Director, Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs
Maternal Child Health Bureau
Health Resources & Services Administration
Dr. Brosco is a pediatrician and historian who serves as the Director for the Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs at the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). As DSCSHN Director, Dr. Brosco leads an interdisciplinary team tasked with ensuring that every child in the U.S. receives the medical care and family support they need to play, go to school, and grow up to be healthy and productive adults.
Dr. Brosco also continues to teach and practice general pediatrics and developmental-behavioral pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He directed the MCHB-funded Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) training program at the Mailman Center for Child Development from 2010 to 2022. He has also served as Director, Population Health Ethics, at UM’s Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, and as Associate Chair, Population Health, for UM’s Department of Pediatrics.
Dr. Brosco’s research focuses on the organization of health care services for children with special health care needs, on the education of professionals in family-centered, interprofessional practice, and on public policy regarding public health programs such as newborn screening. In each of these areas, Dr. Brosco brings together three broad elements of his training and professional responsibilities: (1) scholarship in history and ethics; (2) practical experience as a clinician, educator, and administrator; and (3) leadership in state and national public advisory groups. Specific projects include an analysis of the history of health care for children in early 20th century Philadelphia, the historical epidemiology of intellectual disability, and the history of newborn screening in the US. With Diane Paul, he is co-author of The PKU Paradox: A Short History of a Genetic Disease (Johns Hopkins Press, 2013).
For over two decades, Dr. Brosco has held a series of leadership positions for the Florida Department of Health’s Children’s Medical Services (CMS), which seeks to improve the health of children with special health care needs. From 2017-19 he was Florida’s Deputy Secretary of Health for CMS, and he stepped down in 2022 after 4 years as the state’s Title V Director for CSHCN. Dr. Brosco has also been active in national health policy groups, such as the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children and the National Workgroup on Standards for Systems of Care for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs. In 2019 he was awarded a Maternal and Child Health Bureau Director’s Award for noteworthy national level contributions to the health of infants, mothers, children, adolescents, and children with special health care needs.
Selected Publications
Contact Information
Email: jbrosco@hrsa.gov
