Rick Hillegas
EdD, MPH, PA-C
Associate Dean
Current Position and Professional Experience:
Dr. Hillegas currently serves as the Associated Dean of the Physician Assistant Program in the School of Physician Assistant Studies at South College in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has spent the sixteen years in teaching physician assistant. Dr. Hillegas has had a number of clinical experiences in primary care, military medicine and occupational health medicine for total of 35 years a physician assistant. He has had extensive experience in the health care field that has included the political and lobbying section of the health care industry. In 1992 he was awarded the Health Policy Fellowship where he served one year in a congressional office dealing with health care issue related to midlevel providers to name a few of his duties. In 2005 he was elected president of the Southwest AHEC in Connecticut, and the following year he was nominated by the Governor of the sate to serve on the Allied Health Workforce Study Group. He is still a practicing physician assistant.
Professional Education:
Dr. Hillegas has a doctorate in education with a concentration in counseling psychology. He has a master of public health in administration and planning from the University of California at Berkeley, and his bachelor in science as a Physician Assistant is from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. He previously was an assistant professor at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.
Teaching Responsibilities:
Course Director: Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
Lecturer: PA History, HAPE, Professional Issues and Health Policies
