L-R: Kathleen Sebelius, Barack Obama, and Nancy-Ann DeParle at the White House on Monday, Mar. 2

On March 2, President Obama announced his picks for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National White House Office for Health Reform.  Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas and an early Obama supporter, will lead HHS if confirmed by the Senate, while Nancy-Ann DeParle will head White House health reform efforts. Read the full story

Steve Shields

Steve Shields’ journey from heading up a long-shore drilling operation in the Middle East to becoming a key player in the eldercare culture change movement began with the loss of his mother.

In the mid-80s, his mother had advanced Alzheimer’s and his father had Parkinson’s, two “headline diseases,” as he calls them. So, Shields went home to Kansas to help.

“The options available to them were dismal,” he remembers. Read the full story

As Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is considered for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration, an AP story that appeared in The Kansas City Star on Feb. 11 (“Invisible Kansans”) highlights the predicament of the nearly 4,000 Kansas residents who suffer from developmental disabilities and fear the state’s current budget troubles will result in a failure of services. Read the full story