March 10, 2026

The Urban Epidemiology Fellowship program is a new collaboration between the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH), the UHC, and Dornsife's Epi-Biostat Department. This unique fellowship aims to promote the development of the skilled epidemiology workforce in local public health departments through a structured fellowship for master’s-level public health students, and offers students the chance to work alongside a PDPH instructor on an impactful epidemiology project. Potential projects include work related to substance use prevention and harm reduction; HIV health; and reproductive, adolescent, and child health. 

With the first fellowship shortly coming to a close, we've taken the opportunity to speak with the inaugural fellows of the program to hear their experiences with it, as well as get some insight into how they feel the fellowship will help with their career goals. 

Abby Xu 

What is your background? 

I am a second-year MS in Epidemiology student. My research experience during master level has centered on perinatal epidemiology and tobacco control. I have previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry for five years, focusing on medical information and patient education. Through this experience, I observed how population-level and clinical evidence can inform clinical-decision makings very meaningfully. This motivated me to further pursue advanced degree in Epidemiology, so I can help generate more high-quality evidence to inform public health guidance and  clinical practice. 

What are you looking to learn from the fellowship?  

I wanted an opportunity to gain hands-on experience of literature review, data analysis using R and scientific writing. 

How do you think the fellowship might be able to help you in your career? 

I've gained hands-on experience in conducting literature reviews, cleaning data, designing projects, and analyzing data in R. I also practiced making reasonable assumptions and checking whether the results aligned with those assumptions. I believe these are essential skills for pursuing epidemiologic research roles in the future.  

What are your career goals?  

I plan to pursue a PhD after my MS and build a research career in academia. My long-term goal is to become an independent epidemiologic researcher, leading projects that address important public health questions. 

Have you learned anything in the fellowship that’s excited you so far? 

I was especially excited to see how survey and vital statistics data can be used to study tobacco use and health inequities.  

Madelyn McConaghy 

I received my BS in Biology and Spanish from the University of Pittsburgh. During my undergraduate studies, I worked with unaccompanied migrant children who were awaiting reunification with family in the United States while gaining research experience at UPMC and Pitt's School of Public Health. Upon graduation, I completed two years of service with AmeriCorps, where I worked as an afterschool teacher in South Arlington, VA, a community that hosts a large and vibrant immigrant community. Through these experiences, I witnessed how social and structural determinants shape health, wellbeing, and academic success from a young age. These formative experiences solidified my desire to pursue a public health career with a particular interest in maternal, child, and immigrant populations. 

Through the fellowship, I have been refining my quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis skills through community-engaged work in my passion area of maternal and child health.  Strengthening these practical skills is essential to conducting applied research that informs health policy, evaluates structural interventions, and relevantly supports the health outcomes of pregnant and parenting families in Philadelphia and beyond. I aspire to build a career in applied research that advances health equity at the intersection of immigrant and birthing populations. I've deeply enjoyed developing relationships with the dedicated team at the Division of Reproductive, Adolescent, and Child Health (ReACH), and have been inspired by the breadth of programs that ReACH offers, as well as its collaboration with and responsiveness to Philadelphian community members and organizations 

Idalys Suin

What is your background? 

I am Ecuadorian American, living in Delaware County, PA! 

What are you looking to learn from the fellowship?  

I was looking forward to learning what surveillance looks like in HIV but ended up learning so much more. I was able to participate in a CDC funded study and learn how quantitative studies are set up from start to finish.  

How do you think the fellowship might be able to help you in your career? 

Working at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health taught me what this work looks like on a local health department scale, and how collaborative it is. Everyone is working towards the common goal of ending the HIV epidemic and the way everyone is a moving part from data managers to social workers, to ethnographers, to epidemiologists.  

What are your career goals?  

I would love to take my epidemiology skills and put them to work by focusing on how infectious disease in Philadelphia/PA affects marginalized populations— specifically the Latiné community and how we can intervene in those communities to be able to gain more data and inform our public health interventions to better assist and help the population thrive.  

Have you learned anything in the fellowship that’s excited you so far? 

I have learned the ins and outs of quantitative research and HIV testing. I think it was such a unique experience to be able to interview participants and hear their stories and guide them on questions they have and can share with their friends/family. Ultimately, we will be able to see their voices be uplifted when the data is disseminated and contextualized.   

Sahar Abuouf

What is your background?

I am an MD and currently an MPH candidate in Epidemiology at the Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health. Before starting my MPH, I practiced internal medicine in Sudan, where I worked in hospital settings treating a wide range of infectious and chronic diseases. Those experiences really shaped my interest in public health and made me more aware of how social, environmental, and structural factors influence health outcomes. Now my work and interests focus on epidemiology, health outcomes, and understanding how broader systems shape population health.

What are you looking to learn from the fellowship?

Through the fellowship, I was hoping to gain a deeper understanding of how epidemiology is practiced in real-world urban settings and how local data can be used to inform public health decisions. I was especially interested in learning more about how city-level data systems, surveillance, and policy work together to address health disparities across neighborhoods.

How do you think the fellowship might help you in your career?

The fellowship has been a really valuable opportunity to see how public health work happens in practice, not just in theory. Being able to work alongside professionals at the city level and collaborate across disciplines is helping me bridge the gap between academic training and applied public health practice, which I think will be incredibly important for my future career in epidemiology.

What are your career goals?

My long-term goal is to work in epidemiology and global health, focusing on infectious diseases, different health outcomes, prevention and health equity. I’m particularly interested in research and public health programs that address how environmental change, structural inequities, and social conditions influence disease burden both locally and globally.

Have you learned anything in the fellowship that’s excited you so far?

One of the things that has been most exciting for me so far is seeing how city-level data can be used to better understand patterns of disease and health disparities across neighborhoods. Working with local health data has really reinforced how important neighborhood-level analysis is for identifying inequities and designing more targeted public health interventions!

I'm very thankful to have participated in this fellowship. It has been a really meaningful experience.

Now Accepting Applications for the 2026-2027 Cohort

We’re thrilled to announce that the Urban Epidemiology Fellowship program is accepting applications for its 2026-27 cohort. The fellowship is compensated and spans 9 months: full-time (37.5 hours/week) in July and August 2026, followed by 15 hours/week from September 2026 to March 2027. MPH students can also fulfill their Applied Practice Experience (APE) requirement through the fellowship. The application deadline is fast approaching—March 20! 

For more details, check out the info sheet found below. If you have any questions, please contact Félice Lê-Scherban.

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