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.
|