APAO Lifetime Achievement Award
2026 Nominations
The APAO Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an exemplary PA serving in the field of oncology. The recipient is presented with the award at the annual APAO Oncology Symposium.
The recipient of the award will receive the following:
- Lifetime Membership to APAO;
- Complimentary registration to the APAO Oncology Symposium where the award will be presented;
- Three nights’ stay at the conference hotel; and
- Travel reimbursement of up to $500.00 to attend the Symposium.
Colleagues are welcome to nominate a PA in Oncology who have met the following qualifications:
- PA in Hematology/Oncology, Surgical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, or another related subspecialty for at least 10 years
- Nominee must be a member of APAO
- Current Members of the APAO Board of Directors are not eligible for nomination
Nominators will be required to submit:
- A completed Nomination Form
- A copy of the Nominee’s CV
Deadline to Submit: Nominations for 2026 have closed. Check back next year to submit a nomination!
2026 Recipient - Colleen Tetzlaff, MHS, PA-C
Colleen Hogan Tetzlaff has been a Physician Assistant in oncology for over two decades, beginning her career at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, where she founded and directed the Thoracic Oncology Education Series. Since 2009, she has practiced in the Division of Genitourinary Medical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where she also serves as a Clinical Preceptor, training the next generation of oncology PAs.
But Colleen’s impact reaches far beyond her own clinical practice. Within APAO, she has given more than a decade of volunteer leadership — serving as President for two terms, President-Elect, Secretary, and Immediate Past-President, and chairing our Education, Advocacy, Website, and Lifetime Achievement Award Committees. Simply put, much of what APAO is today bears her fingerprints.
She’s also a nationally recognized voice in genitourinary and bladder cancer care, having presented at conferences hosted by the American Urological Association, NCCN, and APAO’s own Annual Oncology Symposium, and she remains active with the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network’s Walk to End Bladder Cancer.
For her clinical excellence, her mentorship of PA students and colleagues, and her decades of tireless leadership within this association, it is our honor to present the APAO Lifetime Achievement Award to Colleen Hogan Tetzlaff, MHS, PA-C.
Past Recipients Include:
- David Johnson, PA-C (2024)
- Steven Wei, EdD, MPH, MS, PA-C, DFAAPA (2023)
- Cindy Koutz, PA-C (2022)
- Alisha T. DeTroye, MMS, PA-C, DFAAPA (2021)
- Risa Zimmerman, MBA, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA (2021)
- Heather Hylton, PA-C (2020)
- Jeremy Heinerich, PA-C (2019)
- Todd Pickard, PA-C (2018)
- JJ Mahany, Jr., PA-C (2017)
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