Welcome to the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative

  
On behalf of the Center for Biosecurity, we welcome you to the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative, and we hope you will consider applying to be a Fellow in the inaugural year of this exciting new program.

The field of biosecurity is evolving and complex. It is, perhaps more than many fields, unusually multidisciplinary. Meeting the challenges of biosecurity requires expertise and insight from a wide array of professional disciplines and practice—medicine, public health, life sciences, public policy, defense, law, international relations, psychology, anthropology, sociology,  communications, information technology, disaster planning, emergency response.  As such, it can be difficult to find the right path to a career in biosecurity if you are a young professional or graduate student.

How do you make the connections and develop the knowledge that will let you be successful in developing a career in biosecurity? Professionals in this field work in all levels of government, from the White House National Security Council to the offices of mayors and local public health departments, where they develop and operationalize public policy. They work in academia to conduct the cutting edge research that advances the field across all disciplines. They work in the sciences and the private sector to understand new challenges and develop countermeasures and other protective measures and systems. They interpret the law as it applies to the practice of medicine and public health in disasters. They devise effective ways to educate and communicate with the public about dangers to public health.

If this field is going to develop with vibrancy and innovation, then we need to attract new talent and leadership and help young professionals find their paths to careers where they can make important contributions. The challenges of biosecurity are not going to diminish, and we need to meet them with rigorous research and analysis, informed debate, enlightened policy, sound systems and operations, and new approaches to solving difficult problems.

It is because of these challenges that the Center for Biosecurity, with the support of government leadership, has established the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative. Each year, this competitive program will select a group of Fellows who are talented new professionals from public health, medicine, defense, biological sciences, social sciences, academia, and the private sector. Fellows who are selected will be sponsored during the year to attend a major biosecurity conference and networking event in Washington, DC, attend a focused biosecurity seminar outside of Washington, participate in a writing competition that can lead to publication and public presentation opportunities, and participate in educational webinars run by established leaders from within and outside government who have careers in biosecurity.

The primary goal of the Initiative is to deepen your expertise, expand your professional contacts, build your skills, and expose you to the wide variety of career options. Our close relationships with other organizations and agencies will provide Fellows with many valuable opportunities to meet biosecurity professionals from a range of disciplines. Another objective of the Initiative is to nurture long-lasting connections among professionals, as new Fellows participate in the Initiative and alumni of the program remain engaged with the broader biosecurity community.

The Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative is designed so that selected Fellows can participate while they continue with their primary jobs and/or studies, and the Initiative will cover most expenses related to participation.

We hope you will explore the Initiative’s website to learn more about the program and about us, and then we hope you will submit an application to be a first year Fellow. (Applications are due March 15, 2012).

Sincerely,