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Northeast Oregon Area Health Education Center

Welcome to our blog! This is where NEOAHEC posts all of our newsletter articles, success stories, annual reports, and more. If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter and get these posts straight to your inbox, click here!

These articles were written by Northeast Oregon Area Health Education Center (NEOAHEC). They are the intellectual property of NEOAHEC. These pieces of writing in their entirety cannot be altered without explicit permission. NEOAHEC is supported by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under U77HP03052.

Learning in Context with Rural & Frontier-Based Interprofessional Education

Learning in Context with Rural & Frontier-Based Interprofessional Education

Many of us recognize that eastern Oregon is a vast and geographically isolated part of the state. Residents actively choose to call our beautiful region home, but sometimes this comes with a small price in terms of accessing healthcare...

Lighting the Fire: Connecting Students and Healthcare Professionals through the EOU Health Speaker Series


“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”–William Butler Yeats.


This quote captures the essence of the Eastern Oregon University (EOU) Health Speaker Series—a collaborative project that aims to do more than simply transfer knowledge; it aims to ignite students’ passions in healthcare.

Organized by NEOAHEC and the EOU Pre-Professional Health Club (PPHC), the Health Speaker Series (HSS) connects students with a variety of mentors by scheduling candid chats with health providers, graduate students, and representatives from health career programs. The presentations are held in EOU’s Huber Auditorium in La Grande once or twice per academic term, with each session featuring a different career theme, such as “Pharmacy Night,” “Physical Therapy Night,” and so on. Speakers relay their educational and career journeys, advice for students considering their career, and thoughts about why it is so valuable to practice in a rural area. Most importantly, they highlight both the positive and negative aspects of their job so students have a realistic picture of each vocation.

Happy National Rural Health Week! NEOAHEC Affirms Commitment to Rural Healthcare Workforce as it Welcomes New Staff Members

NEOAHEC’s team is now more dynamic than ever! In October, we were pleased to welcome Beckie Juarez and Jill Boyd to our group, who will work in tandem to enhance NEOAHEC’s support of the Northeast Oregon Campus for Rural Health (CRH)...

MedQuest 2019 Application Now Open!

A Passing of the Torch: NEOAHEC Celebrates Retirement of Long-Time Board Members

When people think of Northeast Oregon, they usually conjure up postcard images of mountain views, rolling farmland, tumbleweeds, and snowy winters, but there is something else the region should be known for: its abundance of some of the state’s most selfless public servants. In our 27-year history, Northeast Oregon Area Health Education Center (NEOAHEC) has had the privilege of working with dozens of committed volunteers who set aside their busy schedules to grow Northeast Oregon’s healthcare workforce by serving on our Board of Directors.

Among these individuals are retiring members Barb Hosford, Don Benschoter, Bonnie Dittmann, and Bret Uptmor, who each completed the full length of their terms on the board.