Katie Cornella (MMS ’18)

Katie Cornella graduated from Chapman University’s Physician Assistant Studies program in 2018 as part of the inaugural class. She has been practicing as the first PA in cardiology at Orange County Heart Institute and St Joseph’s Hospital of Orange for over three years. She sees patients in the clinic and hospital, performs procedures and assists in surgeries. On a day-to-day basis, she treats conditions such as abnormal heart rhythm, heart attack, heart failure and heart valve failure or practices preventative cardiology. She is a professor at Chapman University teaching cardiology and is a preceptor for PA students. She continues to research different subspecialties within cardiology as well.

Katie was born and raised in Laguna Niguel, California, where she grew up training horses, teaching horseback and sailing lessons, surfing, skiing and painting. She graduated from California Polytechnic University of San Luis Obispo in 2016, where she captained the Cal Poly Sailing team, researched muscle physiology and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology and anatomy and physiology. In her free time, she loves to travel to different national parks or countries, ski fresh powder, surf and ride her horse, Bambi.