Peter C. van Dyck was appointed associate administrator for maternal and child health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on August 17, 1999.

HRSA works to fill in the health care gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream. The agency uses its $7 billion annual budget (FY 2007) 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.

Dr. van Dyck directs HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), which administers an $850 million FY 2007 budget. The Bureau promotes and improves the health of mothers, children, and families, particularly those who are poor or lack access to care. It administers the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grants to the States, the Healthy Start Initiative, and the Emergency Medical Services for Children and Traumatic Brain Injury programs, among others. Dr. Van Dyck also is the executive secretary to the Secretary's Committee on Infant Mortality.

Dr. van Dyck served as acting associate administrator for MCH between August 3, 1998, and his current appointment in 1999. Prior to that, he was the first permanent director of MCHB's Office of State and Community Health, created to be more responsive to state issues related to the MCHB block grant. In this position, he provided guidance to states, established reporting requirements, coordinated technical assistance and developed national information and data systems.

Before joining the federal government in 1992, Dr. van Dyck was director of the Family Health Services Division of the Utah Department of Health and professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah Medical Center. He was president of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Directors from 1978-1980 and chair of the Maternal and Child Health Section of the American Public Health Association from 1989-1990.

In 1999, Dr. van Dyck received the Arthur Flemming Award, given to exceptional federal employees by George Washington University and Government Executive magazine, for computerizing the Title V MCH Block Grant Services Block Grant application and annual report, and for standardizing MCH performance measures.

Dr. van Dyck earned a medical degree and a master of science degree in physiology from the University of Illinois Medical Center Chicago, and a master of public health degree in maternal and child health from the University of California, Berkeley.

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