Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence
The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Center of Excellence provides academic, research, and service-learning opportunities to public health students, researchers, and practitioners whose mission is to improve the lives of mothers, children, and families.
Kresge Building 6th-floor
677 Huntington Ave., Boston MA 02115
CDC Evaluation Course (SBS 550)
SBS550, known as the CDC Evaluation Course, is an innovative Harvard Chan School winter session course run in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE).
This competitive 3-week course, selecting up to 24 Harvard Chan students each year, provides didactic instruction in program evaluation during the 1st week at the CDC’s Atlanta Campus and then matches students with a real-world evaluation project for the second week. During the last week of the course, students will continue to develop an evaluation plan to be used by the states and the CDC to evaluate their active public health programs for the next 2-3 years.
The course is only open to current Harvard graduate students. You can read more about the course here.
Application
The 2025 CDC Evaluation Winter Course application is now closed. The deadline to submit an application was Monday, October 7th, at 9 AM ET.
Information Sessions
Wednesday, September 11th, 2024
Our information session provides an overview of the 2025 Winter Session, including the course details, application process, timeline, structure, and student expectations.
Course Details
To apply and participate, you must be a current graduate student at Harvard University. You do not have to concentrate in Maternal and Child Health (MCH) to engage in this course.
Student travel and lodging costs are covered by the CDC and Harvard Chan’s MCH Center of Excellence.
The CDC Evaluation Course (SBS 550) application opens each fall on our website and requires applicants to complete short essays. Select students are asked to rank program sites (without knowledge of site location) participating in the course and are matched with one of their top choices.
Each program site is assigned two students.
For the 2025 Winter Session, the course will run from Monday, January 6 to Friday, January 24.
Week 1: Travel to the CDC Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia for an intensive lecture on program evaluation.
Week 2: Travel to program sites to engage with program staff and develop program evaluation plan.
Week 3: Write-up and submit program evaluation plan.
- San Antonio Black Doula Collective – Texas
- Help me Grow LA – California
- School-Based Health Centers – Elementary and Middle School PILOT Program: Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, Delaware
- Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System’s Outreach to WIC-enrolled Mothers – Wisconsin
- Best Beginnings Perinatal Home Visiting Program for Wyoming Babies – Wyoming
- Live It! Teen Pregnancy Prevention and Sexual Health Education, Division of Indian Work – Minnesota
- Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program – Massachusetts
- Electronic Health Record Implementation in Title X Family Planning Service Agencies – Michigan