At a glance
Part of the A Day in the Life at NCHHSTP program, Management and Program Analysts shared career paths and gave tips on how to navigate them.
Management and Program Analysts
Management and Program Analysts, or those in the GS 0343 job series, are truly the fixers and problem solvers at CDC. Staff serving in this series manage all the puzzle pieces that allow each of CDC's Centers, Institutes, and Offices (CIOs) to operate efficiently on budget, and within the bounds of the law. This includes counseling leadership on policies and spending, managing physical or human resources, and handling a variety of operational services in and out of the field.
These are consummate consultants and advisors. They support scientists, field epidemiologists, public health advisors, health communicators, and public affairs specialists by managing budgets and cooperative agreements, providing material support, and helping staff reach their full career potential. Management and Program Analysts help hold all of CDC accountable by evaluating the effectiveness of programs and determining where improvements and cost savings can be made.
Ideal candidates for the 0343 job series are people who can:
- Analyze, interpret, and translate data
- Develop and implement long-term strategies
- Successfully manage multiple projects
- Lead, manage, recruit, and motivate people
- Safeguard resources
Employee Perspectives
The best information often comes from the source. NCHHSTP management and program analyst leaders share their career experiences and tips for those interested in their work. If the GS 0343 job series sounds like a path for you to help advance NCHHSTP's vision for a future free of HIV, viral hepatitis, STDs, and TB, as well as advising staff on matters of policy, budget, and operations, consider joining our team.
Michael J. Basso
Michael J. Basso is a Workforce and Career Development Specialist at NCHHSTP and a CDC Executive and Leadership Development Coach. With a background in behavioral psychology and storied CDC career spanning for more than two decades, Basso scours the ranks of entry- and mid-level CDC staff to find people capable of being outstanding leaders. This often involves identifying and nurturing talents others fail to see in themselves.
Serving as a senior leader and subject-matter expert in surveillance and epidemiology, behavioral science and research, health education and training, bioterrorism response, management and operations across four Centers, 21 Divisions, and two Country Offices, Basso understands the many pathways to success at CDC and helps novices navigate the maze. One of his greatest accomplishments, he says, was achieved while serving as head of CDC's Dominican Republic office. With his guidance, an entry-level administrative assistant became the county office's assistant director in just three years.
"My role comes down to two things—to make people look good and support people on their own path to success," says Basso. A good Career Development Specialist is someone who "understands how practitioners work in the field, enjoys creating opportunities for people, and has a genuine desire to move the needle beyond the status quo," he adds.
Amy Stuckey
Amy Stuckey is the Management Officer for NCHHSTP. Over two decades, Stuckey has managed CDC resources in a variety of positions in CDC's Atlanta and Washington, D.C. offices, working her way up as a Funding Resource Specialist in NCHHSTP's Division of HIV Prevention and later becoming the Division's Associate Deputy Director for Operations. She eventually took on the role of Associate Deputy Director for Operations in NCHHSTP's Division of TB Elimination, and later, Deputy Management Officer for NCHHSTP.
Since 2020, Stuckey has served at the helm of NCHHSTP's Management Office, where all the decisions about staffing, contracts, cooperative agreements, budgets, and travel come to her desk. "I'm often the one who has to hit the button," says Stuckey. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, that role requires decisive leadership, creative problem solving, and the ability to manage and lead others through uncertainty.
"The most successful characteristic of Management Officer is emotional resiliency," says Stuckey. "You don't need a lot of specialized skills. You need to be decisive. Everything I use every day is what I've learned over 20 years. Whatever decision you make, you stick with it and find a way to make it work."
Vivian Siler
Vivian Siler served in the United States Navy prior to joining CDC in 1994 as a switchboard operator. She now serves as a Management Program Analyst for NCHHSTP's Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, Field Services Branch, where she manages budgets, expenditures, and personnel matters on behalf of program consultants and public health advisors working in the field. Understanding the importance of dependability, accountability, and cooperation to accomplish common objectives—skills all learned in the military—helped her worked her way up from being a CDC contractor to an FTE (full-time employee) Programs Operations Assistant, and eventually a Management Program Analyst.
"My main responsibility is on the hiring action side" says Siler. "This includes personnel actions, realignments, reassignments, our budget, and how expenditures are being made. I provide leadership to field staff and help get them through their day-to-day responsibilities." Her scope of work also includes analyzing financial data to assist in program planning, budget formulation/execution, and organizational decision making.
Siler's advice for excelling as a Management Program Analyst: "Take the training that is recommended for that series, learn as much as you can, be a team player, and have compassion in the work and the things that you do. If you find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend some time with them and it will change your life."