What’s at Stake: Fighting for PA Access to Student Loans
February 20, 2026
With the Help of Loans, Georgia PA Jonathan Hill Pursued a PA Career and His Passion for Teaching
By Dorsey Griffith
Growing up in Northeast Georgia, Jonathan Hill, MMSc-PA-C struggled with his health – and his healthcare. Over time, he learned to recognize both good and poor care, which inspired him to pursue a medical career. He wanted to help ensure that everyone has access to high-quality, compassionate care in a judgment-free healthcare setting.
As a college student, Hill changed his major several times, at one point thinking of becoming a music teacher. But experience working as a medical scribe alongside several PAs in a local hospital emergency department turned him on to the PA profession, one that would also one day allow him to teach.
Although his parents both had jobs, they couldn’t afford Hill’s graduate education. His wife worked for a non-profit with a very modest salary. So, with some savings and federal graduate school loans, Hill applied to Mercer University’s PA Studies program. It was an option he would not have entertained without the government funds.
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Upon graduating in 2021, Hill worked as an inpatient pulmonary and critical care PA, caring for COVID patients. Since then, he has worked as an Urgent Care PA and now as an emergency medicine PA in a Critical Access Hospital, serving people in several surrounding rural counties. Many of the patients who show up at St. Mary’s Good Samaritan have not had access to care for years and end up in the emergency department with complex medical problems.
In 2024, Hill started as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Mercer, where he then became the Assistant Director of Clinical Education. Today, he serves as the Director of Clinical Education, helping to guide other students toward becoming PAs. Mercer’s program prioritizes service, and nearly all students spend time caring for people who are unhoused, migrant workers, refugees, and others who lack regular access to care. The program provides training that teaches them why caring for the neediest in their communities is essential.
With his demonstrated leadership skills, Hill has been named president-elect of the Georgia Academy of Physician Assistants, where he has pledged to continue teaching and advocating for PAs and emphasizing the importance of rural medicine.
To learn more including how to join the fight to protect PA access to federal student loans, please go to AAPA’s federal student loans page.
An AAPA News Central Series
Since the announcement of the Department of Education’s proposed cap on federal student loans, AAPA has received nearly 2,000 of stories from PAs, PA students, and pre-PAs describing how essential federal loans are to affording PA education and how the Department’s proposed rule would disrupt the PA workforce pipeline. This article is the first in a special AAPA News Central series, “What’s at Stake: Fighting for PA Access to Student Loans.”
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