Fellow Eligibility & Requirements

Eligibility

Degree and experience requirements

Applicants must hold a PhD (or equivalent) with all requirements completed before the start of the fellowship. In addition, candidates must have at least 1 year of documented, full-time work or volunteer experience in the same field as their qualifying degree.

All applicants with degrees obtained at non-US institutions may be asked to provide documentation of an academic credentialing evaluation to ensure degree requirements are equivalent on request. This demonstrates how the foreign degree equates to academic degrees issued in the United States. Additionally, degrees must be translated into English.

Eligible degrees include the following:

Traditional Track

• Economics
• Agricultural economics
• Health services research
• Public health
• Other related quantitative field
  

Analytics and Modeling Track

• Epidemiology
• Infectious disease modeling
• Disease ecology
• Applied mathematics
• Operations research or industrial engineering
• Biological science
• Data science
• Evolutionary or analytic biology
• Other related quantitative field
  

Non-citizen eligibility

Applicants who are not United States citizens or US Permanent Residents must be eligible for one of the following visas/work authorizations to be considered for the program.

• F1 with Optional Practical Training and STEM extension for the entire two years of the fellowship
• J1 or J2
• H1B
  
• Other suitable Employment Authorization Document that is valid for the entire two years of the fellowship

Citizens of countries designated as a state sponsor of terrorism per the US Department of State's State Sponsors of Terrorism page are not eligible for the fellowship.

Relocation

Most assignments take place at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. However, certain assignments can occur in other states or public health agencies. Relocation to the city of the physical workplace is required. Relocation costs are the responsibility of the fellow.