The Mountain Area Health Education Center is the center of excellence for improving the health of Western North Carolina. Located in Asheville, MAHEC serves healthcare professionals, students, and institutions throughout a 16-county region in Western North Carolina. Counties served are Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, and Yancey. Our mission is to provide education, information, technology, research, training, and services to improve health outcomes in Western North Carolina through partnerships and neutrality. MAHEC is often described as a pipeline for healthcare training. We connect middle and high school students to health career opportunities; we connect health science students to communities; our residency programs train the best and brightest graduates; and thousands of healthcare professionals are connected to better health through our continuing education programs.