Causes: Education, Graduate & Professional Schools, Undergraduate Colleges, Universities

Mission: Appalachian college association, inc. ("the association") was incorporated august 6,1993, as a nonprofit organization primarily to serve people of the appalachian region through higher education and related services. The association is an organization of 35 independent liberal arts institutions that provides expanded and enhanced learning opportunities to faculty, staff and students for the purpose of serving the educational and economic well-being of the people and communities of central appalachia. This educational consortium offers a variety of academic, research, scholarship, library and travel programs serving 54,000 students and over 4,000 faculty and staff in kentucky, north carolina, tennessee, virginia and west virginia. The association is an independent 501(c)(3) incorporated organization, governed by a board comprised of member institution presidents and an executive committee.

Programs: Library and shared catalog - the bowen central library of appalachia partners with each member institution to make it economically possible to provide all aca students, faculty and staff with the best library information resources available. These resources are used to help students, faculty and staff attain the best possible learning outcomes.

professional development - workshops and academic fellowships are the mainstay of professional development, topics change to reflect current needs of faculty and staff.

the aca has a variety of opportunities for students studying in any major in the form of summer stipends and academic scholarships.