Office of Environmental Public Health

The Office of Environmental Public Health (OEPH) provides senior scientific and administrative leadership in the effort to define, plan and evaluate research approaches in Environmental Public Health. OEPH assists in establishing specific goals for program development in EPH and a timeline for achieving such goals. OEPH establishes communications and partnerships with the nation’s public health research, training, and services enterprises, as well as coordination with other federal agencies involved in public health. In meeting its charge, activities of OEPH center on outreach to the community at large, both in the U.S. and abroad.

OEPH functions to:

• Establish and enhance two-way communication with multiple research and practice constituencies in the environmental health and public health communities, including individual researchers and practitioners as well as other NIH Institutes and federal agencies, professional societies, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
• Advise the Director of NIEHS on matters concerning EPH science, attendant EPH policy and practice, and on scientific initiatives related to strengthening the health impact of NIEHS supported research accomplishments.
• Provide expert leadership and direction to: a) advance integration of environmental and public health functions; and b) apply scientific advances in medical research and public health to the practice of environmental public health.
• Respond to requests for NIEHS representation to local, national, and international groups addressing EPH issues.
• Act as a central locus to coordinate NIEHS research and public health responses to local or national crises (e.g., World Trade Center disaster, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita).

Allen Dearry, Ph.D.
Associate Director, NIEHS
Director, Office of Environmental Public Health

Tel (919) 541-3068
Fax (919) 541-3647
dearry@niehs.nih.gov
P.O. Box 12233
Mail Drop K3-17
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709
Delivery Instructions

Dr. Allen Dearry serves as Director of the Office of Environmental Public Health and an Associate Director at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to this position, he served as Interim Associate Director of the National Toxicology Program (2006-2007) and Director of the Division of Research Coordination, Planning and Translation (2003-2006) at NIEHS. Dr. Dearry has initiated numerous programs that are recognized nationally and internationally, both for their contribution to the knowledge base in biomedical science relating to environmental health as well as for their novel approach to community-university partnership and resultant impact on public health. Dr. Dearry has been honored to receive a number of NIEHS and NIH awards, as well as three DHHS Secretary’s Awards for Distinguished Service for providing outstanding leadership on issues related to possible health effects of exposure to Pfiesteria toxins (1998); for generating a public health and research response to the World Trade Center disaster (2002); and for dedicated support for the health and safety of victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the Gulf Coast (2006). Before coming to NIH, Dr. Dearry received a Ph.D. in Anatomy from the University of Pennsylvania; was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley; and then an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Ophthalmology at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Dearry led the effort to clone and sequence the gene for the human D1 dopaminergic receptor; he has two US patents for this and subsequent investigations.

The Director of OEPH represents NIEHS/NIH/HHS in a variety of interagency coordinating bodies:

• U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP)
• NSTC Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology (JSOST)
• Interagency Committee on Ocean Science and Resource Management Integration (ICOSRMI)
• NSTC Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR)
• National Cancer Advisory Board
• CDC NCEH Board of Scientific Counselors
• National Children's Study Federal Advisory Committee
• NIH Coordinating Committee for establishment of a national infectious disease (BSL4) facility

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