Fellow Eligibility and Requirements

Eligibility

Education

Fellows must have a doctoral- or master's-level degree from an accredited academic institution in a field relevant to CDC's work.

• Graduate or doctorate course work should have a public health or behavioral science focus. Examples of degree concentration include public health, epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, biostatistics, and community psychology.
• For upcoming or recent graduates, the highest degree must be conferred by June 30, 2027.
• Transcripts must state the applicant's degree of study, courses taken, earned grades, and graduation date if the degree has been conferred.
• If selected as a candidate, all applicants with degrees obtained at a non-US institution, regardless of US citizenship status, must also provide documentation of an academic credentialing evaluation to ensure degree requirements are equivalent.
  • For this requirement, an applicant must provide a course-by-course academic credentialing evaluation for any degree from a non-US academic institution before the application deadline. Degree evaluations that do not list individual courses will not be considered.
  • Your academic credential evaluation must be completed by a member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES). For more information about academic credential evaluation, a list of member organizations, and to submit the applicant's degrees for evaluation, please visit the NACES website.
  • This requirement applies to all doctoral-, master's-, and bachelor's-level degrees.

Citizenship

Applicants must verify that they are not a citizen of a country designated as a state sponsor of terrorism per this US Department of State website: State Sponsors of Terrorism.

Applicants must be in one of the following groups to be considered for the program.

• US citizens
• US permanent residents

Experience

Applicants should have significant applied program evaluation experience (at least one year's worth) and be able to document up to three projects that demonstrate the depth and breadth of the evaluation experience.

Relocation

Accepted fellows are required to live within a 50-mile radius of CDC host sites. Almost all host sites are located on CDC campuses in Atlanta, Georgia.

Fellows are not eligible to work remotely.

Relocation costs are not paid.

Additional Requirements

To become a fellow, the applicant must:

• Meet CDC/ATSDR requirements for general employment suitability (e.g., favorable background security check for US Government employment).
• Commit full time to the fellowship assignment for two years (the second year is determined by satisfactory performance and availability of funds).
• Have education and experience that meet the US Office of Personnel Management's (OPM's) requirements for the health science (0601) or social science (0101) occupational series to be selected.