CDC Food is Medicine Fellow – Nutrition & Obesity Fellowship

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

CDC Office and Location: A fellowship opportunity is currently available with the Obesity Prevention and Control Branch in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO) within the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the major operation components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC protects America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish its mission, CDC conducts important science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.

DNPAO’s Obesity Prevention and Control Branch supports population-based approaches for healthy eating and active living and promotes evidence-based strategies for obesity prevention, treatment, and improved diet quality. The Branch conducts surveillance, applied research and evaluation, translation and guideline development, and technical assistance on topics such as implementing nutrition standards and expanding healthy food access in hospitals, public facilities, and charitable food settings and increasing access to fruits and vegetables in communities through voucher incentive and produce prescription programs.

Research Project: This fellowship is designed as a training experience that provides you with hands-on learning in policy, systems, and environmental approaches to promoting healthy food access and reducing food and nutrition insecurity. Through structured mentorship and experiential learning, you will strengthen skills in public health practice, implementation science, program planning, evaluation, and knowledge translation while gaining an understanding of CDC's role in advancing nutrition and chronic disease prevention. You will receive training through participation in applied projects, exposure to evidence-based public health strategies, and opportunities to develop technical and scientific communication skills. Throughout the fellowship, you will engage with CDC SMEs and public health professionals from state and local health departments, national associations, professional organizations, industry stakeholders, community-based organizations, federal partners, and the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN).

Training opportunities of the fellowship may include:

• Receiving training in assessing community programs that increase access to healthy foods, including fruit and vegetable voucher incentive and produce prescription programs, and applying nutrition standards for charitable food settings. Under the guidance of mentors, you will learn approaches for inventorying resources, identifying training needs, evaluating program metrics, and recognizing implementation gaps and practitioner needs.
• Developing knowledge of policy, systems, and environmental strategies by learning methods to support community food system action planning and prioritization related to food and nutrition insecurity.
• Gaining experience with community-engaged public health approaches by participating in activities that examine fruit and vegetable voucher and produce prescription programs, culturally responsive food access strategies, and tailored communication approaches that support populations at greatest risk of nutrition insecurity.
• Building skills in implementation science by learning to apply evidence-based frameworks to program design, implementation, and evaluation for nutrition and food access initiatives.
• Receiving mentorship in identifying and assessing promising and emerging practices and learning how evidence can be used to develop criteria and technical resources that inform public health programs and practitioners.
• Strengthening scientific communication skills by preparing written items, developing presentations, and presenting findings to a variety of public health audiences. You will also gain experience through participation in Division groups and training activities that support translation, evaluation, and dissemination of evidence-based public health practices.

Learning Objectives: 

• Learn how to identify resources, training needs, and metrics related to community programs to increase access to healthy foods, including food is medicine programs, fruit and vegetable voucher incentive programs, nutrition standards for charitable food settings and more, to determine gaps and timely practitioner needs.
• Investigate using implementation science frameworks, contextual aspects that impact program development, implementation and evaluation of fruit and vegetable voucher/produce prescription programs and other food access programs.
• Develop skills in presenting findings to a range of audiences through written means and oral opportunities, including through participating with various Division workgroups to collaborate on a range of translation- and evaluation-related projects.

Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Diane Harris (hva6@cdc.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor(s).

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: September 1, 2026. Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year, but may be renewed upon recommendation of CDC and is contingent on the availability of funds.

Level of Participation: The appointment is full time.

Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.

ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and CDC. Participants do not become employees of CDC, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.

The successful applicant(s) will be required to comply with Environmental, Safety and Health (ES&H) requirements of the hosting facility, including but not limited to, COVID-19 requirements (e.g. facial covering, physical distancing, testing, vaccination).

Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email CDCrpp@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

Salary : $3,590 - $5,439