1970’s – 

• The Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program was developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations
• Beginning in the early 1970s, Manson Meads, MD, Executive Vice President for Health Affairs and Richard M. Janeway, MD, Dean of WFUSM, 1971-1985, led the development and creation of the Northwest AHEC along with, Emery C. Miller, MD, Professor & Chair of Internal Medicine who subsequently became Northwest AHEC’s first director
• Northwest AHEC is created 1974
• Emery C. Miller, MD served as first Director 1974-1979
• Original AHEC funds also used to start the Family Medicine Department and Residency Program at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Richard M. Janeway, MD, Dean hired Julian Keith, MD as the first department chair
• First entering class of 6 interns/residents in Family Medicine – including R. Scott Lawrence who spent 50 years as a family practitioner in rural NC (Spindale, NC – Rutherford County)
• Added base operations in Hickory (Catawba Valley Medical Center) providing program and library services in 1977
• Added disciplines of nursing (1974), pharmacy (1974), allied health (1975), dentistry (1978)

1980’s – 

• James C. Leist, EdD served as Director 1979-1999
• Disciplines of public health (1980), aging initiatives (1984) and mental health (1985) were added
• Initiated RN to BSN Outreach program in Hickory with UNC-Greensboro School of Nursing
• Added financial support for residency program in psychiatry 
• Added base operations in Boone (Watauga Medical Center) and Salisbury (Rowan Regional Medical Center), including library services
• Initiated RN Refresher program to return inactive nurses to the workforce (1989)

1990’s – 

• Implemented Project Nurse Quest (1990) 
• Initiated MSN Outreach Program with UNC-Greensboro School of Nursing in Hickory (1993) 
• Catalyst for NC Council for Allied Health (1991) 
• Added discipline of Health Careers/Workforce Diversity and provided benchmark activities including Drew Academy

1990 – 2003

• Elizabeth F. Sherertz, MD served as Director 1999 – 2001 
• Michael P. Lischke, EdD, MPH began as Director in 2001
• The Centralized Administration System for Continuing Education (CASCE) statewide conference management system was created in 2001 
• Community Plunge community tour was developed with Department of Pediatrics 2002
• Implemented Women’s Health: Interventions in Smoking Cessation (WHISC) grant from the Duke Endowment 
• Launched the Nursing Management Institute (NMI) grant from the Duke Endowment in collaboration with the Greensboro AHEC 
• Primary Care – Children’s Mental Health Initiative with Duke Endowment funding  
• Formed Clinical Teaching Associate (CTA) Program with partners (Novant Health/Forsyth Medical Center, North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Forsyth Technical Community College and Winston-Salem State University)

2004 – 2014

• Expansion of the Community Plunge for residency programs from Pediatrics to Internal Medicine, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Family and Community Medicine, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
• Developed and implemented online registration for conference attendees into statewide database
• Added videoconferencing capability at RBC and the three library regional bases 
• Implemented Mediasite equipment for digitizing CE and CME courses for education on demand
• Transformed marketing events from primarily print-based brochures to email marketing
• Successfully implemented Interdisciplinary CE offerings
• Developed our first publicly distributed Annual Report and Summary of Partnerships
• Developed numerous online based CE activities including Herbs and Dietary Supplements, 40 modules taken by more than 1,000 health professionals with Kathi Kemper, MD, MPH. 2005 
• Since 2007, Northwest AHEC has collaborated with the Carolina Geriatric Education Center (CGEC) at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine to work with the Carolina Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program to develop more effective approaches to improve the health and well-being of North Carolina's older citizens
• Improving Performance In Practice Program, precursor to Practice Support began 2008 
• Regional Extension Center Grant from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) awarded establishing the REC team later named Practice Support Team 2009
• Recipient of its second-ever National AHEC Organization Award—2010 AHEC Center Award for Excellence—Learning Resources category; awarded based upon “CE 2.0:  Converting Traditional Classroom Course to Internet Delivery”
• Recipient of its first-ever 2010 Health Care Heroes Educator Award from the Triad Business Journal
• Perinatal Post biannual newsletter was started in 2010 and has been distributed via email to approximately 1,500 subscribing North Carolina health care professionals each winter and summer
• Regional Extension Team reached milestone of converting 393 Practices from Paper to Electronic Medical Record, thereby fulfilling key grant requirement from the Office of National Coordinator funding
• Northwest AHEC Celebrated 40 Year Anniversary in 2014

2015 – 2019

• Boomer Share the Health Fair held in 2016-2017 – The Boomer Share the Health Fair (STHF) provided free health screenings for the rural communities of Wilkes and Yadkin counties
• Brenner FIT® Partnership started 2017 - Culinary Camp – Northwest AHEC partnered with Brenner FIT (Families in Training) and the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina for the implementation of a culinary summer camp led by college students
• The Inaugural S.G. Atkins Healthcare Legends of East Winston Awards Ceremony was held November 2017
• Recipient of the Catawba Valley Community College Community Partnership of the Year Award in May 2018
• Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Awarded Northwest AHEC the 2018 Health and Wellness Recognition Award
• Board of Directors of Wake Forest University Health Sciences has approved the establishment of a $1 million endowed funding stream for Northwest AHEC — the Richard Janeway, M.D. Distinguished Director of Northwest AHEC Endowment
• Received a grant in July 2018 to develop and manage a social determinants of health (SDOH) regional pilot program
• The Practice Support Team produced an accredited webinar series titled “Best Practices in Opioid Prescribing and Management"
• In 2018 a new open-source lecture capture system was implemented to record live lectures and captured 38 live presentations for inclusion in enduring online courses
• The Future Clinicians Leaders College (FCLC) Leadership Development Series began at Wake Forest School of Medicine (WFSM) in 2018
• In the spring of 2019 “Healthcare Insights” podcast was created on SoundCloud
• Series of 10, one-hour online modules leveraged the highly successful Opioid Lunch and Learn program lectures developed and recorded in 2019
• Fall 2019 implemented a personalized, phone texting-based program to allow learners to more intentionally manage profiles and develop tailored learning plans, this program is called ELITE

2020 – 2024

• COVID Pandemic – March 2020 forced team to pivot – work from home – cancel programs and begin planning webinar model 
• A new blog, “What’s New at NWAHEC,” was launched by the staff in May as part of the Customer Relationship Management program 
• Hubspot Customer Relationship Management Program – Learner Engagement tool began 2020 
• 2020-21 Weekly staff Discussions on systemic racism in the United States, which has led to open and honest conversations around anti-racism including personal stories and sharing anti-racism reading lists
• Face-to-face Camp Med activities were canceled due to COVID-19 so we partnered with Appalachian State University, Catawba College, High Point University, Winston-Salem State University, as well as Brenner FIT®, a Center for Experiential and Applied Learning at Wake Forest School of Medicine, College Foundation of N.C., and HOSA to conduct the Camp Med 2020 Virtual Summer Program - Virtual Camp Med program over 900 participants all over NC and beyond
• Interprofessional collaboration between the Department of Physician Assistant (PA) Studies at Wake Forest School of Medicine and the Winston-Salem State University School of Health Sciences. These two institutions, in partnership with Northwest AHEC, began a pilot program in 2021 to add an electronic health record simulation software which allowed future PAs and all nurses and allied health students to learn together in a virtual setting
• In 2021 the Northwest AHEC Practice Support team began a weekly blog which detailed emerging updates and policy briefs
• NCCARE360 Webinars in 2021— the coordinated response to Health Equity and Health Determinants in North Carolina — Northwest AHEC produced a series of live webinars
• Dec 2022 Celebrated NCAHEC 50th Anniversary – Hosted Statewide Meeting with Regional AHEC and NCAHEC staff for 3 day meeting
• Preceptor payments ending during Academic Year 2022. In May 2023, we launched Advanced Preceptor Development: A Toolkit for Teaching Strategies
• 2022 – Return to in person meetings after COVID 19 / Offered virtual events and hybrid as well
• Northwest AHEC Receives NCNA Reaccreditation Northwest AHEC has been recognized as an Approved Provider by the North Carolina Nurses Association (NCNA) for over 25 years
• In order to improve physician skills and experience with Telehealth, Northwest AHEC and Wake Forest University School of Medicine Internal Residency were awarded a grant to produce online learning for physicians and distribute medical supplies to patients for self-monitoring of their chronic health conditions
• In 2022 our social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube hit over 2,500 followers
• Northwest AHEC received The Partner of Excellence Award at ceremony from the Occupational Therapy Department at Winston-Salem State University that was held December of 2022
• Practice Support Team awarded a grant from NC Medicaid supporting five different online self-paced learning activities focused on Screening and Intervening for Unmet Social Needs, and Reverse Behavioral Health Integration
• NC Health Talent Alliance – Talent Pipeline Management Healthcare Initiative Begins in December of 2023
• Northwest AHEC Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary in 2024 🎉
  
  

Our Team

The Northwest AHEC team includes:
Michelle Adams; Amy Basham; Cherelle Blakely; Andrew Brewer; Reed Burger; Christina Clarke; Lara Dickerson; Alana Dodson; Samantha Garvens; Keya Glover; Nedra Edwards Hines; Meaghan Holloway; Karen Fritz; Lee Howard; Chris Jones; Ellen Kesler; Brooke Kochanski; Michael Lischke; Leslie McDowell; Janice Moore; Gail Pawlik; Amanda Pearson; Marie Simos; Lisa Thomas; Leigh Watkins; Medina Wilson; Stephanie Yoder; Ellen Zimmerman
Not pictured: Megan Mills Anderson; Immanuel Bryant; Angela Hodges; Michael Hulme; Lindsey MacLean; Melanee Mills