Elizabeth “Jackie” Noyes, M.A., FAAP (Hon.), who held leadership roles in the AAP Washington office for 36 years, has died.
Noyes is remembered as one of the most influential people in the health care policy field. She rose through the ranks of the Academy after joining the organization as a legislative aide in 1973. Four years later, she became director of the new AAP office in Washington, D.C. (Department of Government Liaison).
Throughout her tenure, she advocated for the Infant Formula Act of 1980, the Maternal and Child Health block grant, the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act and issues surrounding the Vaccines for Children program, Medicaid, MediKids and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
When the Clinton administration announced a goal to improve vaccination rates through the Child Immunization Initiative, Noyes rallied pediatricians to provide testimony and support for universal childhood immunizations. The legislation passed in 1993.
“Professionally, Jackie was a force of nature,” said AAP Past President Eileen M. Ouelette, M.D., J.D., FAAP, (2005-’06). “Not only did she create and run the Washington office, but she influenced every piece of federal legislation pertaining to children coming out of the AAP for 35 years.”
Noyes was named AAP associate executive director in 1994, a position she held until her retirement in 2009. In that role, she oversaw the Department of Federal Affairs and the Department of Chapter and State Affairs.
AAP Past President David T. Tayloe Jr., M.D., FAAP (2008-’09), said Academy leadership soon realized Noyes’ ability to organize and communicate, particularly with advocacy matters at the Capitol.
“Her gift was to understand the political landscape and assure that the AAP did not waste its time and limited resources on futile advocacy initiatives but focused on those campaigns that were likely to bear fruit,” said Dr. Tayloe, who presented Noyes with an Honorary Fellow certificate in 2009. “Her finger was squarely on the political pulse of Washington at all times. Her bubbly personality, ability to meet the public with amazing poise, perseverance when things were difficult and incredible feel for what was doable for us politically will always remain with me as I think of her legacy for me and the AAP.”
Noyes also is credited with training more than 3,000 pediatricians to be leaders in advocacy for children through the AAP Legislative Conference and other venues.
AAP CEO/Executive Vice President Mark Del Monte, J.D., who joined the Academy in 2005 as assistant director in the Washington office, called Noyes a mentor and a “giant in the history of the AAP.”
“Jackie built the D.C. office from one (employee) to 16 when she retired in 2010, and the D.C. office was well-known in the Capitol as a powerhouse of advocacy for children,” Del Monte said. “Jackie’s legacy includes policy, of course, but also the thousands of pediatricians she trained and mentored.”
Noyes was a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, serving as chair in 2001. She was a member of the Children’s Dental Health Project Board of Directors and was America’s Promise Healthy Start Initiative executive secretariat from 1997-’99.
In 1988, Noyes was awarded honorary membership in the Society for Adolescent Medicine in recognition of her contributions toward the improvement of the health and general welfare of adolescents and young adults around the world. She was awarded the U.S. Surgeon General’s Certificate of Appreciation for her “outstanding contributions to the health and welfare of America’s children and adolescents” in 1999.
Noyes received the 1999 Distinguished Alumnae Award from Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C., for outstanding achievement, service to the community and loyalty to the college. In 2000, she was chosen by the AAP Section on Perinatal Pediatrics for the L. Joseph Butterfield Lectureship and was the Society of Adolescent Medicine Gallagher Lecturer in 1995.
Funeral arrangements were pending at time of publication.
