CDC Epidemiology Fellowship in Pediatric Respiratory Viruses

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

CDC Office and Location: A fellowship opportunity is available with The Severe Illness and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (SIM) Team, Epidemiology Branch, Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the major agencies and operations component 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. The mission of the NCIRD is the prevention of disease, disability, and death through immunization and by control of respiratory and related diseases. Read More about NCIRD and its Divisions at https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/index.html

Research Project: Building on CDC’s experience in public health, this project will provide experience in the area of respiratory virus epidemiology and vaccine effectiveness, including research related to COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and other respiratory viruses that cause disease in children and adults. The SIM Team’s mission is to prevent severe respiratory viral disease and related complications and protect people at high risk by studying the epidemiology, prevention, treatment, and outcomes of severe respiratory viral illness. The research participant will work with staff on the SIM Team to help translate public health investigations and research into public health actions for prevention of respiratory viruses, particularly focused on special populations, including children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised persons.

Under the guidance of a mentor, training opportunities will come from projects that include the following activities:

• Learning about performing data cleaning, merging, and management of large datasets, and data visualization for a variety of pediatric respiratory virus surveillance platforms, including CDC’s national surveillance system for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and CDC-funded pediatric hospitalization networks.
• Problem-solving to optimize data collection, data management, and data presentation.
• Exploring the potential utility of analyses using new or under-used data sources, including large electronic health records-based platforms that could allow for better or timelier understanding of the epidemiology and burden of respiratory viruses.
• Learning about creating table shells, developing analytic plans, and performing descriptive analyses to contribute to presentations and manuscripts.
• Developing project protocols to understand the epidemiology of pediatric respiratory viral infections and to assess effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and novel RSV preventive products in pediatric populations.
• Learning about preparation of materials required for review of projects by institutional review boards for protection of human research subjects
• Communication with collaborating research institutions including meetings, workshops, and conference calls

Learning Objectives: This fellowship will offer a unique opportunity to train with a multi-disciplinary team focusing on innovative ways to gather, analyze, and disseminate public health information related to respiratory viruses in children and other special populations. 

Mentor(s): The mentors for this opportunity are Dr. Regina Simeone (uzx8@cdc.gov) and Dr. Laura Zambrano (xbs6@cdc.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentors.

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: August 1, 2024. 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, Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR), and foreign nationals. Non-U.S. citizen applicants should refer to the Guidelines for Non-U.S. Citizens Details page of the program website for information about the valid immigration statuses that are acceptable for program participation.

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.NCIRD@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate should be currently pursuing or have received a master's or doctoral degree in the one of the relevant fields, with a background in epidemiology, biostatistics, project management, data management, or data science, or a related scientific field. Degree must have been received within the past five years or anticipated to be received by 8/31/2024.

Preferred skills:

• Effective oral and written communication skills
• For candidates applying for data management and analysis opportunities, experience with importation, manipulation, and analysis of data from a variety of sources
• Experience visualizing analyzed and raw data using various software
• Experience with the Microsoft Suite and SAS or R
• Experience with vaccines and infectious diseases

Eligibility Requirements

• Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months or anticipated to be received by 8/31/2024 11:59:00 PM.
• Academic Level(s): Graduate Students, Post-Bachelor's, Postdoctoral, or Post-Master's.