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Dr. Olson Huff, Pediatrician and Medical Director Emeritus of Mission Children’s Hospital, is being honored for his lifetime advocacy and commitment to poverty-stricken, uninsured, and special needs children in North Carolina. Dr. Huff founded the Olson Huff Center for Childhood Development, which supplies interdisciplinary care for disabled children. He has championed children’s causes through his affiliation with the North Carolina Partnership for Children, and the task forces on Access to Dental Care and Comprehensive Health Care Needs of Children. He created a mobile dental program to supply services to poor children in rural areas and was instrumental in getting Medicaid plans changed to expand dental benefits. Dr. Huff spearheaded the fund-raising effort that resulted in a new Children’s Outpatient Center, which provides daily specialized pediatric care to children. At 70 years old, Dr. Huff is working with Action for Children North Carolina as a senior fellow, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Committee on Federal Government Affairs to guarantee that all children in North Carolina and eventually the country receive health insurance coverage. He chairs the Task Force on Childhood Obesity and the North Carolina Study Committee on Obesity. He is the pediatric consultant to the Mission Healthcare Foundation and The Duke Endowment. He continues to advocate for higher quality day care and early intervention for children through the North Carolina Smart Start Program, which he helped to create.
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