Field Placement: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention
Student Name: Mariel Brechner
Year: 2002

The Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention (OGDP) is located in Atlanta, Georgia and is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. OGDP's mission is to integrate advances in human genetics into public health research, policy, and programs.

My role as an intern at OGDP was primarily to assist with an evaluation of the Toolkit project. I also assisted with two other projects: the Training Project and the Breast Cancer Public Health Perspective.

Toolkit: The genomics toolkit project consists of a series of "tools" such as teaching tools to be compiled and distributed to public health professionals in order to incorporate genomics in public health practice. My job here was to design evaluation criteria to evaluate the current and future tools in the toolkit, to document any gaps in resources, and to summarize my findings in a written report.

Training Project: The training project is an effort to educate public health professionals about genomics. There is a lack or resources demonstrating how genomics can be used in public health. This information gap led the workgroup to develop case studies to underscore the significance of public health genomics in practice. I wrote a vignette about asthma-a multifactorial disease with genetic and environmental determinants.

Breast Cancer Public Health Perspective: My final objective was to assist in the creation of an online genetics and public health information series on breast cancer. These series are called public health perspectives and provide an opportunity for public health professionals to see how current genomics issues such as breast cancer fit into public health practice.

Among other things, this experience taught me a lot about the existing resources that available about genomics and public health. It also gave me an opportunity to work with leaders in genetic epidemiology. OGDP's strength is in Epidemiology. As a future public policy/program planner, there is a great need for people with both public health experience and an understanding of genetics. There is also a great need for people to translate the information from OGDP (or other scientific arenas) into policy.

Back to CHS Field Studies Placement Index | Back to CHS Field Studies | Back to Field Studies Home