Physician Assistant Brings Varied Background to FirstHealth Convenient Care in Whispering Pines

Brian Mann, PA-C

WHISPERING PINES – Brian Mann expected to spend his professional life in firefighting, “the family business” that has also provided careers for his father, brothers, uncles and cousins.

In the Cleveland, Ohio, suburbs where Mann grew up, firefighters are trained EMT/paramedics and he was committed to the work.

That was before his father showed him a magazine clipping about the emerging role of physician assistants in health care, however.

“My dad handed me a clipping out of an EMS Journal and said, ‘I think you need to look into this. I think this is the future of medicine, and I think you should go for it. If I were younger, I would do it,’” Mann recalls.

Mann took his father’s advice, applied for and was accepted into physician assistant school at Cuyahoga Community College in Parma, Ohio. He trained as a surgical physician assistant and graduated cum laude. On Aug. 4, he became a physician assistant with FirstHealth Convenient Care in Whispering Pines.

“We are excited to have someone with Brian’s professional background join FirstHealth Convenient Care,” says Lisa Cowan, M.D., the program’s medical director. “He brings a wealth of experience as well as a demonstrated regard for people to his work, and that’s just what we need in convenient care.”

Whispering Pines is a long way from Ohio, and convenient care is very different from emergency and surgical medicine, but Mann is ready for his new role. It will involve people who need his help, and that is his professional calling.

“I love medicine,” he says. “More so, I love people. I have had the absolute pleasure of working many aspects as a physician assistant and each has taught me something different.”

After completing the community college physician assistant program, Mann earned his B.S. degree in Health Sciences from Touro International University in California, graduating summa cum laude, and then an M.S. degree in Advanced P.A. Studies, with a concentration on emergency and family medicine, from A.T. Still University in Arizona.

Before relocating to North Carolina, he was a physician assistant in pulmonary, critical care, express care and emergency medicine with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. He has been certified with special recognition in surgery with the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants since 2002.

A devoted family man, Mann moved to North Carolina when his wife, a physician, became chairman of the pediatrics department at Campbell University’s School of Medicine. The Manns have two children: a son, whose interest in swimming prompted his dad’s interest in USA swimming; and a daughter, whose interest in gymnastics led to Mann’s volunteer work with USGA-sanctioned gymnastics events.

“I am really excited,” Mann says of his new professional direction with FirstHealth Convenient Care. “Life is about meeting people. It’s the bigger picture for me. It always has been.”

FirstHealth Convenient Care in Whispering Pines is located in the Food Lion Shopping Center at 7473-C Highway 22. Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.  Appointments are not necessary, and walk-ins are welcome.