As a high school student in the small town of Devils Lake, North Dakota, Mary K. Wakefield ministered to the community’s most vulnerable residents, caring for newborns at the local hospital where she worked nights and attending to the needs of elderly residents at a nearby nursing home.

“I loved working with people whose lives I could affect in a very positive way,” said Wakefield, who was inspired by her experiences to become a nurse.

Four decades later, Wakefield is still working with isolated populations, but now she is looking for solutions to a much larger set of problems than can be found in a small town hospital.

In February 2009 Wakefield, 55, took charge of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), in Rockville, Md., an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. HRSA has a far-reaching mandate to improve access to healthcare services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.

A key part of her strategy for success is using IT to improve the health of the people HRSA serves. “Technology is a vehicle for helping to eliminate health disparities for people who are medically vulnerable or uninsured