HRSA Administrator Elizabeth M. Duke, Ph.D., today was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, an independent, nonpartisan organization chartered by Congress that provides advice and expertise to federal, state, and local governments on ways to improve their effectiveness and accountability.
New Academy fellows are selected by current fellows, whose membership consists of hundreds of current and former Cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, mayors, legislators, diplomats, business executives, public managers and scholars. The principal criterion for selection is a sustained contribution to the field of public administration through public service or scholarship.
Current fellows include Secretary of State Colin Powell; Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve System; and Alice Rivlin, former director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Since joining HRSA in March 2001, Dr. Duke has provided leadership and direction for the implementation of President Bush’s Health Center Initiative, which will add new or expand existing health center sites by 1,200 by 2006 and boost the number of patients served each year from about 10 million in 2001 to more than 16 million in 2006. A second Presidential initiative has reformed and expanded the National Health Service Corps, many of whose clinicians work in health centers across the country.
Additionally, Dr. Duke has overseen HRSA’s implementation of a new hospital preparedness program, created in the months following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. With annual funds of more than $500 million, the new program is designed to improve the nation’s ability to detect a bioterror attack and provide appropriate prevention and treatment.
During her tenure at HRSA, Dr. Duke has improved internal administration by distributing workloads more equitably among the agency’s bureaus and offices, centralizing the grantmaking process, and streamlining internal communications and legislative roles.
Before coming to HRSA, Dr. Duke served as deputy assistant secretary for administration in another HHS operating division, the Administration for Children and Families. In that post, she was in charge of grants policy, financial management, internal and state systems, human resources and administrative functions.
She has overseen major organizational changes carried out within the framework of the Department's Continuous Improvement Program, reinvention efforts to streamline HHS personnel, and an initiative focusing on regional restructuring. In the mid-1990s, she led the Department in implementing the Congressional mandate to separate the Social Security Administration from HHS.
Dr. Duke earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Douglass College of Rutgers University, a master’s degree in political science and African studies from Northwestern University, and a doctorate in political science from George Washington University. She stays connected to academia by teaching political science and American government courses at Washington-area universities and by mentoring graduate students.
