CO-OWNER / PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT
Practicing as a Physician Assistant and specializing in Orthopaedic sports medicine for 36 years, Mary Vacala has extensive experience working with patients and athletes of all ages and professions. Mary started her sports medicine career in college, where she was both a scholarship athlete and an athletic trainer. Mary’s philosophy is to live your life with purpose and have fun doing it. Mary’s college Field Hockey team was recently inducted into the Western Illinois University Athletics, Hall of Fame class of 2024.
Mary holds 2 Bachelor’s of Science degrees and 2 master’s degrees in Medical Science and Physician Assistant Studies.
Mary has been certified as an athletic trainer for 45 years and a Physician Assistant for 36 years. Mary has coordinated several athletic training, sports medicine, and PA programs and served as department chair/program director of a Physician assistant program. She continues to mentor student interns in PA studies, ATC, and Family Medicine. Mary has been presenting guest lectures throughout the country and internationally for over 28 years.
Mary was one of 3 medical coordinators and a Chief athletic trainer in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games. She has worked with the USA Olympic Committee since 1993. She was selected to the USA medical Team in 2000, 2004, 2016, and 2020/2021, where she covered the Paralympic games in Sydney, Australia, Athens, Greece, Rio, Brazil, and Tokyo, Japan. She has been a member of 3 Gold medal Americas cup teams, 2 Silver medal World Championship teams, 3 Gold medal Parapan teams, and 3 Gold Medal Paralympic Teams.
Mary has served as a secretary and a two-term president of the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants. Mary has served as a delegate for the AAPA House of Delegates for eleven terms. She was elected by her peers as the GAPA Physician Assistant of the Year in 2015.
Mary has co-authored a Chapter on the Care of the Physically Challenged Patient in the book Physician Assistant: A Guide to Clinical Practice. She has numerous honors, the most recent of which include the GAPA Physician Assistant of the Year, the Hu. C Myers Award, the distinguished alumni PA award at Alderson Broaddus University, the 2017 Distinguished Alumni award from Western Illinois University, and the AAPA as an AAPA Distinguished Fellow.