What is the LEAP fellowship? The Leaders in Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship and Public Health (LEAP) fellowship is a one-year training/career development program jointly administered by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. It was originally supported by funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The purpose of the LEAP fellowship is to train early-career infectious diseases physicians in how to establish meaningful, long-term collaborative partnerships with public health colleagues. LEAP provides exposure to the diverse activities where academic medicine and public health intersect, support to engage in a year-long project with their chosen public health department and mentorship to help with career guidance and networking.

Current status of LEAP fellowship The LEAP fellowship is currently on hiatus and not accepting applications at this time. Benefits of LEAP For ID physicians • One-year program in your current location • Provides a structured and consistent pathway for a career working with public health • Provides exposure to career pathways rarely encountered during ID training • Provides tailored career mentorship and networking opportunities For academic ID training programs • Provides additional project and training opportunities to your ID fellows • Potential source of post-fellowship career opportunities • Direct partnership with your health department allows for continuous situational awareness of emerging public health hazards For health departments • Access to clinical expertise and time to address internal projects • A pool of physician candidates that may apply to clinical job opportunities from the health department • Improved partnerships with clinicians and their health care facilities that can facilitate detection of outbreaks or other epidemiologically significant issues Informally instituting LEAP at your program In addition to being a national program, the LEAP fellowship was also designed to provide a training/development paradigm for new ID physicians. Academic ID fellowship training programs and health departments can implement programs like LEAP on a local level. In the Playbook’s “Local Implementation of LEAP” section of this website, you will find guides for health departments and academic ID training programs on how to successfully set the groundwork for your own LEAP-like program. The Playbook includes detailed descriptions and examples of how to provide your ID fellow with an experience that follows the LEAP fellowship program design and meets the fellowship objectives.