At a glance
Have you wondered what kind of STEM career is best for you? Public health encompasses a wide range of STEM career options. CDC has many programs and resources that offer real-world training and experience in public health.
What to Know
- Public health has a range of career opportunities and professionals.
- Public health professionals are from diverse backgrounds and sectors.
Key Points
There are many pathways to a public health career. The best way to learn about what a career could look like is to explore some of the possibilities. We encourage you to:
- Learn about where you can work in public health.
- Watch videos and read stories from CDC disease detectives and staff.
- Meet local public health professionals to learn what they do.
- Focus on building your professional and STEM skills.
- Identify opportunities for trainings, internships, and fellowships.
- Review career outlooks using the Occupational Outlook Hand.
Where can I work in public health?
Global public health organizations work to prevent and detect disease outbreaks and other public health threats across the world.
Federal public health agencies work with state and local public health departments. Together, they prevent and detect disease outbreaks and other public health threats across the country.
State and local health departments work to detect disease outbreaks and other public health threats in their communities. They are in charge of enforcing public health regulations. They work with federal and global health agencies as needed.
Other government agencies set public health policy and enforce public health laws and regulations at every level of government.
Colleges and universities make important research, education and policymaking contributions in public health.
Health care settings work with local and state health departments to help keep communities healthy.
Nonprofit agencies can do everything from providing funding for public health research to offering individual care to patients.
Private companies support public health in many ways rom providing funding to research and development.
Meet CDC Staff
In these videos, different CDC staff talk about their jobs and how they got where they are. Learn about their experiences in nursing, procurements and grants, emergency response, public health, mental health, laboratory science, infectious diseases, and more.
Meet Our Real-World Disease Detectives
Hear CDC staff share their stories and go behind the scenes of their work.
You can also find out where EIS alumni are now.