HRSA/MCHB 2005 FEDERAL/STATE PARTNERSHIP MEETING

PUBLIC HEALTH ACROSS THE LIFESPAN

Introduction and Welcome

CASSIE LAUVER: Welcome to the new leaders orientation meeting. I’m Cassie Lauver and I direct a division of state and community health in the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. And, it’s good to see you, is what I said, but I really can’t see you. But I know you’re there, cause I walked through the group coming up here, and hope you all had safe travel getting here. I actually live very close to this hotel and walked here, and I feel a bit guilty right now because it is a gorgeous day out there and we’ve had about ten straight days of rain until yesterday. So, I commend you all for being here and staying inside on such a nice day.

This session, the new leaders orientation, is designed to provide a background and history about the Maternal Child Health Bureau and an orientation to our division and offices, and meet some of the staff that are part of the bureau. The session was originally developed a number of years ago, and alternated each year with the federal state partnership meeting, and with feedback from individuals attending and evaluation, we heard the message on a couple of things and one is that the new leaders orientation was a bit redundant for people who had been in the field a very long time and second that states were very desirous of having a partnership meeting every year because so much was going on in the field. There were legislative and congressional changes, and an opportunity to get people together. So, a number of years ago we revamped our processes, and so we began having the partnership meeting every year but retain this new leaders orientation as a half day session on Sunday for those new leaders.

Now, walking through, I see a lot of people that I’ve known for years, so maybe this is, someone suggested re-orientation. And I can’t see that well, but who here is new in the last year, in state programs? So, I can see a few hands. Who within the last couple of years? So, some more. Well, welcome, and I’m sure that is going to provide some background information that will be helpful to you.

As I said, we’ve kept the meeting; we shortened it from the original meeting. So, we have a half a day and you’re going to hear about the history, vision, mission, strategic plan, and partnership of investments for Maternal and Child Health, and again, you’ll hear a brief presentation from the other bureau’s division and office staff. Ad I’m pleased today to introduce Dr. Peter Van Dyck, and Dr. Van Dyck is the associated administrator for the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. He’s a pediatrician and he has served in posts both at the state and federal level. He’s well recognized in the field and I’ll be going in more detail in his introduction tomorrow when the actual sessions open, but today I want to recognize him as a historian. And, Maternal and Child Health has a long and rich history, and we’re fortunate to have Dr. Van Dyck’s knowledge and command of this history and his foresight in leading the program forward as he has since he’s been the associate director. Now, history can be somewhat dry but I know, having heard his presentation, that he does a great job of bringing it to life, and I think the has a great task ahead of him today considering the beautiful day. But, please join me in welcoming Dr. Van Dyck.