cross-disciplinary peer community of more than 70 healthcare educators across disciplines. With experts from many of the national medical educator organizations, the consortium collaborates, innovates, and makes advances in health professions education through their virtual case-based courses, assessments and teaching tools.

A passionate advocate for oral health integration in education and practice, Cindy is an active PA “oral health champion”. She has helped develop numerous community-based oral health experiences including a collaboration with the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine to enhance the relationship and the bi-directional referral process between physician assistant students and dental residents.

A co-investigator on a Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine NIH/NIDCR research grant, Cindy was a member of an interprofessional team of medical providers and researchers working to improve access to dental care for low-income children in Cleveland.

Cindy has served on numerous oral health advisory boards including the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health (NIIOH), the national PA Oral Health Advisory Group, the nccPA Health Foundation Oral Health Advisory Committee and the Connecticut Coalition on Oral Health. While serving on the board of the nccPA Health Foundation, she was a co-developer of the foundation’s oral health video shorts, which were recognized at the APHA film festival in 2017. Cindy was also a participant and contributor to the HRSA Oral Health Competencies (2014).

Currently, Cindy serves on the board of directors for Oral Health Ohio and is the Ohio oral health champion for the Center for Integration of Primary Care and Oral Health (CIPCOH) 100 Million Mouths Campaign (MMC). As a 100 MMC oral health champion, Cindy helps Ohio health professions programs integrate oral health into their curriculum.

Cindy’s scholarship includes numerous presentations, abstracts, and poster presentations around oral health and interprofessional education.