Wade F. Horn, Ph.D., was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the United States Department of Health and Human Services on February 28, 2001, and was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.

With a $47 billion budget, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is responsible for programs that promote the social and economic well-being of America’s children, youth and families. Included among ACF’s 65 programs are the national welfare-to-work program, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families); foster care; adoption assistance; Head Start, child care; child support enforcement; positive youth development programs; refugee resettlement; and services for those with developmental disabilities.

Since 2001, Dr. Horn has played a key role in implementing several of President Bush’s initiatives to strengthen children and families. These efforts include leading the President’s Healthy Marriage Initiative, which seeks to incorporate marriage education and resources into the broad array of social services ACF provides; launching a mentorship program for children of incarcerated parents; providing community and faith-based organizations with training and technical assistance to help them expand or improve services to the poor and vulnerable; enhancing the ability of the Head Start program and child care providers to help low-income children develop critical early literacy and numeracy skills; and launching a major public awareness campaign to help victims of human trafficking in the United States.

Prior to his appointment at ACF, Dr. Horn was President of the National Fatherhood Initiative, whose mission is to improve child well-being by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, committed and responsible fathers in their lives.

From 1989-93, Dr. Horn was the Commissioner for Children, Youth and Families and Chief of the Children's Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He also served as a Presidential appointee to the National Commission on Children from 1990-93, a member of the National Commission on Childhood Disability from 1994-95, and a member of the U.S. Advisory Board on Welfare Indicators from 1996-97. Prior to these appointments, Dr. Horn was the Director of Outpatient Psychological Services at the Children's Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. From 1993 to 2001, Dr. Horn also was an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute and an affiliate scholar with the Hudson Institute.

Dr. Horn is frequently featured on national television and radio and has authored numerous articles and books on children and family issues. He received his Ph.D. in clinical child psychology from Southern Illinois University in 1981. Dr. Horn, his wife, and their two daughters reside in Laytonsville, Maryland.