CDC Fiscal Year 2017 Report on Conference Spending

In compliance with OMB Memorandum M-12-12pdf iconexternal icon (“Promoting Efficient Spending to Support Agency Operations”) this report includes all CDC-hosted conferences held in FY 2017 where the net expenses associated with the conference exceeded $100,000. The conference descriptions include:

  • The date of the conference
  • The location of the conference
  • A brief explanation of how the conference advanced the mission of the agency
  • A description of exceptional circumstances for conferences where net expenses exceeded $500,000
  • The total conference expenses incurred by the agency for the conference and
  • The total number of individuals whose travel expenses or other conference expenses were paid by the agency
Fiscal Year 2017 Conferences
OPDIV Total Number of Conferences Total Cost Total Number of Attendees Total Number of Federal Attendees
(travel paid by CDC)
Total Number of Non-Federal Attendees
(travel paid by CDC)
CDC 8 $4,737,603 3,467 2,118 0

Center for Global Health

Center for Global Health 2017 Annual Meeting

Dates: May 30-June 16, 2017

Venue, City, State, or Country: Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: This meeting builds the expertise of lead technical and management personnel (not only U.S. direct hires, but also locally employed staff) to further CDC’s mission of working with partners throughout the world to monitor threats, detect and investigate health problems, conduct research to address prevention, develop and advocate sound public health policies, implement prevention strategies, promote healthy behaviors, foster safe and healthful environments, and provide leadership and training. Ensuring alignment with the five key agendas of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), this meeting focused on strategies for achieving the three guiding pillars of accountability, transparency, and impact. It facilitated communication between the leadership of CDC headquarters and more than 40 CDC Division of Global HIV & Tuberculosis (DGHT) offices overseas and afforded a rare occurrence where these personnel were all in the same time zone and all heard the same information and policy updates.

Description of Exceptional Circumstances: The Center for Global Health (CGH) is the agency’s lead office responsible for developing, implementing, evaluating and monitoring activities that promote/ensure global health protection and security. This meeting provides a solitary opportunity for CGH leadership to convene face-to-face across all CGH divisions and global offices to discuss program priorities and operations, review and evaluate progress towards goals/objectives and discuss/develop long-term strategic goals/objectives that are broadly communicated across all CGH leadership structures in support of a one-CDC, one-CGH global health agenda. In the absence of this meeting it would be difficult to develop and successfully communicate the unified agency and CGH global health vision pertaining to global health security and protection; as well as share best practices that would positively impact the ability of individual divisions to meet their respective objectives.

Total Estimated Cost: $2,349,294

Total Attendees: 1,265

Total Feds on Travel: 1,265

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0


National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

2017 National Cancer Conference

Dates: August 14-18, 2017

Venue, City, State, or Country: Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: As a leader for nationwide cancer prevention and control and as a partner with state health agencies and other key groups, the CDC National Cancer Conference represents an opportunity for translating research to practice and improving public health. The conference strives to provide meaningful coverage on current cancer trends. To this end, this year’s conference, titled “Visualizing the Future through Prevention, Innovation and Communication” provided a platform to discuss primary prevention and motivating personal behavior change; share the newest innovations regarding cancer prevention, treatment, care and survivorship; and highlight more effective public health communication strategies. Over 800 local, state, territorial, federal, academic, national, and community-based cancer prevention and control programs shared quality data updates on the nation’s second leading cause of death at the national, state, and local levels to better monitor and improve the health of Americans (CDC Strategy Priority #2). Programmatic and scientific sessions were offered to further promote the agency’s mission of putting science and advanced technology into action to prevent disease. Abstracts included but were not limited to: increasing screening rates; removing barriers; advancing equities; using technology platforms to improve education; care planning and chronic disease self-management; addressing survivorship challenges; and strategies to promote cancer genomics.

Total Estimated Cost: $376,910

Total Attendees: 817

Total Feds on Travel: 0

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0


National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention

Health Department Program Review Meeting

Dates: April 24-26, 2017

Venue, City, State, or Country: Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: The program review meeting is a critical component of overall HIV prevention program monitoring and oversight provided by the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP). The meeting provides a platform for peer-to-peer dialogue and active engagement amongst health departments to share lessons learned, experiences, and innovations with HIV prevention efforts. This interaction strengthens collaborations, capacity building, and sustainability within HIV prevention programs. This meeting is one of several components implemented as part of an ongoing strategy to engage health departments throughout the project period. This peer-driven meeting is integral in informing DHAP on current HIV prevention efforts which informs the future direction of HIV Prevention; therefore, aiding in future planning of HIV prevention programs for health departments.

Total Estimated Cost: $122,888

Total Attendees: 255

Total Feds on Travel: 100

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0

Comprehensive High-Impact HIV Prevention Projects for Young Men of Color Who Have Sex with Men and Young Transgender Persons of Color

Dates: June 5-9, 2017

Venue, City, State, or Country: Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: The purpose of this program is to implement comprehensive HIV prevention programs to reduce morbidity, mortality, and related health disparities among young men of color who have sex with men (YMSM of color), young transgender persons of color (YTG of color) and their partners who are at high risk of acquiring HIV. In accordance with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States: Updated to 2020 and CDC’s High-Impact HIV Prevention (HIP) approach, this program focuses on HIV in the nation by reducing new infections, increasing access to care, and promoting health equity. These goals will be achieved by enhancing CBOs’ capacities to increase HIV testing, link HIV-positive persons to HIV medical care, increase referrals to Partner Services (PS), provide prevention and essential support services for HIV-positive persons and persons at high risk of acquiring HIV who are unaware of their HIV status, and increase program monitoring and accountability. Standard performance measures for HIV prevention programs that are consistent with the focus of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States: Updated to 2020 on improving performance and accountability are included in this program.

The goal of the orientation meeting was to provide grantees with the information, tools, and resources necessary to begin development and implementation of HIV prevention programs; and to discuss CDC and grantee roles, responsibilities, fiscal and program requirements, and program expectations. The orientation meeting was one of several components implemented as part of an ongoing strategy to engage award recipients throughout the 5-year project period.

This meeting provided a managed forum for award recipients to learn about CDC’s clear expectations regarding program goals and milestones in order to assure the success of the program and thereby reduce the number of new HIV infections among YMSM and YTG and effectively link newly diagnosed persons to HIV medical services in accordance with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the DHAP strategic plan.

Total Estimated Cost: $122,737

Total Attendees: 219

Total Feds on Travel: 91

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0


National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

2017 Immunization Awardee Meeting

Dates: August 23-25, 2017

Venue, City, State, or Country: CDC Global Communications Center, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: The National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) is convening the Immunization Awardee Meeting to support its constituency of sixty-four state, territorial and local NCIRD awardees in their goal to enable immunization managers to work together to effectively prevent and control vaccine-preventable diseases and improve immunization coverage in the United States and its territories. The meeting included federal, state, territorial, and local immunization programs to work together to identify approaches to improve program efficiencies and effectiveness to increase overall national immunization coverage rates through interactive dialogue, peer-to-peer learning, sharing of promising and best practices and lessons learned, and maximization of resources.

The meeting convened participants from federal, state, territorial and local immunization programs that were funded to achieve the work of the Immunization Services Division mission to “Protect individuals and communities from vaccine-preventable diseases through provision of federal funds and contracts to purchase vaccine, the provision of technical and financial support of immunization programs, provider and public education, and evaluation and research.” The purpose of the program is to support efforts to plan, develop, and maintain a public health workforce that helps assure high immunization coverage levels, low incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases, and maintain or improve the ability to respond to public health threats. As a part of this effort, the purpose of the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program is to increase access to vaccines for eligible children by supplying federal government-purchased pediatric vaccines to public and private health care providers enrolled in the program.

Total Estimated Cost: $124,810

Total Attendees: 200

Total Feds on Travel: 71

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0


Office for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support

Public Health Associate Program 2016 Class Orientation Training

Dates: October 31 – November 4, 2016

Venue, City, State, or Country: Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: The Office for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support’s (OSTLTS) mission is to advance U.S. public health agency and system performance, capacity, agility, and resilience. The overall purpose of the 2016 Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) Orientation training was to provide associates a forum to share information about their field assignments and program requirements, and build knowledge and skills essential to achieving success in the workplace. The training fulfilled HHS and CDC University’s PHAP trainee competencies to increase their skills and abilities to accomplish the mission of OSTLTS and to assist state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments increase their capacity for public health delivery. The training provided trainees starting their two-year fellowships with the required knowledge and skills to better equip them in completing their duties on behalf of their STLT health departments, and increased their ability to seek employment in the field of public health. The PHAP trainees contributed to the agency’s mission by expanding the capacity and performance of partner STLT health departments during their fellowship.

Description of Exceptional Circumstances: The Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) fulfills HHS and CDC University’s competencies to increase associates’ and fellows’ skills and abilities to accomplish the mission of OSTLTS and to assist state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments to increase their capacity for public health delivery. Associates are spread throughout the country and travel to training in Atlanta to maintain standards for entry level and continuing training and education for all associates with the objective of thoroughly preparing them for careers in public health. Additionally, holding a single event over five days precluded the need for multiple, costly visits to the field, to provide that training individually, thus saving the government money. The training event utilized staff from across CDC and includes the potential for associates to meet with CDC staff in their assignment fields.

Total Estimated Cost: $540,788

Total Attendees: 240

Total Feds on Travel: 200

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0


Public Health Associate Program 2015 Graduating Class Final Spring Training

Dates: March 27-31, 2017

Venue, City, State, or Country: Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: The OSTLTS’s mission is to advance U.S. public health agency and system performance, capacity, agility, and resilience. Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) trainees worked at state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments throughout the United States and its territories. The training provided trainees completing their two-year fellowship with the required knowledge and skills to better equip them in completing their duties on behalf of their STLT health departments and, increased their ability to seek employment in the field of public health. The PHAP trainees contributed to the agency’s mission by expanding the capacity and performance of partner STLT health departments during their fellowship.

Description of Exceptional Circumstances: The Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) fulfills HHS and CDC University’s competencies to increase associates’ and fellows’ skills and abilities to accomplish the mission of OSTLTS and to assist state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments to increase their capacity for public health delivery. Associates are spread throughout the country and travel to training in Atlanta to maintain standards for entry level and continuing training and education for all associates with the objective of thoroughly preparing them for careers in public health. Additionally, holding a single event over five days precluded the need for multiple, costly visits to the field, to provide that training individually, thus saving the government money. The training event utilized staff from across CDC and includes the potential for associates to meet with CDC staff in their assignment fields.

Total Estimated Cost: $540,988

Total Attendees: 231

Total Feds on Travel: 191

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0


Public Health Associate Program 2016 Class Mid-Assignment Training

Dates: May 8-12, 2017

Venue, City, State, or Country: Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter at Ravinia, Atlanta, GA

How the Conference Advanced the Mission of the Agency: The OSTLTS’s mission is to advance U.S. public health agency and system performance, capacity, agility, and resilience. The training fulfilled HHS and CDC University’s PHAP trainee competencies to increase their skills and abilities to accomplish the mission of OSTLTS and to assist state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments increase their capacity for public health delivery. The PHAP associates contributed to the agency’s mission by expanding the capacity and performance of partner STLT health departments during their fellowship and in their future employment.

Description of Exceptional Circumstances: The Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) fulfills HHS and CDC University’s competencies to increase associates’ and fellows’ skills and abilities to accomplish the mission of OSTLTS and to assist state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments to increase their capacity for public health delivery. Associates are spread throughout the country and travel to training in Atlanta to maintain standards for entry level and continuing training and education for all associates with the objective of thoroughly preparing them for careers in public health. Additionally, holding a single event over five days precluded the need for multiple, costly visits to the field, to provide that training individually, thus saving the government money. The training event utilized staff from across CDC and includes the potential for associates to meet with CDC staff in their assignment fields.

Total Estimated Cost: $559,188

Total Attendees: 240

Total Feds on Travel: 200

Total Non-Feds on Travel: 0


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Page last reviewed: November 3, 2021