BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Jimmie (Jim) Ellis Keller, PA-C Emeritus, DFAAPA

Mister Keller retired as a Major from the United States Army on February 1, 1994, after more than twenty-six years of active Federal service.  Prior to his retirement, he served as the first Chief, Physician Assistant (PA) Section, and Assistant Chief, Army Medical Specialist Corps; and as the PA Consultant to The Army Surgeon General.  Prior to these appointments, Mr. Keller served as the first Army PA selected for Presidential Support in the White House Medical Unit from 1984 to 1988 serving President Ronald W. Reagan and then Vice-President George H.W. Bush (41).

Mister Keller entered active duty on August 15, 1967, as an enlisted soldier from Morganton, NC, and served as a combat medic/corpsman in two infantry battalions of the 47th Infantry Regiment assigned to the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta of the Republic of Vietnam.  Among his military awards are the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with One Oak Leaf Cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal with Two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Commendation Medal with Three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Combat Medical Badge, the Expert Field Medical Badge, the Presidential Service Badge, the Parachutist Badge, Designation as a Distinguished Member of the U.S. Army Medical Department Regiment, and the Order of Military Medical Merit.

Mister Keller graduated from the U.S. Army – Baylor University Military PA Training Program on July 9, 1976.  He was awarded the “A” Proficiency Professional Designator by The Surgeon General of the Army, was board certified as a Primary Care PA by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, Inc. (NCCPA), from 1977 - 2013, and retired in May 2018 after forty-two years of clinical practice.  He holds a Master of Public Health Degree from The George Washington University, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management/Health Care from Park University, an Associate of Science Degree from Baylor University, and is a graduate of the Interagency Institute of Federal Health Care Executives.  He has been involved with PA education and program planning since 1994.  He was the Director of the PA educational programs at East Carolina University (1994 – 1997) and at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado (2001 – 2007).  He has been an adjunct professor with the PA Program at Rocky Vista University in Parker, CO, since August 2019. 

Mister Keller is a member of numerous professional organizations and served as the Department of Defense Representative on the Board of Directors (and Vice Chairman in 1993) of the NCCPA.  He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA), and a Fellow of the Society of Army Physician Assistants.  Mister Keller chaired the Government Affairs Council of the AAPA from 1991-1993.  In 1991, he was honored by the AAPA as the recipient of the PA Awareness Achievement Award and the Outstanding Military PA of the Year, and by the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States as the recipient of the Outstanding PA of the Year Award.  He has three sons (Jay, Jon, and stepson Alex), and seven grandchildren.  His wife, Debra, is a retired Army Colonel, and they live in Highlands Ranch, CO, near all of their sons and their families.