CDC Health Equity Fellowship
*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.
CDC Office and Location: A research opportunity is currently available with the Deputy Director for Non-Infectious Diseases (DDNID) in the Office of the Director (OD) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
The CDC is one of the major operation components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC works to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. CDC data show that non-infectious diseases are the leading cause of death for Americans across the life span and are disproportionately affecting communities of color. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that many chronic diseases have put people at increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, and we’ve seen existing health disparities become even more pronounced. CDC's ability to identify and respond to such public health threats is hampered by the lack of discoverability and access to timely, complete data on chronic disease, birth defects, developmental disabilities, environmental pollution, and injuries.
Research Project: CDC’s non-infectious disease programs within the DDNID are working together to modernize the way we do our work by improving CDC’s non-infectious disease data and systems to drive data-driven decision making and achieve greater public health impact. By creating modern, interoperable, and real-time public health data and surveillance systems, CDC’s ability to inform real-time decision making would be enhanced by increased access to timely, local data on pre-existing conditions, social determinants of health, behavioral risk factors, and environmental hazards. Ultimately, CDC would be able to rapidly identify and effectively mitigate emerging threats using trusted data that promote evidence-based behaviors, interventions, and solutions to protect health.
In this project, the selected fellow will train with CDC health equity science and surveillance staff in the DDNID Office of the Director. The CDC mentor will train the fellow in tasks related to identifying and developing strategic use cases for combining public health evidence and surveillance data to accelerate public health's ability to address complex, multi-sectoral challenges such as addressing the social determinants of health.
Learning Objectives: The fellow will gain experience in identifying key social determinants of health (related to for example, food insecurity, transportation, housing, healthcare access, racism) data and challenges to incorporating those data into public health surveillance systems. The fellow will learn from CDC health equity science and surveillance staff as they assess the current state of social determinants of health data and systems within non-infectious disease programs, synthesize future state and program needs related to social determinants of health, and develop a strategic blueprint for developing that future state. The fellow will train within a multi-disciplinary team setting, engaging in both group and independent assignments, and routine and exploratory projects.
Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Tracie McGaughey (tmd9@cdc.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor(s).
Anticipated Appointment Start Date: As soon as a qualified candidate is identified. Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.
Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year, but may be renewed upon recommendation of CDC and is contingent on the availability of funds.
Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.
Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience.
Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.
ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and CDC. Participants do not become employees of CDC, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.
The successful applicant(s) will be required to comply with Environmental, Safety and Health (ES&H) requirements of the hosting facility, including but not limited to, COVID-19 requirements (e.g. facial covering, physical distancing, testing, vaccination).
Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email ORISE.CDC.OD@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.