CAPT Susan Lumsden stands beside a fallen tree on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge. Lumsden, from HRSA’s Office of Health Information Technology, provided nursing care to evacuees following Hurricane Gustav.

HRSA's Senior Advisor Steve Smith (left), Dr. Duke (center), and Acting U.S. Surgeon General RADM Steven Galson (right) at Child Health Day event.

Administrator Elizabeth Duke congratulates HRSA Scholars during their September 29th graduation ceremony.

Dr. Duke met with patients of the Hansen's Disease center in Baton Rouge.

August-October: HRSA deployed 54 Commissioned Corps officers to provide health care and other services to people who fled their homes due to hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The officers, representing physicians, nurses, pharmacists, mental health and other health professionals, were posted in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. An article in the November/December issue of Inside HRSA will report on the personal experiences of some of the deployed officers.

October 6: HRSA, the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of the Surgeon General marked the 80th National Child Health Day by announcing the creation of the new “Head Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play.” This year’s theme for National Child Health Day was “Eat Healthy and Be Active for a Healthy Future.”

October 3: HRSA awarded $6.3 million to states and community organizations to launch New Parents Initiative and “Doulas” Training.

October 2: HRSA made nearly $2.4 million in two-year awards to assess how individuals known as “patient navigators” can improve patients’ chances of beating cancer and managing chronic disease.

September 29: HRSA Administrator Elizabeth Duke commended the 53 graduating members of the HRSA Scholars’ class of 2008, the seventh since the program began. Duke created the program in 2001 after learning that a large percentage of the agency’s workforce would soon be eligible to retire. “We knew we had to act to ensure that HRSA maintained its talented corps of employees in the future,” she said. Scholars go through a year of training and rotations in HRSA bureaus and offices before becoming permanent employees.

September 26: Administrator Duke visited the Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola University in Chicago, a Bureau of Health Professions Advanced Education Nursing program grantee.

September 25: During a check-signing ceremony at Aunt Martha’s Youth Service Center in Chicago Heights, Administrator Duke presented the center an expanded mental health services grant award. Later that day, she visited HRSA’s Chicago Office of Performance Review for an All-Hands Meeting and gave remarks at the Office of Health Information Technology’s Electronic Health Records Regional Workshop.

September 24: HRSA announced more than $12.5 million to help six health care systems across Hawaii improve comprehensive disease prevention, health promotion and primary health care services to Native Hawaiians.

September 17: HRSA awarded more than $14 million in grants to improve the health and well-being of children and youth with autism spectrum disorders.

September 16: HRSA made $3.2 million in grants to help identify effective strategies for increasing organ donation.

September 15: HRSA awarded $750,000 to the University of North Dakota to establish a Health Workforce Information Center as a “single point of entry” for health workforce information.

September 15: Administrator Duke visited the National Hansen’s Disease Program in Baton Rouge, La. Her first stop was the Oschner Medical Center, where she met with patients and staff. Next, she traveled to Carville (La.) for a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Hansen’s Disease Program Museum.

September 11: HRSA awarded $1.5 million to raise cancer awareness in nuclear test areas and among uranium miners.

September 11: HRSA awarded $2.7 million to states to increase access to oral health care.

September 11: HRSA awarded $5.8 million for dental care and other services for people living with HIV/AIDS.