Robert G. McSwain is a member of the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California. He served as Acting Director of the Indian Health Service from September 2007 until May 2009.

 

McSwain received an associate of science degree in accounting from Fresno City College in Fresno, California, before obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with an economics minor from California State University, Fresno in 1969. In 1986 he earned a masters degree in public administration (health services administration concentration) and pursued doctoral studies in public administration from the University of Southern California.

 

McSwain served as Program Director of Central Valley Indian Health, Inc., a tribal health program in Clovis, California, prior to 1974. From 1974 to 1976 he served as the Executive Director of the California Rural Indian Health Board, Inc. McSwain switched to a federal career with the Indian Health Service in 1976 as Director for the IHS California Area Office. In 1984 he was named Special Assistant to the Director of IHS, and assigned to long-term training at the University of Southern California. In 1986, he was transferred to the IHS Headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, where he held a number of advancing positions including Director of the Division of Health Manpower and Training for the Office of Health Programs, Deputy Associate Director for the Office of Administration and Management, and Management Analysis Officer for the Office of the Director. From 1992 to 1997 he served as the Acting Associate Director for the Office of Human Resources. McSwain was then selected as the Director of the Office of Management Support in March 1997. Beginning in August 2004, he served as the Acting Deputy Director for Management Operations until he was officially sworn in in February 2005, where he remained until his appointment as the Acting IHS Director in September 2007.