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President Barack Obama has chosen Mary Wakefield (above) to direct the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency that handles $6.85 billion dollars. Wakefield directs the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota. The Grand Forks Herald published a good biography of the nurse who will be the top advocate for rural health care in the Obama administration.
The agency is charged with helping provide health care to all Americans, particularly the poor, children and pregnant women. The HRSA also helps provide access to health care for rural residents, according to InForum.
InForum reports: “Her first priority, she said, is to disperse the additional $2 billion HRSA will get as part of the economic stimulus package. The second priority, she said, is to help the administration with health care reform. ‘I’ll be at Warp 7,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure my feet will touch the ground.’”