For more information:
Leslie W. Taylor, 501-686-8998
Wireless phone: 501-951-7260
leslie@uams.edu

Elizabeth F. Shores, 501-686-8995
Wireless phone: 501-425-0974
EFShores@uams.edu

Bumpers spoke at a 30th-anniversary celebration of the Area Health Education Centers that the 69th General Assembly established in 1973. UAMS honored Bumpers and the members of the 69th General Assembly at a luncheon in the Great Hall at the Arkansas Governor's Mansion. Bumpers said the state's health care delivery system needed improvement when he became governor in 1971.

"I came from a town that sometimes had one doctor and sometimes had none," Bumpers, a native of Charleston, Ark., said. "I remember when we had meat once a week."

Lt. Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller also spoke at the luncheon, calling the former legislators "the faces of Arkansas politics" and praising them for their role in creating the nationally-acclaimed AHEC program. "You all spent many hours, many days, many nights … debating the shape of what we call AHECs," he said. "You all had the great vision. What you did has made a significant, perceptible difference in Arkansas."

At least two dozen former legislators attended the luncheon, signing an enlarged copy of the original bill creating the AHECs as they entered the Great Hall. Dr. Charles O. Cranford, UAMS vice chancellor for regional programs, told them, "We owe all of you from 1973 so much. It is through the support of the Arkansas legislature that UAMS has grown and prospered."

The event was one of the first in the recently completed Great Hall. First Lady Janet Huckabee welcomed the former legislators and UAMS leaders.

In 1999, the National AHEC Organization (NAO) awarded the Arkansas AHEC Program the prestigious Eugene S. Mayer Program of Excellence Award. The award is made in honor of Dr. Eugene S. Mayer, who directed the North Carolina AHEC Program for 17 years and provided significant leadership to the national AHEC movement. The award recognizes programs that exemplify the "best of AHEC," including the quality of its programs, the nature and extent of its community partnerships, the responsiveness of its programs to community needs, and the collaborative nature with which it operates in addressing health professions education needs.

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