Contact:
Shannon Easley
404-653-0790
seasley@cdc.gov
Medical Students Selected to Train in Applied Epidemiology at CDC
July 20, 2005, ATLANTA - Eight medical students have been selected to participate in The CDC Experience, a fellowship program for physicians-in-training at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The year-long fellowship combines classroom instruction in epidemiology and biostatistics with hands-on public health work, including field investigations of disease outbreaks and other public health threats.
This is the second year of The CDC Experience, which is funded by a grant to the CDC Foundation from Pfizer Inc. and The Pfizer Foundation. The eight students will begin their fellowships in September 2005. During their fellowships, they will participate in classroom training and special seminars that will complement their epidemiologic research and field investigations. Each student will be mentored by a CDC expert in a particular subject area and complete a culminating project on a public health priority.
“We are extremely excited about the possibilities this program opens up for our students, as well as for the field of public health,” says Denise Koo, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC’s Career Development Division. “Many in our first class of fellows expressed that The CDC Experience helped them understand how, as physicians, they can use epidemiology skills to improve the clinical treatment of individual patients, as well as protect the health of entire communities. We look forward to helping this second class of fellows make similar discoveries.”
The medical students selected to participate in the second class of The CDC Experience and their areas of interest include:
- Brendan Camp, State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, who will investigate respiratory and enteroviruses;
- Teresa Dean, Duke School of Medicine, Durham, who will work on reproductive health issues;
- Eric Dziuban, Duke School of Medicine, Durham, who will investigate parasitic diseases;
- KaLynne Harris, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, who will study vaccine safety;
- Dana Smith, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, who will explore minority health issues;
- Nicole Steinmuller, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, who will analyze the implementation of programs to prevent the adverse health effects of diabetes;
- Melanie Watts, Brown Medical School, Providence, who will investigate viral and rickettsial diseases; and
- Taylor Wofford, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Jackson, who will study cardiovascular diseases.
“As more physicians-in-training are exposed to public health thinking and practice through programs like The CDC Experience, we are likely to see improved communication and collaboration between the medical and public health communities, which is critical as health concerns like obesity, bioterrorism and influenza threaten not just isolated individuals, but entire populations,” says Charles Stokes, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation.
Founded by Congress seven years ago, the CDC Foundation is an independent, nonprofit enterprise that forges effective partnerships between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others to improve health and safety.