BVA Director of Government Relations Thomas A. Zampieri |
Zampieri Assumes GR Duties in DC
Thomas Zampieri has joined the BVA National Headquarters
staff as the new Director of Government Relations. Although he
was in Washington, DC, in early March for the meetings with the
Legislative Committee on Capitol Hill and participated in the
Association’s annual testimony, Tom officially assumed his
new role on April 25.
Tom worked as a clinical Physician Assistant (PA)
for 23 years, 19 of which were in VA Medical Centers in New York,
Richmond (Virginia), and Houston. He has co-authored a number
of medical journal articles on urology and spinal cord injury,
and has been interviewed on Physician Assistant national issues
for other articles. He has held clinical PA instructor appointments
at Alderson-Broaddus College’s Department of Medical Sciences
in West Virginia and at Baylor College of Medicine’s Department
of Urology.
Tom has served in many leadership roles and on various
committees in the PA field, resulting in extensive work on Capitol
Hill over the years. From 1988 to 1993, he was a member of the
Federal Services Task Force in the American Academy of Physician
Assistants (AAPA). In May of 2000 he was honored as the Federal
Physician Assistant of the Year by the Academy. He is currently
a member of the Veterans Affairs PA Association, the Society of
Army Physician Assistants, and the Veterans Caucus of AAPA.
Tom is a graduate of the Hahnemann University PA
program. He received a B.S. from the University State of New York
Regents College and a Masters Degree in Political Science from
the University of St. Thomas in Houston. He is currently a graduate
student in Lacrosse University’s Political Science Ph.D.
program.
Legally blind due to Retinitis Pigmentosa and medically
retired from VA since 2001, Tom was serving as the secretary of
the Greater Houston Regional Group at the time of his hire. He
is also a life member of the American Legion, Disabled American
Veterans, and Vietnam Veterans of America.
"I’m very excited to be an advocate for
BVA and look forward to continuing my interaction with other veterans
organizations in this important work," he said. "I hope
to get our members more involved in their home states at the grassroots
level in affecting key pieces of legislation."
Tom, his wife, Ginger, and daughter Jazmin now reside
in Rockville, Maryland. Ginger works in orthopedics at nearby
Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
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