MCHB ALL GRANTEE MEETING

Introduction and Welcome

October 4-7, 2004

CASSIE LAUVER: It’s really daunting to look out and see all of you, all of whom are grantees of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. And I’m Cassie Lauver, and I direct the Division of State and Community Health in the bureau. And during the year--sometime during the year, most of the grantees have their own meeting. And this year, we have brought all of the grantees in the Bureau together, in hoping that we can have a meeting where we will build synergy and partnership and learn a lot more about all of the grantees and how to work together. Usually, each year during October, we have what we call a Partnership meeting, and that is a meeting that is the grantee meeting for the state directors of Maternal and Child Health and children with special healthcare needs. And so we’ve built on that meeting in this particular time of year for this, and we’re carrying the theme of partnership along with all of the grantees. And typically what we’ve done is, on the Sunday before the meeting, we’ve been able to bring new directors in and we’ve had something called A New Leader’s Orientation Meeting. And I know many of you out here are not new to the MCH field, but it may be new in learning a little bit about what some of the other divisions and offices do in the Bureau, as well as some of the other HRSA organizational units, such as the Division of Independent Review, the Office of Performance Review and the Grants Office. So today what we’re going to have the opportunity to do is Dr. van Dyck is going to present on a historical background of maternal and child health. He’s going to talk about the mission and strategic plan of the division or of the Bureau.

Each of the divisions and offices are going to have the opportunity to come and address you and give you just a little brief summary about their division and offices. And these are just going to be limited teasers, if you will, so you have a little more information about the divisions and offices in the Bureau and so you can recognize some of the individuals that work in the division and offices, and so you’ll have the opportunity as we go about the next three days to snag them in the hall and ask questions and learn more about the organizations. So without further ado, I want to go ahead and introduce Dr. Peter van Dyck, who really, I know, needs little introduction to you. And someone, certainly, I would never limit in his presentation, so it will be more than a teaser. But Dr. van Dyck is the Associate Administrator of the Maternal and Child Bureau, and has been since 1999. And he has provided leadership to the Bureau much longer than that period of time; he was acting as the Associate Administrator before his permanent appointment and was the director of the office, and then after that, the Division of State and Community Health in the Bureau, and had been the original director of that office when it was created in 1995.

He has been actually with the federal government since 1992, and has provided a great deal of leadership to MCH, not only while he was with the Bureau, but in his experiences before that as well. As director of the Division of State and Community Health, he provided administrative oversight to the Material and Child Health block grant to the states and jurisdictions, and provided to the states in establishing reporting requirements, coordinating technical assistance and developing a national information and data system. And those efforts were very significant in the field, and it was one that was recognized and that effort resulted in his being awarded the Arthur Fleming award given to the exceptional government employee by George Washington University and the “Government Executive” magazine.

He’s expanded his vision and insight relative to having performance-based programs; so while he developed that for the Maternal and Child Health block grant, many of you realize, who are working with the discretionary programs, that he’s carried that vision over into the application into those programs, looking at performance-based applications, web-based applications, in developing a data system that will soon be bureau-wide, and certainly is something that is very important and significant and well recognized throughout government. He’s consulted nationally, internationally; most recently over the last several years has done a lot of work in Afghanistan in rebuilding the medical health system for women in that country. He is the past president of the Association of Maternal and Child Health programs, being the president of that organization from 1978 to 1980; chaired the Maternal and Child Health section of APHA from 1989 to 1990; is the recipient of the World Health Organization Fellowship for Public Health Service in Europe ; and the Secretary’s award for distinguished service. So having said that, please join me in welcoming Dr. Peter van Dyck.