Health education center launches in U.P.

Fitting workers with the right job skills to the industries that need them is an ongoing challenge for post-industrial Michigan, but a recently opened branch of the Michigan Area Health Education Center aims to address that, at least for the growing health care industry.

The Upper Peninsula Regional Center will be located at Northern Michigan University, but will have goals to accomplish in the 15 counties of the U.P., like improving access to health care by working on training health care professionals. They’ll do that in conjunction with communities and educational institutions across the U.P.

Its newly named executive director will be Mary Jane Tremethick, assistant dean at the NMU School of Health and Human Performance. The program manager will be Cindy Noble, previously parks and recreation coordinator for the city of Marquette.

The main Michigan AHEC is located at Wayne State University and was founded in 2010. There are four regional centers located across the state, counting the new U.P. center. Among its goals will be to connect underrepresented and disadvantaged youth to health care careers, encourage training for students in areas which are seeing shortages of qualified workers, and offering continuing education for health professionals.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Michigan Area Health Education Center