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| The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) developed the Competencies for Applied Epidemiologists in Governmental Public Health Agencies (Applied Epidemiology Competencies or AECs for short) to improve the practice of epidemiology within the public health system. The goal of the AECs is to improve the practice of epidemiology among public health agencies by creating a comprehensive list of competencies that: |
• Defines the discipline of applied epidemiology and
• Describes what skills four different levels of practicing epidemiologists working in government public health agencies should have to accomplish required tasks. |
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| The AECs were developed within the framework of the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals—a product of the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice—and thus are consistent with the larger field of public health practice. The AECs resulted from 2 years of highly collaborative work by an expert panel representing local, state, and federal public health agencies and schools and graduate programs of public health. Epidemiologists at all levels of public health practice from throughout the country and from academia provided substantial input into the AECs. |
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| AECs |
| This is a table of all defined competencies for four tiers of practicing epidemiologists. It is an Adobe ® Acrobat ® PDF document 42 pages in length (legal-sized paper recommended). |
AECs  |
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| AEC Preface |
| The Preface is an overview of the AECs and a description of how they were developed. This is a companion document to the AECs. This is an Adobe ® Acrobat ® PDF document 12 pages in length. |
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Preface 
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| The target audience and intended uses of the AEC are as follows: |
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• Practitioners: to assess current skills, create career development plans, and plan specific training;
• Employers: to create career ladders for employees, develop position descriptions and job qualifications, develop training plans for employees, determine compensation, and assess epidemiologic capacity of the organization;
• Educators: to design programs that train the next generation of epidemiologists to meet the needs of public health agencies, incorporate critical elements of epidemiologic practice into existing coursework, and provide continuing education to the current workforce.
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| The document defines competencies for four tiers of practicing epidemiologists categorized on the basis of level of responsibility, experience, and education: entry-level or basic, mid-level, supervisory, and senior scientist/researcher. The expert panel intended that all persons practicing applied epidemiology gain minimal competency in all of the defined skill domains within the tier that most closely matches their level of responsibility. However, every applied epidemiologist is not expected to be equally competent in all areas. Different public health programs that use applied epidemiology may emphasize different competency areas, and a government agency’s responsibilities, needs, and resources may require persons in individual epidemiologic positions to focus on particular competencies. |
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| CDC and CSTE seek to generate awareness throughout the public health system of the availability of this new tool. We encourage individual epidemiologists, public health agencies, and academic centers to use the competencies and to move with us toward a common goal of improving epidemiologic practice. In addition to the CSTE website, we will publish information about the competencies, including tools and documentation to support their use, on the CDC website at (www.cdc.gov/od/owcd/cdd/aec/). |
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| For more information, contact Jennifer Lemmings at jlemmings@cste.org |
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