The State Chronic Disease Epidemiology Assignee Program
The State Chronic Disease Epidemiology Assignee Program assists states with building chronic disease epidemiology capacity by providing state public health departments with resources to secure and support on-site CDC chronic disease epidemiologists.
Following the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Public Health report, CDC created the State Chronic Disease Epidemiology Assignee Program in 1991.1 The Program assigns epidemiologists to state public health departments by request to help strengthen state chronic disease epidemiologic capacity. The Program’s many external partners in this effort include state public health departments, The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD), and others.
Through direct assistance from CDC, a chronic disease epidemiologist is assigned to a state for one year or longer, depending on the state’s needs and funding availability. For more information about the direct assistance mechanism, please visit CDC’s webpage on direct assistance.
1. Frey CA, Remington PL, Lengerich E. Evaluation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s chronic disease state-based epidemiology for public health program support (STEPPS) program. J Public Health Manag Pract 2003;9(4):266-74.