What is the Champion Provider Fellowship?
The Champion Provider Fellowship is a two-year fellowship with the goal of training healthcare providers to engage in policy, systems and environmental (PSE) change activities around obesity and dental and chronic disease prevention. The goal of the fellowship is to give providers the skills and support needed to partner with their local health department to affect policy change in their communities and throughout California.
Why should I participate in the Champion Provider Fellowship?
California is experiencing an epidemic of obesity leading to costly chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, dental disease, stroke and heart disease, with low-income, underserved communities disproportionately affected. During the coronavirus pandemic, we have seen these disparity gaps widen further, underlying the urgency of addressing these issues. Most healthcare providers see the downstream effects of the obesity epidemic in clinics on a daily basis. This fellowship will give you the tools and support to work on the upstream causes of obesity, dental disease and other chronic diseases. The fellowship will allow you to make a difference in your community’s health beyond the individual patients you see in clinic.
What are the benefits of the Fellowship?*
- CME/CDE-certified training on community outreach and advocacy concepts and strategies
- One-day orientation and skill-building training
- Annual one-day skills-building mini college
- Media Training
- Interactive webinars on obesity and dental disease prevention strategies and other topics to advance community change work
- Quarterly works-in-progress calls with UCSF Research Faculty to develop Fellowship projects Personalized consultation on working with the media
- Virtual training and ongoing technical assistance from UCSF faculty
- Facilitated connections with local health department officials
- Membership in a statewide network of like-minded health professionals
What are the requirements of the Fellowship?
- Mandatory attendance at an in-person onboarding and skill-building training in June 2025
- Spend approximately 5 hours per month planning and delivering obesity and chronic disease prevention-related activities in collaboration with your local health department
- Meet with your LHD representative at least twice per year
- Participate in a minimum of one work-in-progress call per year to share successes and challenges with other fellows
- Participate in a minimum of one webinar per year
- Participate in post-course and program evaluation activities
*All travel expenses for fellows’ attendance at future in-person meetings will be covered by the Champion Provider Fellowship program.