Elizabeth M. Duke, Ph.D., was named administrator for the Health Resources and Services Administration on March 6, 2002, after serving as acting administrator for the previous year.

HRSA is one of 11 operating divisions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency uses its $7.2 billion annual budget (FY 2004) to expand access to quality health care for all Americans through an array of grants to state and local governments, health care providers and health professions training programs.

Since taking the administrator’s post, Duke has distributed workloads more equitably among HRSA’s bureaus and offices, improved the grantmaking process, and streamlined internal communications and legislative roles.

The agency’s major added responsibility under her tenure has been 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. HRSA has exceeded its growth targets in Fiscal Years 2002-03 by funding more than 550 new or expanded access sites. The community health center network – which delivers high-quality preventive and primary care to patients regardless of their ability to pay – now has more than 3,650 service sites that annually serve about 12.5 million patients across the United States.

Following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, Duke has overseen HRSA’s administration of a new hospital preparedness program, with annual funds of $500 million, that is designed to improve the nation’s ability to detect a bioterror attack and respond with appropriate treatment.

Duke welcomed the first group of HRSA Scholars to the agency in November 2001 and will welcome a fourth group in late 2004. She launched the Scholars Program to attract talented new employees to support the agency’s mission of expanding access to quality health care after viewing staffing forecasts which showed that many of HRSA’s most experienced employees soon will be entering retirement age. The program’s cornerstone is a year-long training and development curriculum that rotates scholars among four program and administrative areas. So far, HRSA has hired and trained 150 new employees through the program.

Duke is a career senior executive who has served four HHS Secretaries: Otis Bowen, Louis Sullivan, Donna Shalala and Tommy Thompson. Before coming to HRSA, she 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.

Duke also has more than 12 years of experience as both acting assistant secretary and principal deputy in HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget (OASMB) – currently called the Office of Budget, Technology and Finance. The ASMB served as HHS’ chief financial officer, management control officer and chief information officer.

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 – an effort that saw no personnel grievances filed.

Duke entered Federal service at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), where she rose to the rank of deputy assistant director and director of policy and systems in OPM’s Office of Training and Development from 1984-86. From 1978-84, she was the founder and director of the Government Affairs Institute in OPM’s Office of Executive and Management Development. The institute trains Federal executives in such responsibilities as testifying before Congress, developing budgets and managing large bureaucracies. Before joining the government, Duke spent two years as a research writer for Congressional Quarterly, a Washington, D.C.-based publication that covers Capitol Hill and Federal agencies.

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.

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