Health and Kinesiology alumna achieves a Boilermaker comeback as Purdue Alumni Medical Network co-lead

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu

Andrea Hagins

After years of working in Ross-Ade Stadium as a student athletic trainer, Andrea Hagins (formerly Brezill), a 2001 Purdue University Department of Health and Kinesiology (HK) alumna, recalls returning to the football stadium in 2023 with her now-husband and former Boilermaker football player, Joe Hagins, to join President Mung Chiang and First Lady Kei Hui in the President’s Football Suite. It was then that she first learned about the Purdue Alumni Medical Network, an initiative spearheaded by the First Lady to enhance connections among Boilermakers in health care.

Through volunteering as a co-lead for the affinity network, Hagins has been able to combine her passion for medicine with her love for her alma mater.

“Coming back and being able to give back in this way — in something that’s in my wheelhouse — has been so rewarding and just awesome,” Hagins said. “I’ve reconnected with a lot of people. It’s been really cool to give back to a school that gave me so much.”

Hagins poses with a group of student athletic trainers during her time as a Purdue student.(Photo provided)

After earning her master’s degree in medical sciences with a concentration in physician assistant studies and working as a dermatology physician assistant (PA) for roughly 15 years, Hagins began her current role as a clinical disease specialist at Novartis. In this role, she uses her previous experience to educate other PAs, physicians and nurse practitioners to help them understand the science behind the diseases they’re treating and how Novartis’ medicines work.

“Our clinical practice experience kind of marries (the science and medicine application) together, so it hits a little harder, and Novartis discovered that health care providers appreciate learning certain information from other health care providers, for instance clinical educators like myself, who have a shared experience in treating patients,” Hagins said. “So as medical professionals, we understand it’s not always as easy as it seems, and we could say, ‘In my experience, this is how I would treat my patients in reality.’”

Throughout her career, Hagins has held a variety of leadership roles, including serving as president of the Illinois Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants and pioneering the Midwest Dermatology Conference.

Hagins also collaborated with her friend and colleague Risha Bellomo to develop an organization, Diversity in Dermatology, that focuses on professional development topics such as recognizing skin conditions in skin of color or being cognizant of cultural values as a medical professional.

Hagins poses with her husband, Joe Hagins, after they were married in Ross-Ade Stadium in June 2025. (Photo provided)

“There was an unmet need in the conference space for dermatology, and they don’t hyper-focus on some of these areas like skin of color and professional diversity,” Hagins said. “That’s how we birthed this idea for this organization. Within the first six months, we had about 1,000 members, and we had about 400 people at our first virtual conference. We have just continued to grow.”

For Hagins, her education from the College of Health and Human Sciences — particularly from previous and current HK faculty, such as Denny Miller, Larry Leverenz and Craig Voll — has been instrumental throughout her graduate education and career.

“The faculty at Purdue were like family — Denny, Larry and Craig, they were so valuable and so pivotal in my life,” Hagins said. “They kept in touch with me throughout grad school. They encouraged me not to quit. Even when I was in PA school, I had gotten a call from someone at Notre Dame offering me a job, and they said Denny Miller referred me. Even all those years later, they were still a part of my family, teaching me skills with time management, professionalism and how to present myself.

“I think that’s really carried me all this way. I don’t think I’d be half the professional I am without that level of training that was instilled in me.”

Coming full circle by returning to campus for the Purdue Alumni Medical Network has been a meaningful experience for Hagins, allowing her to see Purdue maintain its prestigious reputation while continuing to grow and evolve.

“You can go to Purdue and say, ‘I recognize campus,’ but then there’s also new things,” Hagins said. “I think that’s really amazing what they did there. So much is the same, but it’s very different at the same time.”