Tony Schnuerer, PA-C

Tony completed the Primary Care Physician Assistant program at the Cleveland Clinic Educational Foundation in 1974 after serving three years as a corpsman in the United States Navy. In 1974, Tony completed the National Certifying Examination for Assistants to the Primary Care Physician and became a certified Primary Care Physician’s Assistant in 1975. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Cleveland State University.

Active in the establishment of the PA profession in Ohio, Tony served on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Association of Physician Assistants for four years. He was president of the organization in 1978 when the PA medical practice act was passed by the Ohio State Legislature. He practiced as a PA for more than 13 years in Northeast Ohio, with significant experience in orthopedics and spine surgery.

In 1987, Tony left the clinical side of medicine to join the medical device industry. He began his industry career as a sales representative for US Surgical Corporation in general surgery. Later, Tony migrated back to the orthopedics field when he joined Zimmer Corporation as a Field Marketing Specialist. From 1993 to 1995, he was instrumental in the start-up and initial operations of DePuy Motech, a specialized spine company.

In 1995, he joined Sofamor Danek as Director of Marketing for Deformity Products. Tony held a number of executive-level positions at Sofamor Danek, and later Medtronic Sofamor Danek. His last position was as Vice President, Global Training and Development. While at Sofamor Danek, Tony was the primary author of the text, Basic Anatomy and Pathology of the Spine. Additionally, Tony wrote a number of patient-centered articles on spine surgery for the website, Spine Universe.

Following his retirement from Medtronic in 2007, Tony managed his own consulting business for seven years and in April 2014 he joined the faculty in the Physician Assistant Program at Christian Brothers University as an instructor.  In September of 2015, Tony assumed the role of Director of Clinical Education for the PA Program and in May 2107 he was promoted to Assistant Professor while maintaining the Clinical Education Directorship.  Professor Schnuerer rejoined the program didactic faculty in 2018 and continues as a principal faculty member for this phase.