Beginning July 1 through June 30, each Fellow is assigned to a Preceptor in a Program within the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) or within a local health department (LHD). The specific opportunities will depend in part upon the Preceptor and Program. Assignments may be available in fields such as environmental health; infectious disease control; chronic disease prevention; injury and violence prevention; maternal, child, and adolescent health; and others.

At the beginning of the training year, each Preceptor and assigned Fellow jointly identify and develop projects. Fellows perform activities and achieve competencies over a broad range of public health/epidemiology functions. Previous fellows have performed descriptive and/or analytic epidemiologic studies, evaluated programs to determine their effects on the incidence or severity of health problems, and investigated disease clusters. Former Cal-EIS Fellows have studied problems ranging from the relationship of air pollution and cardiovascular mortality to COVID-19 response.

If applicable, Cal-EIS Preceptors assist the Fellow in preparing the results of his or her studies for publication.