Candidates must have secure home internet access, a hotspot, or VPN and must be able to work in the Illinois Department of Public Health Chicago, IL office on Wednesdays. 

 Join our team at the Office of Transformation and Office of Disease Control with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to support the analysis of PrEP4Illinois program data. This internship offers direct experience analyzing the PrEP4Illinois program, including enrollment trends, persistence, utilization patterns, and prescriber behaviors across oral and injectable modalities. The intern will conduct descriptive and survival analyses using real-world data, characterize prescriber-level patterns using dispensing records, produce publication-quality figures and tables, and contribute to drafting an abstract and manuscript with the potential for first-author publication. Mentorship will be provided by senior public health leaders, including the Bureau Deputy Director, State Epidemiologist, and MSO. This position provides practical experience in epidemiology, biostatistics, and research dissemination, preparing the intern to translate complex data into actionable public health insights.

 Responsibilities: 

• Analyze PrEP4Illinois program data to assess enrollment growth, PrEP persistence, and prescribing patterns across oral and injectable modalities (e.g., TDF/FTC, TAF/FTC, CAB-LA).
  • Analyze and summarize program growth metrics, including enrollment trends over time by service modality, as well as participant demographics such as age, race/ethnicity, geographic location, and insurance status.
  • Conduct persistence analyses by PrEP type, including time from initiation to discontinuation stratified by agent, using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression models to identify predictors of discontinuation; report key outcomes such as median persistence (days) and 6- and 12-month retention rates.
  • Analyze utilization patterns, including refill frequency and coverage gaps, to characterize daily versus intermittent use by agent and population subgroup; conduct equity analyses of uptake and persistence across race/ethnicity, age, and geographic groups.
  • Conduct prescriber landscape analyses, including the number of active prescribers by agent, prescribing concentration (e.g., proportion of initiations attributable to top prescribers), and geographic distribution; assessing whether specific treatment modalities are driven by a limited number of clinical sites or providers.
  • Assess cost implications (secondary), using persistence and prescribing patterns to inform high-level conclusions on formulary cost drivers and access trade-offs.
• Perform additional duties as assigned within the scope of the project. 

Requirements:  

• Currently enrolled (and in good academic standing) in a graduate level program studying public health with a concentration in epidemiology or biostatistics. 
• Proficiency with R (descriptive and survival analysis packages).
• Ability to conduct Cox proportional hazards modeling. 
• Must be able to work in the Chicago, IL office on Wednesdays.  
• Secure home internet access, a hotspot, or VPN. 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:  

• Foundational knowledge of epidemiology, biostatistics, and research manuscript preparation, with coursework or experience applying these concepts to public health data.
• Familiarity with HIV prevention strategies is preferred.
• Strong data management, organizational, and analytical skills, including cleaning, merging, and interpreting large datasets.
• Strong written communication skills for summarizing findings and contributing to abstracts, reports, or manuscripts.
• Ability to create clear data visualizations, tables, and figures for reports or presentations.
• Ability to manage tasks independently, meet deadlines, and contribute to team-based projects.

Duration and Compensation:  

This internship is from the middle of May to August (with flexible start and end dates depending on your academic schedule). This is a hybrid internship requiring in-person attendance on Wednesdays in the Chicago, IL office, with a flexible commitment of 10–15 hours per week.

This is an unpaid internship, but academic credit may be available depending on your institution’s policies and guidelines – please speak with an academic advisor. 

All applications must be submitted by Friday, May 1^st, 2026, by 9 a.m. to be considered for this internship. 

Apply Here