The CDC-Hubert Global Health Award, endowed by the O.C. Hubert Charitable Trust is designed to encourage students to think of public health in a global context. Established in 1999, the original fellowship provided an opportunity for third- and fourth-year medical and veterinary students to gain public health experience in an international setting. Hubert fellows spent six to twelve weeks in a developing country working on a priority health problem in conjunction with CDC staff.

In 2020, the fellowship transitioned. Now called the CDC-Hubert Global Health Award (Hubert Award), it provides a stipend for competitively selected medical or veterinary students, residents, physicians, or veterinarians who successfully completed their 6 or 8-week EEP rotation during the past five years (2019–2023). The Hubert Award is awarded annually to up to 12 EEP graduates per year who are ready to take the next steps on their journey to becoming leaders in the fields of public health, global health, and One Health and are interested in applying to the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in the near future. Selected applicants will receive a stipend of $1,300 each to support travel and hotel expenses to attend the 2024 EIS conference (April 23–26, 2024) and any additional public health training of their choice.

Since its inception in 1975, EEP has provided approximately 2,100 future physicians and veterinarians opportunities to gain experience with applied epidemiology and public health under the mentorship of CDC subject matter experts. EEP students have helped investigate domestic and global public health problems such as infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, chronic diseases and limited access to health care. Students often participate in surveillance, analyze data, assist with outbreak investigations and contribute to CDC publications and recommendations. Project assignments in global health have largely supported CDC’s mission to protect domestic public health by helping other countries respond to global health threats. This competitive program offers 6- or 8-week rotations largely based at CDC headquarters. 

The 2024 Hubert Award application has closed. 2024 Award winners will be notified in January 2024 and are expected to attend the EIS conference and awardee events in Atlanta, Georgia from April 23–26, 2024. The 2025 Hubert Award application will open in November 2024.

For questions about the Epidemiology Elective Program, please visit the CDC page.

More than 780 million people worldwide do not have access to safe water and another 2.5 billion people lack proper hygiene education to help prevent illness and death from disease. Giving everyone in the world safe drinking water would cost hundreds of billions of dollars in treatment plants, pipes and taps. Thanks to a simple technology developed by retired CDC scientist and researcher Dr. Eugene Gangarosa and his colleagues, safe water is becoming a reality for even the poorest families in the most remote parts of the globe. Called the Safe Water System, it combines water treatment using inexpensive diluted bleach solution and safe water storage using narrow-mouthed containers and lids.

It doesn’t have to be a large amount of money. Sometimes you just need a catalyst, a way to pay certain costs to get over the hump to make something happen. The Foundation has often provided a conduit for doing that.

Reflecting a lifelong commitment to provide safe water around the world, Dr. Gangarosa and his wife, Rose, established the Gangarosa Endowment for Safe Water in May 2000 to provide an ongoing source of support for CDC's safe water initiatives. In his words, "CDC’s Safe Water Program provides us such a unique opportunity to help by addressing in a meaningful way one of the most pressing public health needs of our time—safe water for all. Rose and I know of no better investment in our children's future than this to save lives, improve quality of life and contribute to global stability."

Rob Quick, MD, MPH, medical epidemiologist with CDC's Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch, works to launch and implement many of CDC’s safe water projects. "We are able to tap the Gangarosa Endowment at critical times to get safe water projects off the ground,” says Quick. “It doesn’t have to be a large amount of money. Sometimes you just need a catalyst, a way to pay certain costs to get over the hump to make something happen. The Foundation has often provided a conduit for doing that.”

Here are some of the initiatives that have been supported by the Gangarosa Endowment:

• Evaluation of a project to install handwashing and drinking water stations in 180 rural Kenyan health facilities, train health workers about water treatment and hygiene, and encourage the health workers to promote these healthy practices to their clients. This project helps address the problem of a lack of handwashing and safe drinking water facilities in literally thousands of clinics in sub-Saharan Africa.
• A project to bring safe water storage containers to communities in rural Madagascar
• Sponsoring masters of public health students to study a safe water system project in Jolivert, Haiti following the devastating earthquake of 2010

Make a gift

In the Fall of 1999, a group of CDC employees and retirees who understood the challenges of doing public health work in developing countries decided to create an endowment fund to address global health issues. The fund would provide a source of flexible funding to meet critical or emergency needs in the field that could not easily be met through usual government channels. Thanks to the vision and generosity of those CDC employees and matching support from the Marcus Foundation, the fund has grown to over $250,000 and more than $24,000 has been disbursed to fund program initiatives. The Fund helps CDC address polio, vaccine-preventable diseases and other priority global health issues.

In the words of Bob Keegan, former deputy director pf CDC's Global Immunization Division, "This endowment allows us to focus on the real issues in the field while rapidly resolving critical, frequently inexpensive operational problems that so often interrupt our work. When civil unrest in Somalia intensified during 2002, our staff requested that we provide bulletproof vests for several national health workers most at risk. The CDC Foundation approved funding immediately, allowing work to continue without interruption, and further enhancing CDC's reputation as an agency that does what it takes to get the job done."

Fund Provides Sewing Machines to Fight Polio in India

”Vaccinators and supervisors had conducted numerous immunization campaigns and fatigue was a real risk,” says CDC public health advisor Julie Jenks. “So we decided to try to generate some excitement about the campaign in the community and among our vaccination teams.”

Two “outstanding” supervisors in each of Moradabad’s 22 planning areas received wrist watches provided by Rotary International, and a total of 66 outstanding vaccinators received sewing machines. The sewing machines were purchased through the CDC Foundation’s Endowment for Global Health Priorities.

“Local vaccinators and supervisors receive only a small per diem of about $1 per day,” says Jenks. “The incentives really energized them to vaccinate every child.”

In addition, families in which all children were immunized were entered into a “lucky drawing” to receive a sewing machine. The 132 winning families were recognized at a ceremony at the conclusion of the campaign. More than 500 people attended the ceremony which received significant local media coverage.

“This small expenditure made possible through the CDC Foundation made a big difference in the success of this campaign,” says Jenks. “We hope to learn from this pilot project and selectively use incentives in difficult areas.”