Workforce Development

One goal of the climate change program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is helping to develop a national public health workforce that can research and address the effects of climate change on human health. This includes workforce development within CDC as well as external development through training, research funding, fellowships, internships, and partnerships with diverse stakeholders. An educated workforce will help to ensure the capacity exists within the public health sector to research and address the anticipated health impacts of climate change. Below are descriptions and specific examples of some of the mechanisms CDC’s Climate and Health Program is using to promote this goal.

Online Training

Recognizing, Preventing and Treating Heat-Related Illness

Association of Schools of Public Health Ph.D. Research Scholarships
CDC, in collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH), awarded research scholarships of $25,000 each to three doctoral-level students for the 2009-2010 academic year. The Climate Change Scholarship recipients are studying the relationship between public health and climate change while receiving guidance and input from CDC’s climate change experts. The scholarship recipients are as follows:

Joyce Klein Rosenthal
Joyce Klein Rosenthal is a Ph.D. candidate in the Urban Planning Program at Columbia University. She earned her M.S. in urban planning from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, and also holds the M.P.H. in environmental health sciences from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. Rosenthal was previously project director of the New York Climate and Health Project, and started the Cool City Project in 2000 with colleagues in Urban Planning and Public Health. Her research evaluates the effects of climate on public health in cities and explores the social processes in which climate adaptation strategies are developed.

Sumiko Mekaru
Sumiko Mekaru is an Sc.D. candidate in the epidemiology program at Boston University's School of Public Health. She is a veterinarian and has the M.S. in preventive veterinary medicine. Mekaru recently joined HealthMap at Children's Hospital Boston as a surveillance epidemiologist. She has also taught epidemiology as a teaching assistant and instructor. Her research focuses on environmental risk factors and infectious diseases, such as waterborne diseases, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and Lyme disease

Colleen Reid
Colleen Reid is a Ph.D. candidate in the Environmental Health Sciences Division of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley. She has the M.P.H. in environmental health sciences from UC Berkeley, and previously worked as an environmental health fellow for ASPH at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she researched the public health effects of climate change. Reid’s current research focuses on the effects of wildfire smoke and aeroallergens on asthma and other respiratory diseases.

National Center for Atmospheric Research Post-doctoral Research Awards
In 2010, CDC will award two post-doctoral level research awards in collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. These positions will help to develop a scientific workforce focused on climate change and health and will take advantage of NCAR’s strong post-doctoral program.

Presidential Management Fellow
CDC’s Climate Change and Health Program currently is hosting one master’s-level Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) as a public health scientist from June 2009 to June 2011. The PMF program aims to attract outstanding men and women from various academic disciplines and career paths to federal careers. PMFs have a clear interest in and commitment to excellence in leading and managing public policies and programs. CDC's current PMF fellow:

Paul Schramm
Paul Schramm holds the M.S. in geology from the University of Notre Dame and the M.P.H. in global environmental health from Emory University. He previously worked on the Children’s Exposure to Environmental Pesticides study at Emory University and in the Government Affairs Program at the American Geological Institute. His work at CDC has focused on adaptation to climate change, especially in the areas of built environment and extreme weather events.

Public Health Prevention Service Fellow
CDC’s Climate Change and Public Health Program currently is hosting one Public Health Prevention Service (PHPS) fellow from October 2009 to April 2010. The PHPS fellowship is a 3-year training and service program for master’s-level public health professionals. It focuses on public health program management and develops experience in program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Fellows receive specialized hands-on training and mentorship at CDC and at state and local health agencies. CDC’s current PHPS fellow:

Maria Sarabia
Maria Sarabia earned the B.A. in Inner City Studies from Northeastern Illinois University and the M.A. in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. She previously developed community wellness and workforce programming in the not-for-profit sector in Chicago, and directed the implementation of the School Health Index in the Chicago Public Schools Central Office. Her work at CDC has focused on coordinating state and local adaptation strategies to climate change.

Internships
Although CDC’s Climate Change Program does not have a structured internship framework, the program has hosted several part-time, externally-funded interns. Typically, these are public health graduate students.

Through the above projects, CDC is laying the foundation to develop an informed and dedicated workforce that will be able to research and communicate the expected health effects associated with climate change.

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