What Fellows Do

What fellows learn

The PE Fellowship performance requirements and didactic training are competency-based.

Competencies

The PE Fellowship is a competency-based program. Competencies provide the framework for trainings, assignments, and the activities in which fellows participate while in the program. They also describe what the fellows should be able to do after fellowship completion.

The competency domains for the Traditional Track include the following:

• Public Health Science and Practice
• Analytics and Assessment
• Policy Evaluation and Communication
• Interpersonal and Professional Communication
• Foundations of Leadership

The competency domains for the Analytics and Modeling Track include the following:

• Public Health Science and Practice
• Data Management for Analysis and Modeling
• Model Construction and Application
• Interpretation and Presentation of Results
• Interpersonal and Professional Communication
• Foundations of Leadership

Performance requirements

Performance requirements are a core set of experiential work assignments that must be completed for the fellow to successfully graduate from the PE Fellowship.

PE fellows should complete the following performance requirements during the two-year fellowship:

• Develop two manuscripts suitable for publication.
• Develop and deliver two professional presentations (one must be peer-reviewed).
• Develop and deliver two methods-based trainings.
• Attend required didactic trainings.

Fellows in the Analytics and Modeling Track are required to make additional, substantial contributions to CDC's data analysis or models in terms of applications, coding, updating inputs, calibration, and validation.

Didactic activities

• Software Trainings (R, Python, NetLogo, Matlab, TreeAge)
• Seminars in Advanced Econometrics
• Seminars in Modeling Methods
• Data Visualization
• Machine Learning and AI in Public Health
• Introduction to Program Project Management
• Person-Level Cost Effectiveness Analysis
• Microsimulation
• Other non-CDC trainings

How fellows serve

PE fellows participate in studies to assess the effectiveness of prevention strategies. They also provide analyses that help local, state, and national leaders strengthen programs and improve public health.

PE fellows will also expand standardized methods for assisting with economic studies and study design, data management, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of results.

PE fellows routinely do the following:

• Collaborate with research teams composed of a supervisor, team leads, mentors, and colleagues.
• Participate in a Work in Progress group, where fellows share work in progress, communicate with each other, and reflect on the learning and questions arising from their experiences.
• Participate in the Health Economics Research Group (HERG) Seminar Series that provides a forum for presentations and discussions by scientists in the field, focusing on economics.
• Participate in a Modeling Seminar Series that provides a forum for presentations and discussions by scientists in the field, focusing on infectious disease modeling and analytics.
• Attend and participate in Applied Economic Evaluation Group presentations.
• Attend CDC lectures that provide insight on public health concerns affecting individuals within the United States and throughout the world.
• Attend national scientific or professional conferences and have opportunities to present their research.
• Serve as subject matter experts for economic and quantitative policy analysis within the assigned CDC program.

PE fellows are often deployed to serve on public health responses such as mpox, COVID-19, Zika, and Ebola.