Editor’s note: A version of this article originally was written March 18, 2024, prior to the launch of 828newsNOW.com. We’ve updated it to mark the yearlong celebration.
When Asheville celebrated the 100th anniversary of McCormick Field on Wednesday night, a new billboard on the left field also reminded fans of another community institution that hit the half century mark on Thursday, March 22.
The Mountain Area Health Education Center is in the middle of a yearlong commemoration of its 50-year evolution into a critical player in community health and the largest private, not-for-profit employer in the region.
It was March 22, 1974, when a small group of founders signed papers incorporating an entity that would help improve training and retention of health professionals across Western North Carolina.
Since then, in partnership with hospitals and clinics across the mountain region, it has provided residency and fellowship training to 700 medical and dental graduates, built a workforce of 1,100 people and provided more than 250,000 patient visits at its health facilities.
Its mission has expanded over time, too. Today, its incentives include efforts to improve access to health care in rural areas, efforts in children’s health, maternal health, substance abuse and treatment, and the Center for Healthy Aging.
Meanwhile, UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC has brought a branch campus of the University of North Carolina schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and public health to Asheville.
In a proclamation earlier this year declaring March to be “MAHEC’s 50th Anniversary Month,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer noted that UNC’s satellite campus at MAHEC is “boosting the city’s reputation as the region’s medical hub.”
The mayor also celebrated MAHEC’s role in “transforming rural health and wellness through education, the delivery of patient care, and a focus on community and public health.”
She said the proclamation was to “recognize MAHEC’s vital role shaping the past, present and future of our region’s healthcare system, and to celebrate its dedicated staff, learners, faculty, board members, patients, partners and all those responsible for the organization’s continued success and growth since its founding on March 22, 1974.”
