Through the leadership and guidance of our National Advisory Council, Pathways Into Health has developed a committee structure of organization.  Meeting bi-monthly for a teleconference call, these committees use collaboration and consensus as they work hard to discuss, plan, and coordinate our program goals. Click here for more details about the PIH committees.  

We can use your help! If you are interested in contributing to one of the following committees, please let us know by contacting Dave Juen at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Interprofessional Education and Work Based Learning is currently collaborating on a project to link tribal colleges and university nursing programs to provide increased access of AI/AN nursing students to four-year degree programs. Due to the efforts of this committee, we received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a project involving work-based learning for frontline public health professionals. This project will pioneer work-based learning in collaboration with health professions degree programs at Northern Arizona University.

Our Clinical Laboratory Sciences program utilizes distance learning to deliver a clinical laboratory sciences curriculum to AI/AN students who are working at Indian health facilities in the Southwest. The program, through collaboration with the University of North Dakota, was introduced in the fall semester of 2005. It has received approval from the Indian Health Service and is being advertised nationally.

This committee continually works toward the development of plans to implement activities to support and encourage AI/AN students at the elementary, junior high, high school and undergraduate levels to enter into the healthcare field. The Pipeline Committee has recently acquired $25,479 in grant funding from the Arizona Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program and has completed a national registry of successful pipeline programs. These programs are now available on our website.
 

The TeleHealth Committee is developing an inventory and assessment of the availability of broadband Internet access for students in PIH programs. They continue to seek innovative solutions to delivering state-of-the-art distance learning to American Indian/Alaska Native students in the healthcare professions.Through the efforts of this committee, we have integrated Pathways Into Health into the T-Health Institute at the University of Arizona Medical School - Phoenix Campus.

Thanks to the efforts of this committee, Pathways Into Health held a Professional Development Conference in Girdwood, AK on September 8-10, 2008. This conference provided a forum for the dissemination and translation of the latest research findings in health professions education as it relates to the AI/AN population. The Conference Development Committee is currently planning and preparing for the upcoming conference in Big Sky, MT Oct 7-9 2009.

The Governance Committee has developed an effective organizational structure for Pathways Into Health with a mechanism to ensure fair representation from partners.

As the name indicates, the RDC is focused on the development of effective mechanisms to fund the goals of Pathways Into Health, including Gifts and Giving as well as grants and federal funding programs. The RDC seeks ways by which various institutions and universities can form partnerships as they develop programs of interest to potential funding agencies.

We are currently working to develop a committee consisting of AI/AN students. It is our aim to get a first hand account of the various issues encountered in the health care professional education process. We hope that through student insights we can help mold Pathways to serve the specific needs of this population