Rick Pope is a recently retired Physician Assistant who serves on the Elephant-in-the-Room Series® Advisory Committee. Rick specialized in Clinical Rheumatology at Danbury Orthopedics, the Western CT Medical Group and the Arthritis Center of CT. He transferred to full time academic teaching at Quinnipiac University PA program in 2007/08. After returning back to patient care at 2/3 time he continued to teach at Quinnipiac and went on to teach as an assistant professor at the University of Bridgeport, Stony Brook University, Sacred Heart University, Yale School of Medicine, University of St. Joseph and the MASS College of Pharmacy where he teaches the section on rheumatic diseases. Along with his specialty in rheumatology, Rick has also worked in Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine. He is the author of several medical articles/ chapters in books and he blogs for a medical education company, and serves on the National Osteoporosis Foundation's clinical editorial board. In 2020 Rick received the PA of the Year awarded by the CT Academy of Physician Assistants. He lives in CT with his spouse of 38 years and has three adult children living in Denver and California. He looks forward to working on the Elephant-in-the-Room Series® with so many talented and intelligent members of the committee.