For David Pecora, medicine is a calling. Pecora is the son of Santo and the late Helen Pecora, both of Bradford. An accomplished physician assistant, David Pecora currently lives in Minnesota. He was recently awarded the professional recognition of Senior Fellow of the Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants. He has also been designated as Diplomate and Fellow with the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

“I would like people to know I raised a son who is from Bradford and who has made something of himself,” said Santo, David’s proud father.

Pecora looks back on his time in the Bradford area with nostalgia. He credits the people here with helping to shape who he has become as a person.

Pecora was an EMT with Smethport Area Ambulance beginning in 1979. In 1981 he graduated from Bradford Area High School. He then moved to Tampa, Fla., where he became a senior paramedic and field instructor for Hillsborough County EMS from 1984 to 1997.

Pecora then let his dreams take to the sky, becoming a flight parametric and training officer for Aeromed Flight Service, which is part of Tampa General Hospital. TGH is a 1,000-bed quaternary care hospital, which often involves cutting-edge technology, highly specialized surgeries and experimental therapies not widely available.

In 1997, Pecora moved to West Virginia where he completed a 33-month primary care physician assistant program. Upon graduation, he was accepted into a physician assistant emergency medicine residency at West Virginia University School of Medicine – Department of Emergency Medicine.

Upon graduation, he became chief physician assistant for West Virginia University Hospital – Department of Emergency Medicine. Later, he was promoted to assistant professor at the university’s school of medicine.

He then relocated to Minnesota where he works in several emergency departments and is a sole provider at critical access hospitals.