The significant growth of physician assistant (PA) programs continues to create challenges for programs and educational institutions in identifying, recruiting, and retaining qualified faculty. Based on national data collected annually, physician assistant program directors continue to rank the lack of available applicants as a significant barrier to filling open positions. The importance of having sufficient and stable numbers of qualified PA faculty is critical to the successful education of future physician assistants as well as to the quality and reputation of the PA profession. The purpose of this study was to address the gap in physician assistant literature by exploring the physician assistant faculty shortage from the perspective and experiences of new PA faculty to gain a better understanding of the motivations, barriers, challenges, and supportive aspects encountered as they transition to education. A basic qualitative research design using a nonprobability purposive sampling and constant comparative analysis was used for this study. Twelve full-time PA didactic faculty members with three or fewer years' experience in PA education in programs located in West region of the United States were interviewed. Analysis revealed four common themes that influenced the decision to transition to education which included (a) motivating and influencing experiences, (b) most supporting experiences, (c) most challenging experiences, (d) reinforcing experiences for the decision to enter academia. The participants left clinical practice for a position in education because the opportunity presented itself at a suitable time even though they were not looking to make a change. Disillusion and dissatisfaction with the practice of medicine also played a significant role. Support from leadership was most helpful during their transition whereas lack of knowledge, training and skills, and workload were the most challenging. Despite these challenges, most of the participants felt they would remain in education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]