Mrs. Melissa Elie, MS-HNFM, PA-C is the Clinical Director of the PA program at Larkin University. She is a board-certified Physician Assistant with more than 15 years of experience in Adult and Pediatric Emergency Medicine. She practices as a Physician Assistant in the ER but also serves as a preceptor to PA students during the clinical phase of their Emergency Medicine clerkship.

Mrs. Elie graduated from St John’s University’s PA Program with Honors in 2009. Passionate about nutrition, health, and wellness, she went on to pursue a degree in Human Nutrition Functional Medicine and graduated from the University of Western States with a Master of science, in 2022. She is a firm believer in holistic, patient-centered, evidence-based healthcare, and does not believe that medicine’s focus should be on disease treatment only, but rather on the promotion of disease prevention, wellness and optimal health in an effort to keep at bay many chronic illnesses.

Mrs. Elie also believes that providers should be role models for their patients in their way of life, and that provider self-care plays an essential role in high-quality patient care. Her goal is to educate highly skilled, passionate, competent PAs, who understand that high quality patient care starts with self-care.

“Every morning that we wake up is a privilege, a chance for a new beginning, another opportunity to make good decisions. Some of us are privileged of having the freedom to decide whether we want to feed our body health or disease. Let’s make good use of that privilege… Strive for optimal health today! … Eat to live, not to survive because a healthy tomorrow starts today.”
– Melissa Elie.