Molly Wirick is a Public Health Analyst completing her first year in the Rural Strategic Initiatives Division (RSID) of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). In this role, she staffs the new Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health grant program as the program coordinator. She joined HRSA in 2009, following 30 years as a social worker in various direct service, agency administration, and policy positions in the private non-profit sector. Ms. Wirick holds an MSW from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration (now named the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice). Her prior work at HRSA has involved implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, developing and implementing a compliance program for the National Practitioner Data Bank, writing a regulation that implemented a portion of the Affordable Care Act related to the Data Bank, and partnering with the Bureau of HIV and AIDS and the Office of Global Affairs as their liaison from the Office of Federal Assistance Management. She has also deployed four times through HHS as a civilian, using her social work skills to respond to people affected by natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic, and in response to unaccompanied minors entering the U.S.
In her spare time, Molly is involved in numerous charitable and mission projects through her church. Recently, she led a group of sewers in making clothing protectors for residents of a nursing home. She sews 500 backpacks and dozens of quilts each year to support international relief efforts. Her next project involves making colorful pillowcases for children’s hospitals and pediatric wards.
According to Ms. Wirick, “I strive to live my life in service to others.”