"Every doctor, nurse, dentist, pharmacist, physician assistant, technician, and physical therapists start as students somewhere," NAO President Paula Overfelt told House Appropriations Committee members earlier this spring when she made a funding request of $40.145 million in FY 2019 for the Area Health Education Center program on behalf of the National AHEC Organization (NAO.) She recommended a total of "$690 million for health professions training programs under Title VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act that are administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)."