Cheryl Austein-Casnoff joined the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as associate administrator for health information technology in September 2005.

HRSA works to fill in the health care gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream. HRSA's $7 billion annual budget (FY 2007) provides funds 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.

Austein-Casnoff manages HRSA's Office of Health Information Technology, which promotes the adoption and effective use of HIT among safety-net providers and populations. Since the December 2005 creation of the office, Austein-Casnoff has overseen the award of almost $40 million in new telehealth and health center network grants. In addition, Austein-Casnoff has led OHIT's efforts to build enhanced technical assistance capabilities through web sites and toolkits.

Before joining HRSA, Austein-Casnoff was director of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from 1998 to 2005. She was instrumental in the design and implementation of the program, which provides insurance for low-income children. Prior to CMS, Austein-Casnoff was director for public health policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and a budget analyst in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget.

Austein-Casnoff received her masters of public health in health services administration from the Yale Medical School Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and has a bachelor of arts in biological sciences from Northwestern University.

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