New week-long health journalism fellowship

A new fellowship program will enable 10 journalists to spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in early 2009.

“While not specifically for young journalists, they would certainly benefit from it - a week at the CDC learning about public health and meeting new sources,” e-mails Pia Christensen of the Association of Health Care Journalists, which is co-sponsoring the program along with the CDC.

The AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowships “will expose the selected journalists to sessions on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, pandemic flu preparedness, climate change, vaccine safety, obesity, autism and more,” according to organizers. “Fellows will tour the CDC director's National Emergency Operations Center, meet new sources on policy and research and learn how to tap the agency's abundant resources to produce better stories.”

The fellowships are open to professional journalists working in the United States and provides for travel, lodging and meals. The training will take place Feb. 8-13, 2009 at CDC's Atlanta and Chamblee campuses. Fellowship applications can be completed at www.healthjournalism.org/cdcfellowship and are being accepted until Dec. 29. Earlier applications are encouraged.

-Mark Grabowski