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Your Environment. Your Health.

Deputy Director

Gwen W. Collman
Gwen W. Collman, Ph.D.
Acting Deputy Director, NIEHS
Tel 984-287-3249
collman@niehs.nih.gov
P.O. Box 12233
Mail Drop K3-05
Durham, N.C. 27709

As Acting Deputy Director of NIEHS, Gwen Collman, Ph.D., assists NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program Director, Rick Woychik, Ph.D., in the formulation and implementation of plans and policies necessary to carry out NIEHS missions. Collman works with Woychik in the administrative management of NIEHS, and speaks on behalf of the institute as appropriate.

For the past 11 years, Collman has been an active member of the NIEHS executive leadership team in her role as director of the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT). She has led approximately 80 professional staff in areas of scientific program administration, peer review, and the management and administration of about 1000 active grants each year. During this time, DERT has developed many new areas of research support tied to the NIEHS Strategic plan. Collman has directed scientific activities across the field of environmental health sciences including basic sciences organ-specific toxicology, public health related programs and training and career development. She also oversees the implementation of the Superfund Research Program and the Worker Education and Training Program.

As Director of DERT, Collman led the implementation of many exciting scientific programs with partners from other NIH ICs and Federal agencies. These includes the CHEAR/HHEAR exposure resource, Time Sensitive Research Awards, the Gulf Oil, PRIME mixtures, Nanotechnology, and TARGET Consortia, and Telomeres Network to name a few. She was actively involved in creating and promoted the Translational Research Framework and it’s uptake by the many multidisciplinary Centers NIEHS supports to the highlight impact of NIEHS supported research. The framework helps investigators describe many scientific advances and their trajectory across the translational path across basic science to application in community, policy or clinical advances.

Collman joined NIEHS in 1984 in the Epidemiology Branch. In 1992, she became a Program Administrator in DERT. She is credited with building the NIEHS grant portfolio in environmental and molecular epidemiology, and she developed several complex multidisciplinary research programs. These included the NIEHS Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers Program, the NIEHS/EPA Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention, and the Genes, Environment and Health Initiative. Also, under her guidance, a team created a vision for the Partnerships for Environmental Public Health programs for the next decade.

In recognition of her achievements, Collman has received many NIEHS Merit Awards, two NIH Director's Awards, and the HHS Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service. Collman received a Ph.D. in Environmental Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health where she was awarded the 2009 H.A. Tyroler Distinguished Alumni Award.

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