Public Health Strategies for Impact

Key points

  • ELC uses several key strategies to help strengthen the nation's capacity to detect, respond, prevent, and control infectious diseases.
  • These strategies include workforce development, partnerships to drive collaboration, and public health information systems enhancements.
Building epidemiology and laboratory capacity

Why it's Important

Laboratory workers in lab looking through microscope and writing down findings.
ELC's mission is to build Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity

ELC provides foundational support for public health departments through several key strategies to advance our mission of strengthening the nation’s capacity to respond to domestic infectious diseases including:

  • Workforce development
  • Partnerships and collaboration
  • Public health information systems enhancement

These strategies are essential in helping us respond quickly to infectious diseases outbreaks and preventing future outbreaks, decreasing illness and death, and improving health outcomes, health care quality, and health equity.

A Response-Ready Workforce

Supporting the public health workforce is a cornerstone of ELC. The ELC Program provides support through investments in both categorical and 'flexible' staff, leaders within public health state and local organizations, and training through didactic learning, conferences, and peer-to-peer learning. The ELC Cooperative Agreement provides funding to support positions, participate in trainings, and strengthen competencies within the health department that address infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and response activities.

ELC Workforce Assessment

ELC developed a Workforce Assessment tool that recipients can use to develop training plans that address gaps in capacity across epidemiology, laboratory, health information systems, bioinformatics, and leadership and management domains.

Masked laboratory worker in lab looking straight ahead with computers that feature data to the side.
ELC workforce investments help to bolster the public health workforce.

Technical Assistance Program (TAP)

With COVID-19 supplemental funding, the ELC Program expanded workforce development efforts through a new Technical Assistance Program (TAP). TAP offers ELC recipients an opportunity to secure technical assistance and critical staffing support with contractual staff through September 30, 2024. The positions vary from leadership levels to highly technical positions related to the COVID-19 emergency response and the areas of disease investigation, surveillance, and laboratory testing.

What we've Accomplished‎

ELC provides annual funding that supports over 3,000 positions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, ELC supported 40,000 positions, equivalent to over 10,000 full-time staff and totaling almost $30 billion.

Working together

Partner Programs

CDC partner programs serve as the contacts and subject matter experts for ELC core-funded programs/projects and projects supported by special funding. ELC works closely with these internal partners to create and sustain a coordinated, efficient, and effective cooperative agreement that emphasizes customer service and collaboration. Below are links to some of partners:

National Partner Organizations

ELC also partners with National Organizations to advance our mission to detect, respond, prevent, and control infectious diseases.

ELC Partners with CSTE‎

In an effort to strengthen public health systems and services, CDC partnered with The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) to bring you Stories from the Field! Visit the CSTE page for more stories about improving health for all.
Stories from the Field

Check out our National Partners below.

Links to non-Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.

Resources and tools

ELC Workforce Development Publications

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Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Division of Infectious Disease Readiness and Innovation