Nurse Tapped to Lead HRSA

HDM Breaking News, February 24, 2009

President Obama has named Mary Wakefield, R.N., PhD, as administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration. An agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA delivers health care to the uninsured and underinsured through the National Health Service Corps.

Wakefield will oversee, among other initiatives, the expansion and improvement of community health centers. She also will administer $2.5 billion allocated to HRSA in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Out of those funds, $1.5 billion will go for grants for construction and renovation of health centers, and for implementation of electronic health records systems. The act appropriates another $500 million in grants to health centers and $500 million to address health professional workforce shortages in the centers.

Wakefield most recently served as associate dean for rural health at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She is a tenured professor and director of the university's Center for Rural Health. Her past experience includes serving as chief of staff for Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Sen. Quentin Burdick (D-N.D.). She also has served on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and chaired the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Health Care Quality for Rural America.

--Joseph Goedert

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