The Alaska Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program began at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) in 2005. AHECs are academic and community-based partnerships engaged in primary care workforce engagement, training and recruiting, and retaining activities to improve the distribution, diversity, supply and quality of health care personnel. The Alaska AHEC program office (at UAA) contracts with five regional Centers to implement educational activities involving health professions and to expose students to primary care delivery in rural and/or underserved settings. In addition, AHECs work closely with state and local workforce investment boards to identify and address health care needs and shortages.
The Alaska Center for Rural Health (ACRH) was created in 1987 by rural health care providers, educators, and administrators. Our mission is to help strengthen systems to deliver comprehensive and culturally relevant health care to rural Alaskans.