Hello, my name is Dawn Arlotta, and I'm responsible for the Presidential Management Fellowship at the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.


The Presidential Management Fellows program at CDC is an exciting professional developmental opportunity.


The best part about being a PMF at CDC is really all the opportunities that CDC provides and really being able to lean in early on in your career.


You can come here and do so many different kinds of things in an environment that is supportive.


We're looking for bright, diverse talent to bring our agency to the next level.


I went to graduate school interested in policy and international politics, and I also had a professional background working in health care software, and


I was really interested in trying to find the intersection of those two things.

When I found out there were grants positions at the CDC, that was particularly exciting to kind of gain more of that skill set and that knowledge but from the funders side.


I get to work in health communication for the biggest public health communicator in the Federal government.


You can have a variety of different backgrounds.


And I found that bringing in those technical skills of using data, being able to do data visualization, computer science, those are really valuable to the agency.


Public health was always somewhat a part of my work, but I never really had a background in public health.


Our work at CDC is broad and cross-cutting.

So regardless of your background, every PMF who comes here has the opportunity to expand their interest and to find new ways to use the skills they already had.


Even though my background is in social work, which is very much an individualistic one on one person centered type of discipline, I wanted the opportunity to have a really big impact.


I don't have a background in science, I have a background in policy and social work partnerships.


And so being able to work with our scientists and our national surveys, I get to see the impact.


The fellowship focuses on executive corps qualifications of leading change, leading people, being results driven, having business acumen, and building coalitions.


You get a combination of inspiration and training and also a lot of challenge and a lot of opportunity.


I really feel like I can spend my whole career here.


So if that sounds like you and you're someone like me, the CDC Presidential Management Fellowship is the right spot for you.


In my opinion, this is the best place in the government to be.