Raquel Ramos

ASPPH Fellow Contributes to CDC Efforts to Empower the Public Health Workforce

Raquel Ramos, MPH (Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health) is a current ASPPH Fellow assigned to the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (CSELS); Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development; Epidemiology Workforce Branch (DSEPD) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), located in Atlanta, GA. DSEPD works to improve health outcomes through competent sustainable, and empowered public health workforce. Within DSEPD, Raquel has contributed to CDC/CSELS efforts toward administration and evaluation of the CDC Public Health Informatics Fellowship (PHIFP) and the Data Science Upskilling (DSU) Program.

From March 2022–August 2022 Raquel worked alongside the PHIFP team to plan a two–week hybrid orientation for the new informatics fellowship cohort. This included working with subject matter experts, planning and hosting interactive educational sessions, creating an online system with supporting materials and information, developing a project plan, and working to develop and implement an evaluation plan for PHIFP orientation. Raquel continued evaluation work by assisting DSU/PHIFP evaluators with instrument development, analysis, and presentation of orientation survey and evaluation.

Raquel also worked on a high–level analysis of 2022 PHIFP applications to understand reasons of applicant rejections, how the application review process efficiency can be improved, how the application and review process can be improved to maximize the number of quality candidates. Raquel continues to support PHIFP and DSU through evaluation analysis of different components and events of both units. She is training to become a Systems Thinking subject matter and is working alongside PHIFP staff to create a high–level Systems Thinking training unit to be shared with incoming fellows and other staff. Raquel is also assisting in strategic planning for leadership planning to inform possible changes to PMR/F and FLIGHT.