Andrea Vilorio

How have you contributed to one of CDC’s priorities through your ASPPH/CDC Fellowship assignment? Explain what you have done that has “made a difference” at CDC and benefitted public health in the United States.

To eliminate disease, increase global capacity and domestic preparedness, it is important to provide public health expertise to community partners through the Human Resources for Health (HRH) inventory. To do this, I presented to staff and country teams on HRH_STAFF_NAT indicator, which addresses density, distribution, and overall utilization of HRH to increase access to HIV services. This indicator allows PEPFAR to analyze the availability of staff to provide HIV services at PEPFAR supported facilities against site target achievement and investment. Moreover, this presentation allowed the opportunity for country teams to engage and ask questions about how to properly allocate human resources to increase HIV services.

How will your fellowship experience shape your career?

This fellowship has given me the opportunity to focus on professional development, trainings, and certifications that will help to highlight the passion and dedication to the public health field for established programs domestically and internationally. Because of ASPPH, I expect to continue working to support PEPFAR initiatives and being part of a team that ensures HIV/AIDS and TB work is fair, equitable, and improves the wellbeing of citizens. Ultimately, I expect to learn further about being a team player, working towards a common goal, and learn from my superiors the skills, attitudes, and knowledge it takes to be a team leader or supervisor soon.

Describe specifically some of the relationships/partnerships you have built through the fellowship and how those relationships have helped/will help you in your career.

I belong to a team that is diverse in languages, ethnicities, background, and religion. Therefore, we all have unique perspectives that help to foster collaboration, creativity, productivity, and produces innovative ways to help our community partners. Through the relationships and partnerships that I have thus created, I have seen the importance of collaboration between coworkers, supervisors, interagency, and across borders. Additionally, the mentorship and constructive feedback that I have received from my coworkers has built confidence, has encouraged the pursuit of personal and professional interests, and accountability.