Joseph Merryweather, second year Physician Assistant Student, is the recipient of two prestigious awards this spring.

Joe was selected to receive the Captain Sean P. Grimes Physician Assistant Scholarship award from the Society of Army PA’s.  Capt. Grimes was an Army PA who died in battle several years ago, and his family set up this scholarship in his honor.  Joe was selected from a pool of PA students across the country who were veterans of the US Army.

Joe has also been selected as a recipient of another PA student scholarship from the Veterans Caucus of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.  Both these scholarships were awarded on the basis of academic merit and a record of exceptional service to the Armed Forces.

Joe is an Army veteran, and served two tours of duty in Iraq, between 2004-06 and then in 2009-10.  He was a Staff Sargent, and the officer in charge of a recovery unit that rescued personnel and equipment lost on the battlefield.

Joe and his wife Sarah were married in November 2006 between his two deployments, and welcomed the birth of their first child, Jack, in September 2011, while Joe was in the midst of the Fall didactic quarter of his PA training.