The National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA) is a nonprofit vocational school that trains Medical Assistants to work effectively in today’s high-performing primary care settings. NIMAA was created by community health centers to provide access to education and employment opportunities in the communities they serve, while addressing a critical workforce shortage.

NIMAA was founded by two of the nation's leading Federally Qualified Health Centers, Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) in Connecticut and Salud Family Health in Colorado. These founders recognized the need for Medical Assistant training that is accessible to people living in medically underserved areas, provided at a reasonable cost, and aligned with the workforce needs of advanced primary care settings.  Today CHC provides organizational backbone support to NIMAA. Salud Family Heatlh is represented on the NIMAA Board of Directors and participates as an externship organization with NIMAA.

NIMAA enrolled its first cohort of 13 “Pioneer Partner Students” in August 2016. Today, NIMAA has over 50 clinical externship partners in 16 states, and enrolls over 200 students a year.