Shalala lectures on child welfare

A month after Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala was named Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1988, she traveled to Ann Arbor to ask then-University President Harold Shapiro for advice on running a Big Ten University.

Shalala

"He briefed me on managing a university," she said. "But I didn't learn as much about management as I did about the quality of our football team."

Shalala returned to Ann Arbor to deliver the annual Fedele and Iris Fauri Memorial Lecture on Child Welfare yesterday. Fedele Fauri was the dean of the School of Social Work, and the lecture is dedicated to the accomplishments of Fauri and his wife, Iris, in the field of child welfare.

Running a Big Ten university, Shalala said, prepared her for her current position of running all federal health programs and working with an overall budget of $354 billion.

"Being Chancellor made me less compulsive and less sure I knew all the answers," Shalala said. "In some ways, being a cabinet officer is easier than running a Big Ten university, because faculty senates are tougher than the U.S. Senate."

After her speech, Shalala had a great deal of praise for the University's medical research accomplishments.

"Michigan is on the cutting edge of health and social research," Shalala said. "There is no other university that offers a better combination of the two."

Shalalas's speech focused on the advances the Clinton administration has made on child welfare and the progress that still needs to happen.

School of Social Work Dean Paula Allen-Meares said she was honored to have Shalala speak.

"She is considered one of the most experienced public managers in our country," Allen-Mear said to the crowd of about 300 people in the Power Center.

One issue Shalala spoke about may not usually be considered child welfare.

"Tobacco is very much a children's issue," Shalala said. "If it wasn't for the president's leadership, Joe Camel would still be in our children's lives, instead of in the history books where he belongs. Tobacco is a clear and present danger to teens."

Another achievement of the Clinton administration, Shalala said, is a 30 percent reduction in sudden infant death syndrome. To accomplish this, Health and Human Services launched an advertising campaign urging parents to have their infants sleep on their backs, which reduces the risk of SIDS.

"We attacked the problem from all angles," Shalala said.

Shalala said that to prevent health problems like HIV, which infects tens of thousands of teenagers and adults in the United States, her department needed to use less traditional methods.

"I've spoken to both talk show hosts and soap opera producers about how they can get good public health messages to young people," Shalala said. "The fact is that many young people get their information on AIDS from soap operas and sitcoms."

Shalala said that under her leadership, the department focuses more on results.

"By focusing on outcomes we do more than fulfill our moral obligation to children," Shalala said. "We force ourselves to use scarce resources wisely, to develop objective standards that we can use to demand accountability, and to put ourselves in a position to achieve even better results in the future."

State Rep. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) was present at the speech and said she was impressed with the presentation.

"The speech was an excellent overview of the state of child welfare," Brater said. "In the current political climate, running her department is very difficult, but we have a wonderful person in the job."

09-19-97