WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today announced Katie Taylor as interim Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator, focused on the goal of ending preventable maternal and child deaths.

For half a century USAID has been the global leader in reproductive, maternal and child health driven by our work in field missions. During the last 20 years alone, one hundred million children’s lives have been spared, and through our efforts the rate of mortality reduction is accelerating. By building upon our history of success and partnering with governments, civil society, and the private sector, the Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator work will help to accelerate progress toward our goal.

In June at a high-level forum called Acting on the Call: ending preventable child and maternal deaths, a panel of esteemed business, health, development and government experts strongly recommended that USAID strengthen and restructure decision-making and processes by establishing a maternal and child health coordinator, similar to the successful model of USAID’s own President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

Taylor will oversee USAID’s near- and longer-term goals and actions to drive increased outcomes for impact, as well as working to gain greater operational efficiency. She will be responsible for USAID’s child survival and maternal health policy and programs, working collaboratively across the Agency and with USAID Missions and partners.

Taylor is currently USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau of Global Health, and assumes this new role in addition to her regular duties. Read her biography here.

USAID’s child survival and maternal health work prioritizes 24 countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia which account for 70 percent of maternal and child deaths and half of the unmet need for family planning. The 24 priority countries have achieved an 8 percent reduction in under-5 mortality, saving 500,000 lives in the last two years alone.