Mary Elizabeth Switzer was an American public administrator and social reformer.
Education
Switzer graduated from Radcliffe College in 1921 with a Bachelor of Arts in international law and started working for the federal government: first as an assistant secretary to the Minimum Wage Board and then for United States. Department of the Treasury under the Public Health Service and the Federal Security Agency, becoming increasingly concerned with health care issues.
Career
She is best remembered for her work on the 1954 Vocational Rehabilitation Acting, which provided a great expansion of vocational rehabilitation service for people with disabilities. She publicized the government"s growing role in vocational rehabilitation and encouraged expansion of vocational rehabilitation projects among non-governmental organizations. Education and Switzer became director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation in the United States. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1950 and the first administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service in 1967.
She retired in 1970 as the highest ranking female bureaucrat in the federal government and became vice-president of the World Rehabilitation Fund until her death a year later.
Switzer was the first woman to serve on the Board of Directors at Georgetown University in 1969. She served as president of the National Rehabilitation Association from 1960 to 1961 and as advisor to many American health organizations, including the Menninger Foundation and Saint Elizabeths Hospital.
Switzer received honorary degrees from Hofstra University in 1969, Gallaudet College, Russell Sage College, and five other universities. The Mary Switzer Building, Washington District of Columbia houses the Department of Health and Human Services
the Mary East. Switzer Building, Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center campus, Fishersville, Virginia, features a display of Switzer"s memorabilia
Mary Switzer Research Fellowships are administered by the United States. Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.