As the sole female medical provider in a busy local clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 2007 to 2009, Gina R. Brown found herself inundated with female patients in need of prenatal care.

With scarce resources in that specialty, Brown saw an opportunity to expand clinical and preventive health services for hundreds of women in Kabul by developing an on-site prenatal clinic, modeled after prenatal clinics in the United States.

Brown’s passion to help people in need didn’t go unnoticed.

The American Academy of Physician Assistants has named Brown – assistant professor in Wichita State University’s physician assistant program – the winner of this year’s Humanitarian PA of the Year Award for her dedication to improving care in underserved communities.

The award recognizes a physician assistant who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to human rights and exemplifies the profession’s philosophy of providing accessible and quality health care on domestic and international levels.

Brown, who also won Wichita State’s Academy for Effective Teaching Award in May, was nominated for the Humanitarian Award by her own students.

“Every year I have carefully read the stories of the PAs who win the Humanitarian Award, as I thought of it as the most interesting and honorable award a PA could receive,” she says. “But I never thought I would receive the award myself. I am very humbled and honored.”

A door into peoples’ lives

Brown began her medical work abroad early in her career as a volunteer in a clinic for Afghan refugee women in Quetta, Pakistan, in the early 1990s. Her love of medicine and health care delivery eventually brought her back to the United States, where she graduated from Wichita State’s physician assistant program in 2004.

Brown worked at an inner-city clinic in Wichita for three years, providing reduced-cost health care services to those in her community.

In 2007, she moved back to Afghanistan for two years. In that time, she opened a prenatal clinic, which is still open today.

At Wichita State now for the past six years, Brown still continues her volunteer work, serving as treasurer of the Gilgit Eye Hospital in Pakistan and working with the Salvation Army in Wichita developing health advocacy services for their clients aimed at helping to break the cycle of poverty.

“I decided to pursue the profession due to my belief that health care was a door into peoples’ lives that allowed me to enter into a place of possible vulnerability,” Brown says. “Once there, I would have the opportunity to comfort, aid in healing or to stimulate change.”

Helping others, she says, just comes naturally.

“I need help. Others need help. No one should live alone without the help of others,” she says. “It just seems like a part of being a human being.”