University of New England

UNE's Area Health Education Center  hires new Program Office director

BIDDEFORD - Mark Ruggiero, MPH, has been hired as the new director of the University of New England Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program Office, located within the College of Osteopathic Medicine on the University Campus in Biddeford. Ruggiero will also serve as associate director of the Maine AHEC Network.

Ruggiero previously worked for Health Strategies and Solutions, Inc. in Philadelphia, Penn. where he developed strategic plans and physician-hospital partnership strategies. In addition, he has previously served as vice president of programs in the Berks Division of the Easter Seals of Eastern Pennsylvania and was associate producer for the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. He earned his bachelor's degree from Temple University and his master of health science from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

AHEC
The Maine AHEC Network works to improve statewide access to quality health care, addressing the health workforce needs of Maine's medically underserved communities through partnerships between the institutions that train health professionals and the communities that need them.

AHEC works to encourage Maine citizens, especially youth from rural and disadvantaged backgrounds, to pursue health careers; facilitates the development of clinical placements and academic programs that support the training and recruitment of qualified health care providers across the state; and provides continuing education and professional support to expand the skills of health providers in underserved and rural communities. 

The Maine AHEC Network consists of a statewide program office located at the University of New England's College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, as well as three AHEC Centers in Bangor, Farmington and Augusta.

For more information, contact Holly Korda, M.A., Ph.D., director of the Maine AHEC Network and associate dean of Community Programs at UNECOM, at (207) 602-2353, or HKorda@une.edu.

(Press release posted Aug. 2, 2007)