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Public Health Data Strategy Workforce Acceleration

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Community members helping for the planet
Public Health Data Strategy Workforce Acceleration
United States of America
To recruit and place data modernization experts in health departments across the country. The CDC Foundation will also lead and support trainings, convenings and networking opportunities for all recruits.
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The Schuchat Berger Excellence in Leadership Award Fund

Schuchat Berger Excellence in Leadership Award Fund

 

Established by Dr. Anne Schuchat and Ms. Sherri Berger, this fund provides an annual award to one  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) employee (GS-14+ level) who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, consistent with the CDC-ATSDR Honor Awards criteria for the Excellence in Leadership Award, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional personal leadership capabilities (through outstanding acts, services or achievements), exemplify commitment to CDC’s mission and represent the next generation of CDC leaders.

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Schuchat Berger Excellence in Leadership Award Fund
The Schuchat Berger Excellence in Leadership Award Fund
United States of America
To provide an annual award to one senior-level Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) employee who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, consistent with the CDC-ATSDR Honor Awards pre-established criteria for the Excellence in Leadership Award (GS-14+ level), which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional personal leadership capabilities (through outstanding acts, services, or achievements), exemplify commitment to CDC’s mission and represent the next generation of CDC leaders.
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Becoming Better Ancestors: Learning from the History of Global Health and CDC

The Becoming Better Ancestors™ Fund was inspired by the writings of Dr. William “Bill” Foege, a renowned American physician and epidemiologist. During his expansive career, Dr. Foege was one of the key architects of the successful smallpox eradication effort in the 1970s. He also guided Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates to make global public health impact their top priority, championed the science and management behind vaccines and vaccination and co-founded the Task Force for Child Survival, now the Task Force for Global Health. From May 1977 to 1983, Dr. Foege served as the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where his legacy continues to inspire multiple generations working to protect the public’s health.

The fund was created to support best in class, future-forward thinking and strategic opportunities for improving public health. The fund was inspired by lessons learned from transformational public health impact throughout the history of CDC—including Smallpox eradication, the HIV epidemic, SARS, Ebola, Zika virus and the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to non-communicable disease work such as reducing tobacco use and pioneering a public health approach to violence and injury prevention. The fund aims to explore how we might apply these lessons to address evolving and complex public health issues, like inequity, climate change and its impact on health and the preparedness of our communities. Learning from our public health history can empower us to become better ancestors—to leave the world better than we found it. Inaugural support for the fund was provided by Dr. Craig White (EIS, Class of '83), a long-time friend of Dr. Foege.

Photo credit: Billy Howard for The Task Force for Global Health

Becoming Better Ancestors
United States of America
To support best in class, future-forward thinking and strategic opportunities for improving public health, inspired by lessons learned from transformational public health events throughout the history of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC).
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Sarah Luna, PhD, EIS '16 Memorial Fund

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Sarah Luna
Sarah Luna, PhD (EIS ’16)

Sarah Luna, PhD (EIS ’16) died in a plane crash May 20, 2019 traveling to a rural health clinic in Alaska as part of her duties as a senior epidemiologist with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, a position she took after finishing a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fellowship in the summer of 2018. Sarah served as an EISO in the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, where she worked on outbreaks of foodborne illness in places as varied as a small town on the Utah-Arizona border and a Marine Corps Recruit Depot in California.

During the inaugural TED-style session at the 2018 EIS conference, Sarah delivered an insightful and inspirational talk titled, Food Behind Bars: When Food Safety Isn’t Enough, unveiling the broad consequences of our failure to provide adequate nutrition to incarcerated individuals in the United States. At the 2023 EIS Conference, to honor Sarah’s indomitable spirit and unwavering commitment to public health and the underserved, the EIS program held a dedication ceremony where they named all future TED-style sessions at the annual EIS conference the Sarah Luna Memorial TED-style Sessions.

Sarah meant many things to many people. She was a daughter, sister, best friend, dance partner, nutritionist, epidemiologist, EIS classmate-turned-family-member, coworker, SAS tutor, roommate, Lieutenant, and so much more. She was funny, brilliant, tenacious, optimistic, and thoughtful. She cared more about her family and friends than we can ever know. She was the glue of an EIS class. She spent her life in service to others and died in her commitment to that service.

Your gift to the CDC Foundation will honor Sarah’s legacy by helping fund a scholarship in her name that will create opportunities for young people and early career scientists to advance public health for years to come. Learn more about the CDC Science Ambassador Fellowship and the First-ever Sarah Luna Memorial Scholarship Awarded to Alaskan Educator, Cheryl Williams.

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Sarah Luna
Sarah Luna, PhD, EIS '16 Memorial Fund
United States of America
To honor and recognize Sarah Luna's spirit and commitment to the health and well-being of Native peoples, this fund will sponsor middle and high school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teachers who serve Alaska Native and American Indian people living in Alaska to participate in the CDC Science Ambassador Fellowship program.
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Sara Lowther Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) Memorial Fund

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Sara Lowther
Sara Lowther

A Champion of Health: Memorial Fund Provides Support for Future Public Health Leaders Across the Globe

Sara Lowther began her public health career at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, where she completed a Master of Public Health degree while serving as a project assistant in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) HIV/AIDS Surveillance Branch. After graduation, Sara served as fellow at CDC, providing surveillance coordination for the Respiratory and Enteric Viruses Branch. This work solidified her interest in pursuing doctoral studies in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. After completing her doctorate degree, Sara began her career with the United States Public Health Service in July 2008 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer assigned to the Minnesota Department of Health. Following EIS, she worked as a research scientist in the Division of Viral Hepatitis and, in 2011, moved to the Global Immunization Division (GID). Sara was an integral member of the CDC Kenya Country Office, first serving as GID’s program director for polio and immunization activities, and then becoming the Division of Global Health Protection’s (DGHP) Resident Advisor for the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). She returned to Atlanta in 2019, bringing her expertise and country experience to her leadership role in DGHP.

When she passed away, she was acting lead of the Epidemiology Technical Support Unit for the FETP Team in the Workforce and Institute Development Branch. Sara was passionate about FETP as a means to develop and mentor young field epidemiologists around the world and build global field epidemiology capacity.

Infectious disease prevention and training future public health leaders were causes important to Sara throughout her career. The Sara Lowther Memorial Fund will support an award for a FETP fellow or recent graduate to conduct a project that makes significant contributions to infectious disease prevention and control in their country. The award will be presented annually at International Night during the EIS conference. Support the Sara Lowther Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) Memorial Fund.

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Epidemic Intelligence Service
United States of America
To support a memorial award for a Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) fellow or recent graduate to conduct project that makes significant contributions to infectious disease prevention and control in their country.
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Chris Kochtitzky Memorial Fund

Chris KochtitskyA Memorial Fund honoring Chris Kochtitzky who died May 3, 2020, will focus on building the bridge between urban planning and public health. Chris lived and breathed urban planning and public health—it was his life. This fund will celebrate and continue his tireless work and commitment to this field. Chris knew just how important the built environment was in terms of limiting or enabling a person and a community to lead their collective most healthy life. Chris started at CDC as a presidential management intern in 1992. Over the next 28 years, he worked in a variety of policy and programmatic positions at ATSDR, NCEH, and NCBDDD and NCCDPHP. 

In 2006, he was appointed by former CDC Director Julie Gerberding, MD, to lead the healthy community goal team, where he served until 2009. Chris was also one of the founders of the field of built environment and health at CDC. He published an influential MMWR on the subject in 2006, helped organize CDC’s Built Environment and Health Group in 2008, and was a key contributor to the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities in 2015. Most recently, he was a driving force in organizing the Transportation Research Board (TRB), Conference on Active Transportation and Health. His work in this area supported TRB’s decision to create a Committee on Transportation and Health in February, a seminal moment in the field.

Posthumously in June 2020, Chris received the Jonathan E. Fielding Community Guide Champion Award. He was a tireless advocate for The Community Guide and evidence-based decision making. He served as a member of the systematic review team for combined built environment approaches to increase physical activity, also helped disseminate the recommendations to varied audiences, including nontraditional public health partners.

Most importantly, Chris befriended and maintained relationships with so many people inside and outside the agency. He was a generous, caring friend and a tenacious public health professional pursuing his life and work with vigor, charm, wisdom, and intelligence. His death is a major loss for his friends, his field, and for the CDC’s public health work.  

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walkable community
Chris Kochtitzky Memorial Fund
United States of America
To provide a memorial fund in honor of Chris Kochtitzky’s service to CDC and provide funding for programs that bridge the gap between urban planning and public health.
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Digital Bridge Information Exchange between Healthcare Sector and Public Health

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Public Health Leadership
United States of America
To use a public-private partnership model that includes significant collaboration among three major stakeholder communities (healthcare providers, healthcare IT vendors and public health) to promote crucial health data interoperability.

The Gilstrap OBGYN Fellowship

It was exciting to be a voice and advocate for women's healthcare and to make a difference in a much broader sense.

-Aliza Machefsky, MD
2020-2022 Gilstrap Fellow

I use the skills and connections I made through the Gilstrap Fellowship every day.

-Kate Miele, MD, MA
2019-2020 Gilstrap Fellow

History of the Fellowship

Larry Gilstrap, III, MD, served as Director of Evaluation and Executive Director of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) for 10 years. The focus of his career was maternal-fetal medicine with a special emphasis on infectious diseases in women and in pregnancy. His passion is transforming clinical research into clinical practice improvements. He authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, more than 100 chapters and several major textbooks. When Dr. Gilstrap retired in 2017, ABOG partnered with the CDC Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish this fellowship to honor his academic and public health career. In 2021, the CDC Foundation entered into a cooperative agreement with CDC to continue the fellowship.

About the Fellowship

The Gilstrap OBGYN Fellowship, open to recent obstetrics/gynecology residents and fellows within 5 years of graduation, places fellows within CDC in Atlanta, GA. Fellows will be integrated into the Division of STD Prevention (DSTDP), the Division of Reproductive Health (DRH) or the Division of Birth Defects and Infant Disorders (DBDID). Fellows will work closely with their mentors to develop a curriculum that meets their public health goals and will have the opportunity to conduct research and attend or present at various national conferences. At the completion of this fellowship, fellows will have a strong foundation in emerging public health concerns, maternal and fetal health with a focus on health equity, and public health surveillance systems. 

The Gilstrap fellowship is a one-year opportunity with the possibility of an extension for an additional year, pending on performance and interest. This is a non-clinical position, fellows are eligible and encouraged to participate in clinical activities with external clinical organizations if desired.

The Gilstrap Fellowship starts annually in August. Applicants are encouraged to apply up to a year and half in advance of their anticipated cohort start. The final deadline for applications for each fellowship cohort is March 15th of the same year however, the application will remain open to accommodate applicants for future years. When applying, please indicate your anticipated cohort (e.g., August 2023). Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, initial fellowship decisions will be available in early spring, and any unfilled positions will continue to be considered on a rolling basis.

Contact Sarah Morgan at smorgan@cdcfoundation.org for any questions.

To apply for the Gilstrap Fellowship, visit our recruitment page.


This project was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $592,543 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.

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ABOG
The Gilstrap OBGYN Fellowship
United States of America
To provide obstetricians and gynecologists with fellowship training opportunities in infectious diseases and sexually transmitted diseases in women and in pregnancy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology
CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
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The Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award

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Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award
The Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award
United States of America
To recognize a health educator who has made a substantial contribution to advancing the field of health education or health promotion through research, program development or program delivery.
James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation
CDC Foundation

Fries Prize for Improving Health

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Jim and Sarah Fries
Fries Prize for Improving Health
United States of America
To recognize an individual who has made major accomplishments in health improvement with emphasis on recent contributions to health in the United States, and with the general criteria of the greatest good for the greatest number.
James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation
CDC Foundation
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