Civic Science Fellow, Evidence & Creator Partnerships 2026: $85,000 Fellowship at AcademyHealth.

Overview

AcademyHealth is seeking a Civic Science Fellow for Evidence and Creator Partnerships to lead an 18-month initiative on connecting health policy research with social media creators, community communicators and other trusted messengers. The initiative is called Bridging Science and Social Media for Better Health Policy, and it will build an Evidence Creator Pipeline to carry evidence to audiences that may not normally engage with scientific, academic or health policy organisations, including cross-partisan and diverse communities.

AcademyHealth describes itself as the professional home and leading national organisation for health services researchers, policymakers and practitioners, and a nonpartisan voice on scientific integrity, federal data access and the role of evidence in public debate.

What you get

The fellowship runs from September 2026 through March 2028 with a stipend of $85,000 per year and paid leave. Health insurance and other benefits are not included.

What the fellow does

The fellow leads a landscape assessment of creators and community communicators working on health, policy and evidence, using a survey and rapid network analysis to understand trust, audience dynamics and preferred partnership models. They then recruit a cohort of 5 to 10 emerging evidence creators from varied backgrounds, platforms and communities, and pilot partnership models co-designed with the creators, which may involve compensation, skill-building or content co-creation. The fellow also oversees pilot content co-created with the cohort and distributed across at least three platforms, tests approaches through live AcademyHealth communications work, and develops a publicly available toolkit.

Who can apply

The fellowship is aimed at experienced professionals in communications, journalism, health policy, science communication, community engagement or digital audience development who want to use evidence to reach wider public audiences. Relationship-building skills and experience in creator partnerships, social media, content strategy or public-interest communications are relevant.

Key dates

The fellowship begins in September 2026. No application deadline is stated.