The Oak Park Public Health department thought that it had lost federal funding sponsoring a staff member’s place in the village, but the decision has been reversed — for now.
Since October 2024, the department had benefitted from the work of Maya Feuilladieu, a staffer participating in a prestigious Center for Disease Control fellowship program. Last month, Feuilladieu received notice that she’d been terminated from the CDC, as President Donald Trump’s administration pushed federal agencies to get rid of staff who’d been employed for less than a year.
Feuilladieu returned to work at village hall last Thursday after receiving notice from the CDC that she’d been reinstated, according to Oak Park Communications Director Dan Yopchick.
“Last month, the associate received a termination notice from the CDC, however, the associate was informed again by the CDC that they have been reinstated in March,” Yopchick said in a prepared statement. “For now, the Public Health Associates Program seems to be up and running again but it’s continuation is still uncertain.”
Roughly 1,300 probationary employees at the CDC were fired last month, along with over 5,000 across the entire Department of Health and Human Services, according to the Associated Press.
Feuilladieu, a recent Northwestern University graduate, is one of roughly 100 young public health professionals taking part in the CDC’s fellowship program. The program funds placements for recent public health graduates to gain field experience with local health departments around the country while working on special projects. Feuilladeieu’s work in Oak Park has included helping to develop a new program improving access to care and working on the village’s opioid overdose prevention program, among other projects, Yopchick said.
The CDC’s Laboratory Leadership Service, another agency fellowship program that prepares PhD level scientists to lead lab safety efforts, was also targeted in last month’s round of funding cuts.
While most of the fellows in both programs have been reinstated, CDC leaders were ordered to deliver plans for slashing the agency’s work force through more layoffs by Thursday, March 13, according to The New York Times.
Former CDC director Tom Frieden wrote an editorial for STAT on the heels of the cuts last month, calling both fellowship programs “essential” to public health and safety in the United States.
“CDC reform requires strengthening programs like these, not eliminating them,” Frieden wrote. “Public health reform should focus on building a stronger workforce, not dismantling the few programs that strengthen it. PHAP and LLS fill critical gaps in public health infrastructure, and no alternative programs exist to replace them. Cutting them is a short-term budget move that will have long-term and costly health and economic consequences for national security and public safety. If the goal is a healthier American and a better CDC, eliminating PHAP and LLS is the wrong way to get there.”
The Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal jobs have been tangled up in federal court as Democratic states’ attorney general offices challenge the layoffs. An order laid down Thursday told the administration that it must offer to rehire more than 10,000 fired probationary workers across several agencies.
The White House has appealed that ruling.