Introduction and Welcome

Cassie Lauver: Good morning everyone. It’s good to see everyone on a Sunday morning. I applaud everyone who’s up. I think we have more people registered and I assume we’re going to have some people coming in as we get started this morning, but we really don’t want to wait. We have a lot of good information to present on the MCH Bureau’s Division and Offices. I’m Cassie Lauver. I direct the Division of State and Community Health in the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and I want to welcome you to--this is Washington, or at least the Washington area. I don’t know what airports people came in and it may seem a distance away from downtown Washington, but I think this is certainly considered the Washington metropolitan area. We also know that there’s been an accident on one of the highways and so people who may be driving in from some of the other states that are surrounding and close to this area may be in that traffic jam and will join us shortly. This is the new leaders orientation meeting and for the last several years, many of you if you’re new may not realize that we’ve alternated this meeting with out federal state partnership meeting, so we would have a new leaders orientation meeting one year followed by the partnership meeting, and the feedback that we got on evaluations told us that while the new leaders orientation meeting was very helpful for the people new coming in, it was a bit redundant for some of the more veteran folk, and yet the veteran people were also telling us that every two years was not really frequent enough for them to get the information that they’d like to have in getting to Washington and interacting with the federal staff, so last year we did kind of a hybrid, and that hybrid was doing part of the new leaders orientation as part of the partnership meeting and we got a little better feedback, and this year what we decided to do was to have it at the same time, but really two separate meetings with the new leaders orientation meeting being today, preceding the other meeting so the folks who feel like they know most of the staff and the organizational structure of the Bureau and stuff, it isn’t necessary for them to sit through that, and yet it may be helpful for those people who may be newer in the field or in their positions to be able to have this orientation to the Bureau just preceding the partnership meeting. So just out of curiosity, I’m just wondering, I know that there are many people here, and in fact, I’ve already chatted with a few people who have had a lifelong career in Maternal and Child Health, but may be relatively new in their positions, so decided to join us this morning for the new leaders orientation meeting. So for those people who’ve been in their positions less than six months, could you raise your hand? So we have some new people out there. How about a year, people who’ve been in their positions over a year? Two years? Three years? Over three years? Now I know we have some senior folk out there and I commend you for taking a morning where you could be sleeping in or enjoying the sites of Washington, in joining us today because I think there’s always new information that come up in the bureaus and offices that could be helpful and we have such a packed meeting starting tomorrow, going through Wednesday, that I don’t know how much time we’re going to have actually for updating in details, but as the day goes on, you’re going to meet the directors and other staff from all of the offices and divisions in the Bureau, and invite you to come up to any of us at any time if you have specific questions about what we’re doing or any of our programs. And as this is part of an evolutionary process, on your evaluations--this is how we’ve gotten to this point of having a orientation meeting followed by the partnership meeting, you know, please be candid on your evaluations, gentle but candid, in telling us whether this is helpful for you or not to have this kind of orientation before our meeting. And the purpose of the meeting is to give a historical summary, a historical overview, to Maternal and Child Health, as well as to the Bureau, and then to be able to have the individuals from each of the offices and divisions get up and talk a little bit about what they do in the division so you get familiar with the staff that you see their names on their notice of grant awards or on grant releases that you see, and also today, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs has had an initiative where they’ve been working on developing a new leaders manual, if you will, and it’s not finished. I think they’re hoping to roll it out later in the spring at their Associations meeting, but they want to share a little bit about the information that they’ve gleaned to put in this manual. It is not information about the Bureau or the federal government or that relationship. It’s more information on what it takes, what a new leader in state government may want or need to know to be able to do an effective job in their programs. So I think that’ll be this afternoon and we’ll talk a little bit more about that when we get there. Also, in your packet we’ve given you some orientation materials for MCH leaders, and I think what you have are staff contact sheets, organizational charts for HRSA, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau Strategic Plan, the Title V law, a compendium of legal opinions as it relates to questions that have arisen over the years and what some of those answers are, and hopefully that will be helpful for you as well. So at this point, I want to take the opportunity to introduce Dr. Peter Van Dyck who’s the Associate Administrator of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and Dr. Van Dyck has provided leadership to the federal MCH program for over 10 years now, and he came to the federal government in 1992. He was the first Director of the Office of State and Community Health, which was organized in 1995, and before that, he came--I was going to say he’s one of us. I came from a state at one time too. Dr. Van Dyck also came from a state where he was the Maternal and Child Health Director in the state of Utah. He is a physician, pediatrician, was faculty at the University Medical School in Salt Lake City in Utah in pediatrics, and over the years has been recognized for his achievement in a variety of areas, and I just want to read these so I don’t misstate some of the awards, but he was selected in 1992 as one of America’s 500 most influential health policy makers by Healthcare 500. He received a World Health Organization Fellowship for public health research in Europe and the Secretary’s Award for distinguished service in 1998, and in 1999, he received the Arthur Fleming Award given to exceptional federal employees by George Washington University and Government Executive Management, and that is really quite an honor to receive that particular award. In the past, he’s been President of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs. He’s Chaired the Maternal and Child Health section of APHA, and he’s here this morning to share his great wealth of knowledge about Maternal and Child Health and give you a historical overview. So please join me in welcoming Dr. Van Dyck.