‘They’re going to leap off my shoulders’
Two generations of the Jetté family carry legacy of patient advocacy through UF School of PA Studies
From left to right: Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C, Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93, and Erica Jetté Goodson.
Photo by Danielle Ivanov
For the women of the Jetté family, compassion is enduring. It’s in the way Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93, holds her patients’ hands, offering strength and support in some of the hardest moments of their lives. It’s in the way Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C, pours herself into the most complex cases, collaborating with care teams across the hospital to find answers and bring solutions back to patients and their loved ones. It’s in the way first-year PA student Erica Jetté Goodson strives to be an advocate for the whole patient, soaking up each new aspect of her training to become the third capable, caring physician assistant in their family.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, Jetté was the first in the family to join the University of Florida College of Medicine School of Physician Assistant Studies in the ’90s, after being introduced to the field during her service in the U.S. Army.
She still remembers their first classroom — a long, skinny room in the health campus basement, next to pathology. There were no windows, and it was always freezing. She sat in the first row in front of the lecture podium, a habit leftover from her time in the service. And it was exactly where she was meant to be.
“It was the best time of my life in education,” Jetté said. “We were like comrades in arms. We were all in it together, and everybody wanted everybody to succeed.”
Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93, at her graduation ceremony with her mentor and fellow alumnus, Michael Browning, PA-C.
Photo courtesy of Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93
After graduating, she began working at UF Health in cardiothoracic surgery, where she cared for adult and pediatric patients with complex congenital heart defects, transplants, and aortic, coronary and valvular disease, among others. Jetté was part of the care team for Florida’s first lung transplant patient, and over time, she became a trusted leader in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit, remaining there for more than 20 years before transferring to interventional radiology in 2016.
It was during her time in cardiothoracic surgery that she met her husband, Chris Jetté, who was studying oceanographic engineering at the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. He was the cute guy who moved in next door to her first apartment, and instead of leaving for his hometown of Vero Beach after graduation, he decided to stay in Gainesville with Jetté and get his Ph.D. They married in 1995 and had three children, Gabrielle, Erica and Luke, all of whom followed their parents’ footsteps into the Gator Nation.
The Jetté family at Gabrielle's graduation.
Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C
“I wonder, how much of our DNA is orange and blue?” Gabrielle said.
She and her siblings were raised cheering on the Florida Gators and hearing their parents’ stories over family dinner. When it came time for college, it only made sense to go down the street to UF. All three siblings loved the sciences, with Luke going into architecture and Erica wanting to pursue medicine her whole life — that is, aside from a brief detour, when she declared in a family video at 3 years old that her dream was to become a clown.
“I was really sick when I was born,” Erica said. “They found I had stage 4 cancer in utero. And my mom was the biggest advocate for me. I don’t remember any of it, but I grew up hearing all these stories of how she pushed for me and pushed for my care and for the right decisions to be made. She was able to vouch for me and advocate for me in a way that obviously I was unable to do as an infant.
“Having someone in my family who was able to do that for me, but then seeing the way she cares for all her patients that way … I want to be able to do that for people.”
Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C, at her UF School of PA Studies orientation.
Photo by Danielle Ivanov
For Gabrielle, the path to a career in health care was less obvious.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into medicine for a long time,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to be in a helping profession and work with people. But as I later had experiences around the medical world and in the hospital, I realized I loved it.”
One of the biggest draws to the UF PA school for the two sisters was seeing the same values in the program that their mom had instilled in them growing up.
“Mr. Breitinger always harps on how PA stands for patient advocate,” Gabrielle said. “When I heard that for the first time in class, it was like, ‘Well, yeah. That’s what we do.’ It wasn’t a new concept to me because that’s all I knew PAs to be because of my mom and the people she worked with. And it was so cool to come to the program and realize these are our people.”
Erica Jetté Goodson at her UF School of PA Studies orientation.
Photo courtesy of Erica Jetté Goodson
Erica felt the same way. There was the family legacy, coming in after both her mom and sister, but also, the heart of the College of Medicine and the PA program lined up exactly with what she wanted to do.
“There was no question,” she said. “I got my acceptance, and I was like, ‘I’m not going anywhere else. It’s here.’”
That feeling has continued through her first two semesters in the program. It can be overwhelming at times, she said, with the sheer workload and amount of knowledge to take in, but she loves it. And she is looking forward to her white coat ceremony next spring, when the PA class of 2027 celebrates the end of didactic training and the transition to clinical training.
Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93, right, coating Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C, at the 2024 UF School of PA Studies White Coat Ceremony.
Photo courtesy of Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93
In 2024, when Gabrielle celebrated the same milestone, their mom was on stage with her, helping her don her white coat for the first time. It was a special moment Erica hopes to repeat in June.
From left to right: Monica Jetté, PA-C ’93, Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C, and Erica Jetté Goodson. Gabrielle is wearing the handmade stole around her shoulders.
Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Jetté Register, MPAS ’25, PA-C
Their family also started a new tradition at Gabrielle’s graduation ceremony. To commemorate the occasion, she wanted to handmake a stole to wear with her robes — something for all their family members in medicine to sign, so she could carry them with her across the stage. Jetté helped her sew it, and they added their signatures along with Gabrielle’s grandmother, Hélène LeBrun, a former nurse, and her aunt, Emily Weber LeBrun, M.D. ’03, a clinical professor and founding chief of urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery at UF. In June 2027, Erica will also drape it across her shoulders, continuing their legacy before carefully preserving it for the next generation.
“I’m still pinching myself a little bit that my daughters are both graduating from the program where I went to school,” Jetté said. “It seems a little surreal. I say I’m proud of them, and the words don’t mean anything. There are no words to describe how I feel about them. They are 10 times more than I am. They are going to leap off my shoulders. They are going to change the world.”
