>> Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today for "Somos mas fuertes cuando nos unimos. We are stronger together, bridging the gap of Hispanics and Latinos in CDC's workforce." My name is Robin Bailey, CDC's chief operating officer. Today's career expo is an opportunity for you to learn about the many career paths at CDC. Whether you're a student seeking a rewarding career in public health, or a seasoned professional looking for meaningful public health career options with global impact, we have something for you. CDC is the place to be. This event is being recorded for record-keeping, quality assurance, and training purposes. Also, the recording and PowerPoint presentations will be posted on the event web page. Now, let me orient you to how this is going to work. Two of our biggest supporters, the assistant secretary for administration at the Department of Health and Human Services, Cheryl Campbell, and the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, could not be here, so you will hear from them via video recordings. The next voice you will hear is Dr. Montero, who will deliver our keynote address, so I'm going to provide you with his information now. Dr. Montero is the director of the Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support, otherwise known as CSTLTS, which is CDC's connection to health officials and leaders of public health agencies, as well as other government leaders who work with health departments. Under Dr. Montero's leadership, CSTLTS works to enhance public health systems, to help state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agency deliver high-quality services to people in communities they serve. CSTLTS collaborates with partners to strengthen public health services, build a diverse, expert public health workforce, and promote evidence-based practices. CSTLTS is also purposely focused on addressing health disparities to advance health equity, joining all of CDC's integrated health equity into the fabric of the agency's work. Good luck, and all the best. Videos, please.

>> Good morning. I'm Cheryl Campbell, assistant secretary for administration here at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is a pleasure to welcome you to today's wonderful program, and share space with some remarkable current and future HHS employees. I applaud the initiative taken by Dr. Walensky, Mr. Bailey, and the broader CDC team to put together such an important event. Simply put, representation matters, not only at CDC and HHS, but across government and every sector of society. Particularly when we're talking about something as essential as promoting health and improving health equity, it's even more imperative we ensure those who are developing and executing policy come from all segments of our nation, especially the Latino communities. Fuller representation isn't simply an ideal to uphold. There is a growing body of research that proves it is good business practice. When work environments are diverse and inclusive, organizations perform at higher levels. Leaders who foster a culture rooted in these principles reap benefits in the form of greater innovation, higher retention, and more productivity. HHS is no exception. Our department is at its best when our workforce draws from all segments of American society. We also recognize that it's not enough to get Latino talent in the door. Once onboarded, we must ensure there is equitable access to everything from employee benefits to leadership development programs. We must also ensure compensation practices are fair, and we are narrowing pay gaps wherever they exist. So in speaking of pay, another area we are actively working to improve upon is offering more paid internships. A recent study confirmed that just 10.2% of Latinos are in paid internship positions. So as we look to expand and diversify the talent pipeline, it's critical we reevaluate how we source candidates, and offering more paid internships is an important step toward that goal. These are just some of the priorities that the Biden-Harris administration is driving as part of its wide-reaching effort to address enduring legacies of employment discrimination, systemic racism, and gender inequality that are still felt today. I'm particularly proud to work under Secretary Xavier Becerra, the first-ever Latino secretary of HHS, who's holding all of us senior leaders accountable when it comes to ensuring that we are taking a systematic approach to embedding diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in federal hiring and employment practices. By strengthening our workforce, we will improve our posture as we continue to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, reduce healthcare costs, expand access to care, address health disparities, and bolster behavioral healthcare. One of my favorite quotes is by civil rights icon Cesar Chavez, is, "We cannot seek achievement for ourselves, and forget about progress and prosperity for our community." I know that behind every one of you, there is a family and a whole community who has supported you in your academic, professional, and other pursuits. Our department needs your input, your perspective, and your expertise to improve how we promote health and well-being for Americans. I'm certain we will benefit tremendously from the guidance and resources the CDC team will be providing throughout the day. Thank you for allowing me to join you this morning, and I now have the great honor of introducing Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances in disease Registry. Thank you.

>> Welcome, and buenos dias. We are pleased you have joined us for "Somos mas fuertes cuando nos unimos." Thank you, Mr. Bailey, for starting us off today, and Ms. Campbell for providing a welcome on behalf of HHS. My colleagues and I are so excited that you're interested in becoming part of the public health workforce. The future of public health, and indeed, the future of health in our nation and the world, depends on recruiting the brightest and most committed, ready to address the challenges that lay ahead. To address the public health disparities that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic communities, we must have a public health workforce that is as diverse as the community it serves, particularly one that is skilled in the areas of science, medicine, and technology. When we do not have equitable representation of races, ethnicities, and cultures in our public health workforce, we deprive our nation of the full breadth of the perspectives needed to best address those disparities. Building that workforce requires reducing barriers to equal employment opportunities. At CDC, we want to lead in this effort, both in the work we do on behalf of the nation's health, and in the work we do internally as an organization. We have an agency-wide commitment to a workplace environment and agency culture that foster inclusion, fairness, and equity. We hope today's event will answer many questions about joining the public health workforce, how to navigate the federal application process, how to prepare for work in specific areas of public service, and provide information on the career-focused opportunities at CDC, such as the Hispanic internship program and the public health associate program. You will hear from Hispanic and Latino leaders who are responsible for the public health programs and projects that have contributed significantly to prevent and reduce the impact of various diseases, such as COVID-19. And they will share their journeys, the paths that brought them to this work. We want to hear from you, too, to learn how we can engage and connect with you. So, please, take advantage of opportunities throughout the expo to provide feedback. We will be listening, and we will use your input to strengthen our outreach efforts. Throughout the day, please remember that CDC believes in the abilities, backgrounds, and experiences you bring to the table, and you deserve a seat at the table. We are preparing for the future with you, because Tu eres CDC. You are CDC. CDC will continue to lead and strengthen our nation's health, but we need you. Use this opportunity to take notes, ask questions, and engage with leaders about their experience. We are here for you. Without change, there can be no growth, and we want to grow to meet public health challenges of today and the future with you at the table. Thank you for being here, and welcome to CDC. And now, I turn the podium over to Dr. Jose Montero.

>> Thank you very much. Bienvenidos. Thank you, Dr. Walensky and Ms. Campbell, for those inspiring words, and Mr. Bailey, thank you very much for your kind introduction. Hello. My name is Jose Montero. I am the director of the CDC's Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support that we call here CSTLTS. Thank you for joining us today to learn about CDC, and how to prepare for work in public service. I want to start by sharing a little bit about my own journey as an immigrant, and as a family physician, and how I am doing public health and civil service nowadays. Early in my career, in my native country of Colombia, when we finish medical school there, and before you go into doing residential training or general practice, we are expected to do a year of social service in under-served areas. I used to work in the jungle in the southern part of the country. I was there, able to work with community leaders, elected official, tribal members as I was seeing patients from different backgrounds, rural and indigenous people. That experience actually changed my life. This young physician that I was back then, 24, 23 who was going to actually go into a plastic surgery training, learned the value of community, the partnerships. I saw first-hand the huge disparities that some populations experienced, and the outcomes that come out of those situations. But I had the opportunity to learn the rewards that you see when you have an impact at individual, family, and community level with the type of work that I was doing back then. That completely changed my mind. I went back to the city, and actually did family medicine and epidemiology, and then started to work in a combined academic and public policy practice type of work. When I moved to the U.S., I came actually the same combination. I was working academic setting, doing the practice, but in New York, and mostly in New Hampshire. I even had the opportunity to work at health departments and hospitals at the same time. I eventually became the state health official. With the college, Dartmouth, I was on the faculty for the family medicine and preventive medicine residency programs. With time, when I left service of the state, I became the VP of population health for one of the hospitals within the Dartmouth system. You see there a constant across all of these roles, and I always was working to bridge healthcare and population health, used them both to improve the outcomes for the populations that we served at all of these times. With all of this experience, I decided to pursue civil service here at the federal level, and joined CDC APSDR in 2016. So it has been a little over five years as director of this center, center that's, as Mr. Bailey says, centers on strengthening the public health system by helping the state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments deliver high-quality public health services, which is a constant about the work that we do here at CDC, working with the health departments to get to the people in this nation. Our trusted leaders and advisors collaborate with partners to strengthen public health service delivery, build a strong, diverse public health workforce, and advance health equity by addressing health disparities. When I came into my role as the CSTLTS director, actually I was surprised to find that I was the highest-ranking executive level official at CDC that had Hispanic or Latino descent, and immigrant, for that matter. I felt that I had a responsibility to make changes, and let me share a personal story in why I felt that way. Realizing that I was the highest-ranking Latino brought back the memories of the previous pandemic. You may not remember, but 10, 12 years ago, we had another one. Back then, I was the state health official in New Hampshire. I was doing TV every day, because we had to brief the public as what is happening with this pandemic. So I was a well-known figure in the state. One day, I was walking in the street, and a lady stopped me. Initially, in broken English, she asked, "Are you the doctor on TV?" I said, "What's going on? Yeah. Why?" And I was expecting questions about vaccination, or H1N1 flu, which it was what we were working on back then, but no. She said something -- and I'm paraphrasing. This is not the exact words, and, "Thank you. Thank you very much for showing them that we are as good as them, that we can do all the things that they do, and even some other things." And she went on in this line of thinking. It brought home the fact that, because my visibility in a state that actually has a low proportion of population that are not white, U.S.-born, I was an incredibly visible figure, and I represented way more than what I was. That was a call for me to realize that those of us who achieve and are lucky enough to get to positions of leadership, we have an obligation to carry the voice of those who are not here yet, or that are at different stages on their careers. I tried to do that here at CDC, and part of what I do every now and then is, I am the technical sponsor of our Latino/Hispanic work group, and engage in the support of some other activities. I'm an epidemiologist, so let's talk data. The most recent data shows that only 3.1% of CDC's entire workforce identifies as Hispanic. In the fiscal year 2020, Hispanic Latino constitute only 3.2 of all high-level and executive leadership positions, 3.1 workforce, 3.2% executive. Across mission-critical positions like health scientists, administration, information technology, public health program specialist, medical office -- statisticians, biologists, Hispanic/Latino representation is quite low, especially if we compare that to white, black, African-American, Asian groups. At CDC, developing an elite public health workforce is critical. Ensuring representation, as Dr. Walensky mentioned, especially from the Hispanic/Latino community, is paramount. The U.S. Census Bureau data projects most of the population in the U.S. over the next 40, 50 years will be what we call today minorities. As many of you know, the COVID pandemic laid bare all the disparities in our nation. We have seen who has gotten sick and hospitalized -- we know who has been losing their jobs, who has been more negatively affected by COVID-19. And this is not genetics. This is about the general social environment and conditions, the type of work that many of us have, the type of living arrangements, transportation access. Because all of this, CDC has responded in many different ways, and one is by declaring racism a public health emergency, and putting health equity at the center of our public health work. This type of work highlights the importance of integrating minorities into the workforce, so we can deliver the interventions to populations who need, understand, and potentially adhere to. Over the past couple of years, I have served in several different roles in the COVID-19 response, including deputy incident manager, and I am still called to be one of CDC's spokesperson for Spanish-language media. This allows me to represent the agency on that media, in the Spanish-speaking media, but I have done webinar platforms, partnered with medical associations, Hispanic groups. I have spoken in front of the Promotora de Salud, many of these groups, trying to convey information to the Latino/Hispanic community. Nowadays, most of the time I am being asked about vaccine safety, where to find vaccines, and other prevention strategies. But as the public face of the agency, people are looking to us for answers, especially during emergencies, when information can often be so confusing, and there is so much misinformation circulating. Now, responding to these questions -- to these type of questions, it's important to remember your audience, right, to understand their specific concerns and needs. Connecting to the audience, specifically Hispanic audiences, we need to keep values and culture in mind. It's not just about translation. It is not just about speaking Spanish. It is about understanding culture and values. At the same time, we need to recognize that we are not a monolithic culture. That is where cultural awareness, cultural humility, and our own life experience is so important to the work that we do at all levels of the system. At the senior level, like I am, but at all levels -- for instance, the community health workers, that famous Promotores, Promotores de Salud , they are critical partners to our work, because they are trusted messengers for health information in all of our communities, even in ways that somebody like me cannot be. Even though I do a lot of media and have worked with clinicians and faith communities, there are places where, because I am a federal physician, they will not necessarily trust information from me. So that's what we need to look at the -- at the whole parade of messengers and trusted messengers, that recognize the culture, not just start speaking Spanish. We need people like each one of you to help us build this diverse workforce that we need, to deliver the critical public health services, and advance the CDC's mission. We -- let me share a few examples of how we have been working lately with Latino/Hispanic populations. We provide a lot of technical assistance, right, during the pandemic, and before, and we will continue to do that. Because we partnered with all health departments across the country. Many of them serve majority Hispanic populations that we'd see in some parts of Florida, of Texas, and California, but it's with all of them, even those who serve Hispanic population, and that is small in size, in their own jurisdictions. There are places like Puerto Rico we have a really engaged and long partnership. We provide support to them in many areas. In fact, CDC's Dengue Branch is located in San Juan. But we provide technical assistance on specific projects, and now, in the COVID, we are helping them providing technical advice in a survey that estimates the prevalence of long-term COVID. That will help develop the right type of services. They will be able to do that locally. Now, we are paving the way -- COVID vaccine equity. We have efforts of the national, and state, tribal, territorial, local level with community partners, because we need to make sure that American Indian, Alaska natives, black, African-American people, Hispanic/Latino people, have fair access to the COVID vaccination. This includes, as I mentioned before, building trust, and we build trust through listening, through increased collaboration, creating tools and resources to help respond to concerns expressed by these communities. What are their needs and how they are looking at things. That is where we need to be at, not just a science message that is -- so specifically, minor communities. We from CDC have helped provide access to the vaccine to mobile vaccination campaigns that partner with local trusted organizations to build vaccine confidence, and organize accessible vaccination events. Internally here, CDC APL here has supported the development of Unidos [assumed spelling], the Association of Hispanic/Latino Employees. This work group focuses on supporting diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity of Hispanic/Latino employees at all levels, because as -- remember the numbers that I mentioned, 3.1, 3.2 in general workforce and leadership positions. It is too low. The mission is to support the career enhancement of Hispanic/Latinos in our organization. I want to close by reiterating that we are committed to developing a diverse public health workforce. We all have different career paths. We all come from different places. We have different goals. I shared with you today a lot about my own journey, my own path, but I think that from there, you got that public service for me has been an incredibly fulfilling career, not just a job, but a call. CDC recognizes that, for us, a lot of work lies ahead to increase Hispanic/Latino representation in CDC's workforce, and we are committed to helping realize the development of a diverse public health workforce. Today's career expo is one of the steps toward that larger goal, not the only one, just one of the steps. We hope that really you consider joining us. Look at all the options that you are going to be presented at today, and ask questions. Thank you very much. I hope that you really enjoy this event today, and now, I'd like to turn this to Dia Taylor, our deputy chief operation officer. Dia

>> Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Dr. Montero, for the keynote address, and specifically for sharing your story with our participants today. So, good morning to all our participants. Throughout the expo today, you can visit the event page for today's agenda, career resources, and the presenter bios. Following today's event, we encourage you to complete our post-event survey to provide feedback. Your feedback will help us in planning future events. To preserve bandwidth, we ask all attendees to keep your cameras turned off. In addition, all microphones are muted except the presenters. You may use the chat feature to share your questions or comments, and use the raise hand feature if you cannot hear us, or have technical difficulties. There will be two open sessions in this main room, one on understanding the federal application process, and another on professional development. After those open sessions, there will be a short break, during which you can remain signed in to hold your spot. We will restart after those sessions promptly at 12:30 in designated breakout rooms by your career interest. These breakout rooms will serve as an opportunity to learn about the background and opportunities with our centers, institutes, and offices, or CIOs, as we call them. Following the CIO overviews, we will then return you to our main room for the fellowship presenters at 2:00 p.m. Ken Quintana, the director of CDC University, will close out the expo at 2:55 p.m. At this time, I will now turn it over to our presenters for the "Understanding the Federal Application Process" workshop. Thank you, everyone.