The 2023–2024 LEAP Application Portal is Now Closed.
The purpose of the LEAP Fellowship award is to support the training and development of infectious diseases physicians interested in building careers collaborating between clinical and academic healthcare and public health agencies. The LEAP Fellowship involves experiential training in public health work, hospital epidemiology, and antimicrobial stewardship. It also involves collaborative learning among LEAP Fellows, as well as didactic lectures from some of the U.S.’s premier Infectious Diseases experts. Finally, each Fellow will be required to propose and engage in a year-long Fellowship project, to eventually be presented at IDWeek 2024.
Each Fellowship award is $100,000, aimed at providing salary and benefits support for the Fellow. Four awards will be made for the 2023-2024 academic year. The LEAP fellowship welcomes geographic diversity among applicants and their health departments.
IDSA, SHEA and PIDS Announce 2022–2023 LEAP Fellowship Awardees
IDSA, SHEA and PIDS are pleased to announce the awardees of the 2022 Leadership in Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship, and Public Health (LEAP) Fellowship. The LEAP Fellowship is a $100,000 training award competitively granted to four promising young infectious diseases physicians. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this fellowship aims to foster the next generation of Infectious diseases leaders in public health, hospital epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship, giving them the hands-on experience needed to lead and collaborate across these disciplines of health care.
The LEAP Fellowship will commence July 1 and last one year. The Fellowship is for infectious diseases physicians in or after their second or third year of fellowship who are interested in pursuing careers in which they partner with public health departments. Awardees will present the results of their research projects at IDWeek 2023.
2022–2023 Awardees
Caitlin McGrath, MD (Pediatric ID), University of Washington
Leap Fellowship Project: Associations Between Structural and Social Determinants of Health and HAIs
Partner Health Department: Washington State Department of Health
Lauren Leigh Smith, MD (Adult ID), University of Maryland
Leap Fellowship Project: Promoting Antimicrobial Stewardship and Preventing Drug-Resistant Organisms Using a Collaborative Approach Between State and Academic Public Health Leaders
Partner Health Department: Maryland Department of Health
Brenda Anosike, MD (Pediatric ID), Children's Hospital of Montefiore
LEAP Fellowship Project: Pediatric COVID Risk Score (PedCOVR), An Outpatient Stewardship Tool
Partner Health Department: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Clayton Mowrer, DO, MBA (Adult & Pediatric ID), University of Nebraska Medical Center
LEAP Fellowship Project: Development of National Special Populations Education and Training to Improve Provider Readiness for High-Consequence Pathogens
Partner Health Department: Douglas County Health Department
LEAP Happy Hour | IDWeek 2022


2020–2021 Fellows
Daniel Dodson, M.D. (Pediatric ID), University of Colorado
LEAP Fellowship Project: Improving assessment and implementation of antibiotic stewardship: a partnership between state public health, academic medicine, and community hospitals.
Partner Health Department: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Sophie Katz, M.D. (Pediatric ID), Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Leap Fellowship Project: Creating a Sustainable and Scalable Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship Intervention in a High-Prescribing State: Development of Provider Feedback Reports and Academic Detailing Strategies through User Centered Design.
Partner Health Department: Tennessee Department of Health
Do Young Kim, M.D. (Adult ID), Rush University Medical Center
LEAP Fellowship Project: Checking Live Virus to Ascertain Time to Clearance of Viable Virus in Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia (CLEARANCE)
Partner Health Department: Chicago Department of Public Health
Angela “Holly” Villamagna, M.D. (Adult ID), Oregon Health and Science University
Leap Fellowship Project: Beyond coronavirus: establishing best practice guidance and assessing acceptability of international travel screening in Oregon acute care hospitals.
Partner Health Department: Oregon Health Authority
LEAP Fellows and SHEA Leadership at 2019 SHEA Spring Meeting
Societal Leadership Weighs In
IDSA: “The LEAP Fellowship program, a partnership with SHEA and PIDS that is sponsored by the CDC, has been a successful opportunity for ID fellows and early career clinical ID physicians to gain experience and tools to foster collaboration between academic institutions and public health departments. I am proud that we will continue to offer this program to advance the ID workforce in the areas of stewardship, epidemiology and public health.” – Daniel McQuillen, MD, FIDSA, President of IDSA
SHEA: “The ability to effectively share knowledge and experience among professionals in public health, infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship and to form fruitful collaborative partnerships is critical in improving patient care and reducing antimicrobial resistance. By offering research support and professional opportunities, the Leadership in Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship, and Public health (LEAP) Fellowship will help to train future leaders in healthcare epidemiology. We are extremely excited to join IDSA and PIDS in awarding these inaugural LEAP Fellowships,” – Keith Kaye, MD, MPH, president of SHEA
PIDS: “The LEAP fellowships recognize outstanding young ID physicians who are poised to become leaders in public health, hospital epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship. The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) congratulates this year’s awardees, whose work will refine our approach to high consequence pathogens, improve equitable health resource allocation, provide insights into social determinants of health, and strengthen engagement between state and academic public health leaders.” – C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, FPIDS
For more information on the LEAP Fellowship, please contact, Michele Wagner, MPH, LEAP Fellowship Project Manager.