CDC Paula E. Jayne Fellowship for Adolescent & School Health
Application Deadline
11/6/2026 3:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone
Description
*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.
CDC Office and Location: A research opportunity is available in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) located in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the major operation components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC protects 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 increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish its mission, CDC conducts important science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.
Research Project: The Paula E. Jayne Fellowship for Adolescent & School Health is currently available within the Research Application and Evaluation Branch of the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health works with and through schools to understand and improve the health and well-being of all students. We do this by strengthening school-based education, health services, healthy school environments, and community connections.
Under the guidance of a mentor, you will have the opportunity to participate in DASH's research, evaluation, and translation efforts supporting child, adolescent, and school health. Specifically, you will gain experience engaging with CDC staff to: (a) design and implement research synthesis or analytic plans analyzing data on adolescent and school health from complex sample surveys (e.g., Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, School Health Profiles) and panel data (e.g., Teen Pulse Survey), (b) disseminate key findings from data synthesis or analysis through scientific journal articles, and presentations at national or regional scientific conferences; (c) develop scientifically informed tools and materials to support school health, and/or (d) engage with CDC staff on the provision of technical experience on school health programs to recipients funded for school health programs.
Learning Objectives: Under the guidance of mentors, you will train to:
- Identify gaps in the scientific literature on child, adolescent, or school health, and designing synthesis or analytic plans to address those gaps;
- Synthesize and/or analyze data to identify key findings and practical recommendations for DASH programmatic work with schools;
- Share findings from data synthesis or analyses through the development of peer reviewed manuscripts, presentations to scientific audiences, CDC reports, and tools and materials to support schools;
- Collaborate with CDC staff to learn about the provision of technical assistance to CDC’s funded recipients for school health programs.
Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Caitlin Merlo (cmerlo@cdc.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research, please contact the mentor(s).
Anticipated Appointment Start Date: September 30, 2026. 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: Stipend rates may vary based on numerous factors, including opportunity, location, education, and experience. If you are interviewed, you can inquire about the exact stipend rate at that time and if selected, your appointment offer will include the monthly stipend rate.
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 CDCrpp@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.
Qualifications
The qualified candidate should have received a master's or doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields. Degree must have been received within the past five years.
Preferred Skills:
- Good oral and written communication skills (for example: presentations, website content, fact sheets, etc.).
- Experience participating in teams and engaging with partners.
- Experience applying quantitative data collection and analysis, including use of complex sample survey data, multi-level modeling, multi-variate analysis.
- Experience analyzing data using R, SUDAAN, or other statistical software.
- Experience applying data science and informatics methods and developing reproducible analytic workflows, automated reports, and/or data dashboards.
- Experience applying research synthesis skills.
- Experience translating scientific findings into plain language materials.
- Experience in epidemiology, public health, social sciences, statistics, or a closely related field.
- Experience disseminating research and evaluation findings through publication in scientific manuscripts and presentations to scientific audiences.
- Experience with K-12 schools or in child or adolescent health.
Stipend
$5,439.00 – $6,581.00 Monthly
Point of Contact
Eligibility Requirements
- Citizenship: U.S. Citizen Only
- Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 month(s).