Applied epidemiologists protect communities.

When disease spreads, when contaminated food reaches school cafeterias, when opioid deaths cluster in a county, applied epidemiologists find the source, sound the alarm, and coordinate the response. Most of the time, you never hear about it. That’s exactly the point.

The quietest success in public health is also the hardest to fund.

Applied epidemiologists work best when nothing happens: no outbreak, no contamination, no preventable death. Their success is absence. That makes their work chronically undervalued, even by the communities they protect.

Federal funding has been the backbone of public health infrastructure for decades. That funding is contracting. Health departments are eliminating positions. The data systems and surveillance infrastructure built to protect communities are at risk.

Membership dues fund the professional association. They are not designed to fund field-wide capacity building, workforce development, or surveillance infrastructure. That is the Foundation’s role: bringing in private charitable investment to fill the gaps.

About the CSTE Foundation

The philanthropic accelerator applied epidemiology has needed.

The CSTE Foundation is a 501(c)(3) supporting organization. It brings private charitable investment to applied epidemiology as a field and to the communities it protects.

CSTE is the scientific engine. Founded in 1951 at the request of the CDC, it has grown into a network of 3,500 applied epidemiologists who protect communities across every state and territory. It sets standards, convenes epidemiologists, and provides professional leadership.

The Foundation is the philanthropic accelerator. It listens to the field, amplifies its needs to individual donors and institutional funders, secures investment, and channels it to CSTE and the field to execute. Funding the work is the work.

Where your investment goes

Four priorities. One field-wide mission.

The Foundation listens to CSTE and applied epidemiologists across the field to understand where capacity is most at risk. Private philanthropic investment is directed to four areas.

01 Workforce pipeline

Fellowships, training, and pipeline programs that bring new professionals into the field and keep experienced ones in it.

02 Infrastructure resilience

Protecting the data systems and surveillance platforms communities depend on, particularly when federal support contracts.

03 Knowledge development

Funding surveillance and research in areas where federal dollars are constrained: firearm injury, climate health, mental health, and maternal mortality.

04 Capacity through partnership

Working with health departments across the country so the Foundation’s investments multiply across jurisdictions and communities.

Join the Guardian Network. Invest in applied epidemiology every month.

Monthly donors are the backbone of the Foundation’s individual giving program. Consistent gifts build the predictable, unrestricted revenue that allows the Foundation to plan, invest, and act with confidence – independent of grant cycles and conference seasons.

• Field Builder

$7.50/mo

Foundational workforce support for students and early-career professionals.

• Standards Setter

$17.50/mo

Investment in the standards and tools that make epi practice consistent across jurisdictions.

• Surveillance Steward

$27.50/mo

Capacity for the data systems that detect and track health threats.

• Resilience Responder

$57.50/mo

Training and fellowships that strengthen the field’s ability to respond.

• Capacity Accelerator

$75/mo

Philanthropic investment that builds field-wide capacity and sustains the workforce.