Bradford (Brad) Schwarz is a highly decorated U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) Aidman, one of the first trained US Army PA flight surgeons (Aeromedical PA), a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 40 years’ total military service, a hospitalist/cardiology medicine clinician PA specialist, a PA educator having been a program director of two different PA programs, and associate director of two other programs. Brad currently serves as the Lead PA at the Lexington Kentucky Veterans Administration Medical Center while also assisting in the coordination of VA physician assistant services in Tennessee, West Virginia, and Kentucky. He continues to work closely with the Veterans Administration PA Leadership in Washington DC in helping to implement and expand VA Directive 1063 on a regional basis.
Brad was born in Blue Island, IL (Southside Chicago) in 1954 to a father who served as a B-24 pilot during WWII and again answered the call to serve as an instructor pilot during the Korean War and a loving mother who served as a volunteer for veterans services. His grandfather served in the U.S. Calvary during WWI. Brad enlisted in the US Army in 1973 after two years of college and was accepted into U.S. Special Forces (Green Berets) training where he was the Distinguished graduate of his SFQC class. Brad served on SF ODA 571 for 3 years with special qualifications in Underwater Operations, Jungle operations, and desert warfare having deployed globally with his A team of a variety of missions. Upon separating from the military, Brad used his Vietnam GI bill to complete his undergraduate studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. While studying at VPI, Brad joined the 116th Army National Guard in Roanoke, Virginia as a combat medic. Following his studies at VPI & SU, Brad applied as a member of the Army Guard for acceptance into the U.S. Air Force Physician Assistant Program in Texas. Brad was accepted and completed his training at Shepard AFB in 1981 and Brooke Army Medical Center in 1982. Brad continued to serve his country in the Army Guard, Air Force Reserve, and the Air National Guard, serving in Flight Medicine with the US Army and breaking new ground as the inaugural Flight Medicine PA at Wright Patterson AFB, Kirtland AFB, and ultimately at the Pentagon Flight Medicine Clinic. He deployed to Iraq in 2003-2004 where he served on a Coalition Base Emergency Room at Tallil Air Base located near Nasiriyah, Iraq. He later returned to SW Asia on a Special Envoy as the sole medical provider to Turkey, Iraq, Qatar, Afghanistan and Germany in 2006. Brad concurrently worked in numerous civilian rural settings from a Rural Frontier town in Playas, New Mexico to a Cardiology group practice in Bangor, Maine and everything in between. Brad initiated his career in education at the College of Osteopathic Medicine in Des Moines, IA in 1986 as the Clinical Coordinator. He eventually continued his teaching interest at the University of Kentucky’s PA program while concurrently completing his Master of Medicine with emphasis in Rural Primary Care at Alderson Broaddus College in Philippi, W.V. While at the University of Kentucky Brad helped to launch one of the first satellite PA programs in the US in Morehead, Kentucky where he served as the Associate Director. Brad went on to head up a new PA program in Albuquerque, NM (St. Francis University), prior to serving as a faculty member at Shenandoah University and Emory University as the Associate Director. His expertise in education and PA advocacy was noticed while at Emory where he was offered the chance to serve as Mercer University’s inaugural PA Program Director, which he accepted in 2006. While at Mercer University Brad became the Chair of the Department of Clinical Medicine helping to usher in new programs of DPT and … While at Mercer University, Brad’s Class of 2011 won the National Challenge Bowl, and his first five classes had a 100% pass rate on the NCCPA PANCE Exam. After five years at Mercer University, Brad returned to the University of Kentucky as a tenured Associate Professor and Program Director of the UK PA Program. In 2014 Brad retired from military service and departed the University of Kentucky to follow his ultimate passion for medical care for military veterans at the Lexington Kentucky VA Medical Center. Brad retired from the Lexington VAMC in 2025 having served on an inpatient hospitalist team, Cardiology Heart Failure and Nuclear Medicine, and Plastic surgery. He continues to work in Cardiology as a fee basis provider at the Lexington VA when he is not working at Buffalo Trace as a Tour Guide and Refuge clinic for indigent populations.
During Brad’s professional career, he has held medical PA licenses in Georgia, Maine, New Mexico, Colorado and Kentucky as well as having been a member of each of those AAPA constituent state chapters. He has been NCCPA certified since 1982 and has been an outspoken advocate of PAs where ever he has served. He has lectured extensively at state chapter conferences, regional meetings, nationally (AAPA), and internationally having spoken in China in 2006. He has been awarded over a million dollars in successful grant submissions and has served on several honorary boards and as a subject matter expert. His academic awards include membership in the Pi Alpha Honor Society, Alpha Eta Society, Phi Sigma Society, recognized as a Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare in 1997 and again in 2010 and as a Distinguished Fellow of the AAPA. He was voted as outstanding faculty at the University of Kentucky 2000. His military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal with five oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Humanitarian Medal, Campaign ribbons for Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Vietnam National Defense.
This biography was written by Henry Heard, November, 2019.