Mountain AHEC

MOUNTAIN AHEC at a glance

Located in the mountains of Western North Carolina, MAHEC is a national leader in innovative team-based primary care, medical education, and rural health workforce development. MAHEC’s main campus in Asheville, NC is home to primary care practices, graduate medical education programs, continuing professional development programs, a state-of-the-art medical simulation center, and UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC, an academic health center that promotes interprofessional education and practice through programs affiliated with the University of North Carolina’s top-ranked schools of medicine, public health, pharmacy, and dentistry.

MISSION

MAHEC provides and supports educational activities and services in the western part of the state with a focus on primary care in rural communities and those with less access to resources to recruit, train, and retain the workforce needed to create a healthy North Carolina.

MAHEC county map
SERVICE AREA

MAHEC serves patients, healthcare professionals, learners, and community partners throughout a 16-county region in Western North Carolina. Counties served are Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, and Yancey.

SUB-REGIONS

MAHEC employs more than 1,100 faculty and staff members at its patient care practices, academic health center, and rural and hospital-based residency and fellowship programs. View MAHEC locations.

CORE SERVICES & DISTINCTIVE PROGRAMS

MAHEC operates patient care offices and residency programs in dentistry, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pharmacy, psychiatry, and transitional year. MAHEC’s fellowship programs include addiction medicine, maternal fetal medicine, psychiatry, rural medicine, sports medicine, and surgical critical care.

Other core services include:
Continuing Professional Development,
Health Careers Pipeline Programs,
AHEC Scholars,
Student Services,
Practice Consulting,
Library Services, and
Research.

UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC programs:

School of Medicine Asheville Campus
Master of Public Health Program (UNC Gillings School – UNC Asheville)
Adams Rural Oral Health and Wellness Scholars (School of Dentistry)

Distinctive MAHEC programs include the Center for Health Aging, Centering Pregnancy, Certified Community Behavioral Health Center, Project CARA, Minority Medical Mentoring Program, Post-Acute COVID-19 Care Clinic, Project ECHO virtual case-based learning, Project PROMISE (rural health careers programming), rural health workforce initiatives, a state-of-the-art medical simulation center, and statewide initiatives to expand access to substance use disorder treatment.

GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP

Mountain Area Health Education Center, Inc. (MAHEC) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. MAHEC’s board of directors, comprised of community leaders and representatives from across Western North Carolina, guides the strategic growth and direction of the organization.

William Hathaway, MD, MAHEC CEO
Amy Russell, MD, Chief Medical and Population Health Officer
Jeff Pigg, Chief Operations Officer
Annie McClintic, Chief Talent Officer
Francisco Castelblanco, RN, DNP, AHEC Director; Chair, Department of Continuing Professional Development
Zach Levin, CPA, Chief Financial Officer
Steve Buie, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Psychiatry
Beth Buys, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stephanie Call, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Internal Medicine
Stephanie Rosener, MD, Chair, MAHEC Department of Family Medicine
Bryan Hodge, DO, Chair, Department of Community and Public Health
Katherine Jowers, DDS, Chair, MAHEC Department of Oral Health and Dentistry
Ameena Batada, DrPH, MPH, Co-Director, UNC Asheville-UNC Gillings MPH Program
Sarah Thach, MPH, Co-Director, UNC Asheville-UNC Gillings MPH Program
Sandra Whitlock, MD, Director and Assistant Dean, UNC School of Medicine, Asheville Campus
Mollie Scott, PharmD, Regional Associate Dean, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy; Chair, Department of Pharmacotherapy at UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: 121 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803
Phone: 828-257-4400
Email: webmaster@mahec.net
Website: mahec.net

FOLLOW MAHEC

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Continuing Professional Development @MAHECEd
Graduate Medical Education @MAHECGME
Health Careers @mahechealthcareers
Family Health Centers @MAHECFamilyHealthCenters
Dental Health Centers @MAHECDental
Ob/Gyn Specialists @MAHECObGyn

Instagram @mahecwnc and @wncpromise

Twitter @MAHECwnc and @MahecResearch

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Our History

NC AHEC evolved from national and state concerns with the supply, distribution, retention and quality of health professionals.

WORK SESSION – the staff of the UNC Medical School’s Division of Education and Research in Community Care wrote a proposal that brought the $8.5 million contract to the university. Here, in a work session, they listen to Glenn Wilson, then project director, talk about the need for better distribution of health manpower across the state. From left, around the table, are: John Payne, Shirley Jacobs, Faye Pickard, Ann Francis, Jim Vaughn, John Parker, Dr. Glenn Pickard, Moses Carey, Sally Powell, Dr. Eugene Mayer, Vince Kavel, Ethridge Price, Dr. W. Reece Berryhill, and Glenn Wilson. Reprinted from The Chapel Hill News, Volume 50, Number 94, Friday, October 6, 1972.

In 1970, a report from the Carnegie Commission recommended the development of a nationwide system of Area Health Education Centers.

Legislation and federal support since the early 1970s has made the implementation of AHEC programs possible in many states. This national focus coincided with a growing effort in North Carolina to establish statewide community training for health professionals and reverse a trend toward shortages and uneven distribution of primary care physicians in the state’s rural areas.

The program began in 1972 with three AHEC regions under a federal AHEC contract with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. In 1974, the North Carolina General Assembly approved and funded a plan to create a statewide network of nine AHEC regions. The plan called for the establishment of 300 new primary care medical residencies and the regular rotation of students to off-campus sites.

The General Assembly also provided funds to build or renovate AHEC educational facilities in the nine regions and to develop the proposed program components. By 1975, all nine AHECs were operational.