CDC as a Career Path for
Social Workers
Bryce D. Smith, PhD, MSSW
National Association of Deans and Directors
Atlanta, GA
October 26, 2011
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Agenda
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Background
Opportunities for Social Workers at CDC
 Full-time employees
 Fellowships and internships
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Doctoral preparation for CDC
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Background
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University of Texas at Austin – MSSW
 Substance Abuse and Mental Health
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Clinical mental health for seven years
University of Georgia at Athens – PhD
 Research methods
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
 HIV/AIDS prevention – five years
 Viral hepatitis prevention – three years
• Public/private partnerships through the CDC Foundation
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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HIV/AIDS prevention
 Program Evaluation
• Data collection for state and local health departments
• Multi-site evaluations of HIV prevention interventions
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Viral hepatitis prevention
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Hepatitis C screening studies
Guidelines development
Cost effectiveness studies
Hepatitis C rapid test evaluations
Hepatitis C treatment and prevention in opiate agonist settings
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Opportunities for Social Workers at CDC
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Health Scientists
Behavioral Scientists
Policy Analysts
 Development of guidelines and other policies
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Fellowships
 Student internships and fellowships
 Post-doc research fellowships
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http://www.cdc.gov/Fellowships/
http://www.cdc.gov/Fellowships/CareerInternships.html
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Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
(ORISE)
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ORISE fellows serve in many capacities all over CDC, at
both masters and doctoral levels
Most masters level fellows have an MPH, but not always
http://www.orau.gov/cdc/
http://www.orau.gov/cdc/presearchFRAMESET.htm
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Selected Content Areas for Social Workers
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Infectious disease
 HIV/AIDS, STIs, Viral Hepatitis, TB
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Injury prevention
Chronic disease (cardiovascular disease, obesity,
nutrition, cancer)
Adolescent and school health
Adult and community health
Reproductive health
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Doctoral Preparation for CDC
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Protocol development – what is that?
Leave the case-study design to the Masters program
Delve more deeply into rigorous designs, including
RCTs and other comparison group designs
Develop more research proposals
Increase emphasis on evaluation
 Focus on commonalities of evaluation methods across content
areas
 Formative evaluations, process monitoring and evaluation,
outcomes monitoring and evaluation
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Thanks!
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