Join our team as a Foodborne/Enteric Disease Epidemiologist and help protect public health by leading critical efforts in food safety and outbreak response! In this project role, you’ll be part of the Washington Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence (CoE), a collaborative initiative between the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and the University of Washington School of Public Health. Your work will directly contribute to supporting foodborne illness investigations and training across the CDC’s Western Region, including Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, California, Washington, and Guam.
Key Responsibilities Include:
Develop and deliver training on foodborne illness outbreaks to local, state, and US territories.
Lead foodborne and enteric disease outbreak investigations.
Collaborate with CoE leadership to coordinate special projects, including climate change and mHealth initiatives.
Serve as a resource to local health jurisdictions (LHJs) on foodborne outbreak investigations and provide expert guidance.
Participate in CoE and external meetings, conferences, and trainings related to foodborne outbreak surveillance, investigation, and response.
Travel to provide hands-on training within Washington and to other states in the CDC’s Western Region CoE.
Conduct surveillance and epidemiology case investigations for foodborne, waterborne, and enteric diseases as part of the Communicable Disease Epidemiology Office (CDE).
Support public health emergency preparedness by providing surge capacity and cross-training in other focus areas of communicable diseases.
Option 1: Two (2) years of experience performing the following within the foodborne epidemiology field:
Reviewing and analyzing whole genome sequencing (WGS) for foodborne illness cluster detection.
Conducting foodborne illness, outbreak detection, and investigation.
Training or consulting on foodborne epidemiological investigation practices and scientific methods.
Option 2: Master's degree in epidemiology; AND (2) years of experience in the foodborne epidemiology field.
Option 3: Master's degree in public health including 12 graduate quarter hours in epidemiology and 12 graduate quarter hours in biostatistics; AND two (2) years of experience in the foodborne epidemiology field.
Our programs and services help prevent illness and injury, promote healthy places to live and work, provide information to help people make good health decisions and ensure our state is prepared for emergencies. To accomplish all of these, we collaborate with many partners every day.
We help ensure a safer and healthier Washington by:
Working to improve health through disease and injury prevention, immunization, and newborn screening
Providing health and safety information, education and training so people can make healthy choices
Promoting a health and wellness system where we live, learn, work, play and worship
Addressing environmental health hazards associated with drinking water, food, air quality and pesticide exposure
Protecting you and your family by licensing healthcare professionals, investigating disease outbreaks and preparing for emergencies