NEOAHEC Pre-Health Society

Providing resources for students from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds who are interested in becoming the future of healthcare.

What is the NEOAHEC Pre-Health Society?

It is well documented that students from rural and frontier communities receive less access to high-quality preparation for health professions program admission throughout both high school and college. The NEOAHEC Pre-Health Society is designed to serve community college, university, and gap year students pursuing a career in healthcare. The program will provide our rural and disadvantaged students with the resources needed to become successful applicants to competitive graduate level healthcare programs by instilling confidence, and by providing guidance and mentorship.

Over the years many medical and other health professions schools have increased the number of spaces available for students from rural, frontier, and disadvantaged backgrounds. Unfortunately, despite many health professions schools aiming to identify potential candidates from rural communities as applicants, students from rural communities are not adequately prepared to be successful applicants. The NEOAHEC Pre-Health Society will challenge this gap in our region.

The most critical component to the NEOAHEC Pre-Health Society is mentorship, and as a result of NEOAHEC's long history, we have mentors available for our students in all phases of their career. Mentors will include students who have been admitted to health professions programs, and who participated in NEOAHEC programs in the past or are from the eastern Oregon Region.

If you are interested in supporting the NEOAHEC Pre-Health Society, please reach out to the Program Director, Hailey Hulse at 541-910-9924 or hhulse@n eoahec.org.

In the NEOAHEC Pre-Health Society, we offer other NEOAHEC Programs, like the Health Speaker Series.

What is the Health Speaker Series?

Organized by NEOAHEC and the Eastern Oregon University Pre-Professional Health Club, the Health Speaker Series (HSS) engages undergraduate students and community members with unique health career presentations each academic term. Health providers, graduate students, or representatives from health career programs are invited to 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. The sessions are held in EOU’s Huber Auditorium in La Grande, with each featuring a different career theme, such as “Pharmacy Night,” “Physical Therapy Night,” and so on.

The HSS provides invaluable networking opportunities between students and current industry professionals. These are some of the topics guests should expect to hear about at our presentations:

Why did the presenter choose their career path?
Tests, licenses, education, and other preparation they had to complete
Surprises and challenges along the way
The most rewarding aspects of their work
Tips for success
And much more!

Upcoming Events:

2022

February 8th, 2022: Adam Heisinger, D.O. and Aaron Cooper, PA-C, Orthopedics at Grande Ronde Hospital

Past Presentations:

2021

January 12th, 2021: Bradley Close, CRNA of Grande Ronde Hospital

January 26th, 2021: Dr. Brian Reynolds, ER Physician at Grande Ronde Hospital

February 9th, 2021: Nikkita Titus, MSN, RN, Hematology/Oncology and Infusion Center Nurse Coordinator

March 2nd, 2021: Dr. David Glabe, OD, MS, FAAO of La Grande Family Eye Care

March 9th, 2021: Aaron Cooper, PA-C, Grande Ronde Hospital

December 8th, 2021: OHSU Medical Students, MS1 Ileisa Oleson, MS3 Alden Wyland and MS3 Stephanie MacDonald.

2020

December 8th, 2020: Adam Heisinger, DO. Orthopedic Surgeon of Grande Ronde Hospital

November 24th, 2020: Zachary Szumski, FireFighter and Paramedic

November 17th, 2020: Stephen Koza, DMD and Shandy Miller, RDH of Koza Family Dental

October 27th, 2020: Brian Harris, Rph and Ron Christensen , PharmD, Rph of Grande Ronde Hospital

2019

November 20, 2019: National Rural Health Day screening of, The Providers

October 20, 2019: Kyle Pfaffenbach of the Eastern Oregon University Health & Human Performance Dept.

May 28, 2019: Stacee Reed of the Oregon Office of Rural Health

March 5, 2019: Curt Stilp, PA-C of the Oregon AHEC and the OHSU PA Program and Bonnie Dittmann, PA-C of La Grande Family Medicine

January 22, 2019: Bob Coulter of Red Cross Drug Store and Eliza Allison of the OSU College of Pharmacy

2018

December 4, 2018: Andrew Pearson, DO of Grande Ronde Hospital and Daniel Stone, OHSU med. student and AHEC Scholar-May 15, 2018: Luke Rauch, WesternU COMP-NW

May 1, 2018: Dale Robinson, MD of Grande Ronde Hospital

March 6, 2018: Nick West, OHSU MD Candidate, Class of 2019

Watch the recording of Nick's presentation here!

https://livestream.com/eou/neoahec

*The actual presentation starts approximately 12 minutes into the video, so be sure to fast-forward!

January 23, 2017: Vanessa Braden, PT, and Elizabeth Zastrow, PT, DPT, OCS of Grande Ronde Hospital Rehab Therapy.

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Contact us

One University Blvd.
La Grande, OR 97850
541.962.3422
Fax: 541.962.3416
neoahec@eou.edu