Funded Training Opportunities

The goal of this program is to develop leadership, advance scholarship and promote partnerships for the improvement of the nutritional health of mothers and children, including those with special needs and their families, especially in the West. The program supports either registered dietitians/nutritionists pursuing a doctoral or masters degree, or enrolled graduate students pursuing that credential. Potential trainees must be accepted at one of the five participating universities before being accepted into this training program.

Award Amount: $5,000 stipend for 2 years

Awards Given: 1 per partner university (UCLA, University Washington, Oregon Health Sciences University, Colorado State University, and University of New Mexico)

Application Process: Student Application

Eligibility: The program supports either registered dietitians/nutritionists pursuing a doctoral or masters degree, or enrolled graduate students pursuing that credential. Potential trainees must be accepted at one of the five participating universities before being accepted into this training program.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund Inter-school Training Program in Chronic Diseases (BWF-CHIP), directed by Dr. Beate Ritz (Epidemiology) and Dr. Thomas Drake (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine), provides training in laboratory and population sciences to integrate research along the entire continuum from molecules to populations. 

The BWF-CHIP Training Program is open to all UCLA graduate students (PhD, MD) who seek to apply advanced genomic, molecular, population-based, and quantitative methods to the study of disease distribution in human populations. Acceptance into this program will provide trainees in this area of research with the foundational quantitative and laboratory knowledge to enable important interdisciplinary research in chronic diseases. This program provides up to two years of support for UCLA fees and tuition, in addition to stipend support at a rate comparable to those set by NIH or NSF. 

The UCLA Public Health Training Program on Population Health Advocacy is designed to equip the next generation of public health professionals with the tools needed to effectively engage in population health advocacy. Through field placement at local organizations, hands on training, and professional development, fellows gain a valuable set of skills and will build the capacity for advocacy and policy work at community organizations throughout Los Angeles. Students will be selected to participate in the training program and will receive up to a $15,000 stipend.  Fellows dedicate 650 hours towards their assigned advocacy projects by working part-time in the spring quarter, full-time during summer, and part-time in the fall quarter. The program is open to masters and doctoral level FSPH students.

SCERC is one of 17 multidisciplinary centers in the United States supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for education and research in the field of occupational health. In the Environmental Health Sciences department, the Center supports the Industrial Hygiene Program, which trains professional and research industrial hygienists at the masters and doctoral levels. For this program, the Center provides student support (fees and stipends for U.S. citizens or permanent residents) and infrastructure support.

This program has been training pre- and post-doctoral candidates in cancer epidemiology since 1975. The objective of the joint program has been to provide trainees with rigorous training that includes course work on applied research experience in cancer epidemiology. The emphasis has been on integrating epidemiology, statistics, genetics, biology, and laboratory science. Given the recent advances in the molecular biology and genetics of cancer, the training program on molecular genetic epidemiology of cancer will provide the trainees the opportunities to describe the natural history of cancer in high risk populations with inherited genetic mutations, to elucidate genetic predisposition and susceptibility on the risk of cancer, and to assess potential gene-environment/gene-gene interactions in this process. The application of these approaches will be useful to establish cancer prevention strategies for high risk populations. 

Led by Dr. Pamina Gorbach and funded by the National Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center, this is a training program in Epidemiology to provide Cambodian researchers from the University of Health Sciences (UHS) doctoral, masters degrees and post-doctoral certificates at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  Trainees are encourage to develop research projects leading to publications or larger research grants. The purpose is advanced training of Cambodian health professionals in the use and interpretation of complex surveillance data. 

This program is funded by the National Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center and is a collaborative program with the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to train health professionals at the PhD level for careers in public health in China. Trainees will receive degrees from UCLA and the China CDC. Candidates for the program are initially screened and selected by the Director of the China Center for Control of HIV/AIDS and STIs at the China CDC, Dr. Zunyou Wu. 

For more information contact: Dr. Roger Detels at detels@ucla.edu or Dr. Zunyou Wu at wuzy@263.net.

The Department of Epidemiology, under a program funded by the Fogarty International Center, provides non-degree programs, Master’s Programs and PhD programs for health professionals from Thailand and Myanmar. Degree candidates must complete a research study in their home country and are expected to return to their home country upon completion of their studies. Trainees are recommended for admission to the various programs by the in-country directors. 

The UCLA School of Public Health and the Thai Ministry of Public Health collaborate on a Fogarty training program in advanced research methodology and HIV/AIDS. Through a series of in-country courses and short- and long- term training in advanced research methodologies, the UCLA Department of Epidemiology proposes to assist the Division of Epidemiology of the Thai Ministry of Public Health to achieve the goals of the Area-Based Surveillance System to enhance research capacity. Candidates for the UCLA-based programs will be recommended by the Thai faculty on the basis of their academic records, commitment to HIV and public health research, and intention to promote the health of Thais (all of our previous trainees have returned to Thailand).

The UCLA School of Public Health and the Hanoi Medical University (HMU) in Vietnam collaborate on a Fogarty training program in advanced research methodology and HIV/AIDS. The program provides academic training at UCLA for MS and PhD trainees from Vietnam. The fieldwork for the MS theses and PhD dissertations will be conducted in Vietnam, and will be mentored by UCLA and HMU faculty, members of Training Advisory Committee (TAC), and graduates of previous UCLA/Fogarty training programs. The program also provides nine-month postdoctoral training at UCLA for faculty members from HMU. UCLA faculty will collaborate with HMU faculty to conduct in-country summer institutes and workshops on community-based interventions, implementation science, program monitoring and evaluation, research ethics, advanced study design and evaluation, data management/statistical analysis, and grant writing and management.

Funded by the US Department of Health & Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Los Angeles Area Health Services Research Training Program provides comprehensive training and experience to highly-qualified pre- and post-doctoral trainees, so that they may effectively engage in, and eventually lead, research and implementation activities aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of the US health care system. Trainees must be citizens or permanent residents of the US

The UCLA Child and Family Health Program provides interdisciplinary training in maternal and child health practice, research and policy analysis for health professionals enrolled in the Master of Public Health program, and students in the PhD and DrPH programs, in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

The program offers a training grant for MPH, PhD, and DrPH students in the departments of Health Policy and Management, Community Health Sciences, and Epidemiology. MPH students need to be two-year health professionals, which includes social work, nutrition, physical therapists, nurses, and physicians.  Students’ focus should be on domestic child and family health. Usually, 4-6 fellowships are awarded per year and generally provide tuition and fees as well as a stipend for the first two years. 

Incoming students should write a letter to their department SAO expressing interest in domestic child and family health and describing their specific interests in a content area, as well as their interest in taking on a leadership role after their program.

The Department of Health Policy and Management co-administers a pre-doctoral TL1 fellowship program funded through the Research Education, Training and Career Development Program of the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute.  The purpose of the fellowship program is to provide trainees with the skills required to create new knowledge about health services, including intensive training in the basics of medicine and healthcare, an understanding of the theory and methods of community-partnered research, and practical experience in the development of public policy.  Four fellowships per year (including tuition, stipend and travel) will be awarded on a competitive basis to incoming doctoral students and may be renewed for up to four years, contingent on meeting the program requirements and making satisfactory progress towards completion of the degree.