This is one in a series of profiles on the 2012 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalists. The awards, presented by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, recognize outstanding federal employees whose important, behind-the-scenes work is advancing the health, safety and well-being of Americans and are among the most prestigious honors given to civil servants. This profile features a finalist for the Career Achievement medal Lynne Mofenson, chief of the Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal Branch at the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Md.

As the number of children with AIDS increased dramatically in the United States and around the world during the late 1980s, the depressing fact was that little could be done to prevent infants from getting HIV, the virus that causes the terrible disease. Keep reading →