Connecting students to careers, professionals to communities and communities to better health

Oregon Area Health Education Center is part of a nationwide system created to improve the distribution, diversity, quality and supply of health care workers in rural and under-resourced areas.

Oregon AHEC has education programs across five regional centers and a central program office housed at Oregon Health & Science University. Programs are designed to engage aspiring health care professionals at each step of their journey, which starts with career exploration in their youth, follows them through their education and continues after they obtain their credentials.

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We're hiring!

Join the Oregon Pacific AHEC team in Lebanon, OR, and make a difference by inspiring and educating the next generation of our health care workforce!

Oregon Pacific AHEC, one of five regional centers of Oregon AHEC, is based at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.

Pathway & Professional Programs

Our Pathway and Professional Programs help develop a pipeline for health care professionals in underserved communities by engaging with students in middle school, high school, community college, undergraduate universities and during a gap year.

To learn more about our youth and professional programs, find the regional center you live in and explore what we have to offer! 

AHEC Scholars Program

AHEC Scholars is a two-year national certificate program funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, designed to better prepare health professions students for future practice serving rural and urban underserved communities.

Learn more

Continuing Education

We provide a variety of educational opportunities, including a suite of Project ECHO programming, ongoing CME coursework and lectures and state-of-the-art simulation training to health professionals designed to reduce professional isolation, disseminate best practices and improve health care quality for medically underserved communities.

You can learn more about these programs on our resources page

Changing Lives, Strengthening Community: The Impact of Oregon AHEC

Meet a nurse whose journey into health care was shaped by mentorship from Oregon AHEC, a physician associate who achieved her career goals thanks to the AHEC pathway, and a psychiatric nurse practitioner who completed his training at home in Eastern Oregon with tuition and expenses covered by AHEC. These are just a few of the many professionals whose lives have been transformed by Oregon AHEC and who have gone on to serve rural and underserved communities.

Support AHEC Scholars

The Dr. John Saultz AHEC Scholars endowment fund helps remove financial barriers for Oregon health care students by supplementing travel and housing costs during rural rotations and other educational needs.