CDC Research Associate Fellowship with the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, Epidemiology & Surveillance

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

CDC Office and Location: A research opportunity is currently available in the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP), within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 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 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.

Research Project: Projects will contribute to CDC’s high-priority data modernization efforts, such as the use of SDOH data for public health, and will address health equity issues, including identifying and studying differences by social and economic context and racial/ethnic group.

Activities may include:

• Learning to create, update, analyze and manage very large national survey datasets (NHIS, MEPS, NHANES, etc.)
• Training and conducting statistical analyses of heart disease and stroke burden and risk factors
• Training in the use of national surveys for surveillance of cardiovascular disease-related health services, SDOH, and outcomes
• Gaining experience writing manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals
• Learning how to producing data visualizations and graphical abstracts
• Gain experience conducting literature reviews
• Practice with presenting the results to internal and external audiences, including professional meetings and/or conferences
• Training may also include other related activities as discussed with mentor that further the science base regarding learning how to use SDOH data for surveillance and advancing CDC’s research related to cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes.

Learning Objectives: Under the guidance of a mentor, the selected participant will have the opportunity to train and gain experience in epidemiology and surveillance with a focus on national survey data and Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) related to heart disease and stroke.

Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Elena Kuklina  (erv8@cdc.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor(s).

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: February 5, 2024.  Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for six months, 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.NCCDPHP@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate should have received a master's or doctoral (preferred) degree in one of the relevant fields (e.g. Public Health, Epidemiology, Health Services), or be currently pursuing one of the degrees with completion before February 5, 2024. Degree must have been received within the past five years.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with analyzing social determinants of health data;
• Exceptional attention to details;
• Experience conducting data analyses in SAS, R, or similar programming language;
• Experience analyzing social determinants of health or health equity data;
• Strong written and oral communication skills, and
• Experience in analyzing large datasets.