Record number of AHEC Scholars start program



Our first-year cohort (2023-2025) of AHEC Scholars totals 191, which is an all-time high since the program's inception in 2018. Eighteen institutions across the state are represented in the new cohort.

The Scholars program is a two-year program designed to improve health profession students' practice readiness through a combination of online training and community-based learning. The program content is geared toward providing care to those in rural and medically underserved communities. Students in their final two years of a health professions program at an accredited college or university are eligible.

AHEC receives funds for

behaviorial health workforce development



Indiana AHEC has been chosen as one of the awardees of the Behavioral Health Workforce Recruitment and Retention Innovation Grant program, through the Division of Mental Health and Addiction with Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA). These funds will be used to address behavioral health workforce shortages to improve access to care, continuity of care, and overall quality of care in Indiana. It aims to promote innovative, collaborative, and sustainable locally- and community-driven responses to behavioral health workforce challenges.



North Central AHEC has new host

Franciscan Health Foundation Division of Community Health Improvement has been selected as the new host of the Indiana Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Network’s North Central Indiana (NCI) region. The NCI AHEC will continue to serve Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fulton, Howard, Miami, Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Tipton, and White counties. We are thrilled to continue our ongoing partnership with Franciscan Health as we welcome them into the Indiana AHEC Network. 



In case you missed it...

To date, we are excited and proud to have 9,984 alumni of our Indiana AHEC Network programs working in healthcare! Of that number, 41% are practicing in health professional shortage areas!



Read this feature on an AHEC Scholars graduate from Southwest Indiana AHEC and the University of Southern Indiana overcoming obstacles to graduate and become a Physician Assistant.

East Central Indiana AHEC Scholars performed health screenings at the Grant County Stand Down for veterans earlier this Fall.

Under the IDOE-3E program, Metropolitan Indianapolis Central Indiana AHEC has been working with 173 Certified Nursing Assistant high school students at Arsenal Tech & Crispus Attucks to prepare them for clinicals and their state testing. We do this through Transfr Virtual Reality (VR) workforce training. Students do simulations on hand hygiene, donning and doffing of PPE, how to transfer a patient from bed to wheelchair with gait belt, and more. 

Being a part of AHEC means we get to participate in school field trips! The South Central Indiana AHEC worked with Purdue Extension & IU Health teaching 3rd graders about working on a farm. Students learned about healthy living and and eating healthy local food.

East Indiana AHEC collaborates with several local college nursing programs to provide Mental Health First Aid training to nursing students. This fall, that included RN students at IU East and Ivy Tech New Castle (pictured above). More than 200 nursing students have become certified Mental Health First Aiders in recent years through EI-AHEC support.

It was a "Spooktacular" night this week as several of our West Central Indiana AHEC Scholars shared their knowledge with the costumed kids at the RHIC Healthy Halloween Spooktacular at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum.