SD AHEC Home
Connecting students to careers, professionals to communities, communities to better health.
The South Dakota Area Health Education Center (AHEC) collaborates with a network of community, state, healthcare and academic partners committed to meeting the healthcare workforce needs of South Dakota.
Through the Department of Family Medicine, the Sanford School of Medicine of The University of South Dakota received federal funding in September 2009 to establish an Area Health Education Center in South Dakota. The AHEC Program office, in Sioux Falls, is under the direction of H. Bruce Vogt, MD. The first AHEC Center is located in Yankton. The Yankton Rural AHEC has been successfully functioning for some time and is actively involved in a number of projects. Consideration for a second AHEC Center is underway.
Across Our Nation
The national AHEC program was developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train, and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations. With the objective of eliminating Health Profession Shortage Areas, the national program was designed to encourage universities and educators to look beyond their institutions and partner with communities to promote cooperative solutions with local benefits.