About Us

Human Health and the Environment

Our aim is to understand how human health, at both the individual and population level, is impacted by environmental factors and to implement this knowledge to reduce the adverse impacts of environment factors on human health.

CHHE is an NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Science Core Center.

Leadership

Sue Fenton

Director

Bio 

David Aylor

Deputy Director

Bio 

“CHHE provides focus, resources and leadership for interdisciplinary research that improves human health locally, nationally and globally.”

-Rob Smart, Founding Director

Advisory Boards

External Advisory Board

• B. Paige Lawrence, PhD, is the Wright Family Research Professor and Chair of Environmental Medicine, Director of the Rochester Environmental Health Science Center, and inaugural Director of the University of Rochester Institute for Human Health & the Environment. Her research focuses primarily on determining how environmental signals influence the immune system, including how exposures during developmentally sensitive life stages affect immune functions later in life. Her research combines toxicology, immunology, cell and molecular biology, and integrates in vivo, in vitro, and in silico tools.
• Dana C. Dolinoy is Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Nutritional Sciences and NSF International Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she directs the Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD) Center. Her research focuses on how nutritional and environmental factors interact with epigenetic gene regulation to shape health and disease.
• Erin N. Haynes University of Kentucky Kurt W. Deuschle Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, Deputy Director of UK-CARES, and expert in community-engaged environmental health research.
• Kenneth S. Ramos, MD, PhD, is an accomplished physician-scientist and transformational leader, with designations in the National Academy of Sciences (Lifetime Associate) and National Academy of Medicine (Elected Member). He is recognized throughout the world for his scientific contributions in the areas of genomics, precision medicine and toxicology.

Stakeholder Advisory Board

• Edwin Davis | Science Teacher at Broughton High School | Director of Science Happens 4 Me
• Corie Hlavaty | Science Teacher at Lakewood Montessori Magnet School 
• Louie Rivers | Associate Professor, NCSU Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources
• Kemp Burdette | Cape Fear RiverKeeper
• Sound Rivers
• PEACH
• Clean Aire NC

Interdisciplinary Research Interest Groups

CHHE has developed five Interdisciplinary Research Interest Groups (RIGs) organically evolved from our membership;

• The Water and Emerging Challenges group focuses on the diverse aspects of emerging contaminants including toxicology, chemistry, exposure assessment, bioinformatics, engineering, and biology as well as science communication. 
• The Genes, Environment and Precision Health group includes researchers who study environment, genome, epigenome interactions and health outcomes.
• The Climate change and Airborne Contaminants group focuses on how environmental exposure influence lung disease progression.
• The Behavior and Neuroscience group focuses on the impact of environmental exposures on neurodevelopment, brain and behavior.
• Environmental Health Disparities

Research Support/Facility Cores

CHHE has developed three facility cores that increase the impact and the basic science and translational capacity of its Research Teams.

• The Career Development Core supports investigators at all career stages through collaboration, leadership, and funding opportunities. Emphasizing early- and mid-career, women, and under-represented groups, the program includes events and enrichment activities.
• The Systems Technologies Core provides cutting-edge technologies involving proteomics, metabolomics, metallomics and genomics along with dedicated bioinformatics support.
• The third core, the Translational Research Support Core, facilitates bidirectional translation between basic science and public health outcomes by providing data science analysis and visualization support for analysis of human population and multi-omic studies as well as population-based study expertise.

Community Engagement

The multi-directional Community Engagement Core fosters relationships between CHHE and affected communities in NC which  leads to collaborative interaction among researchers, educators, and citizens to enhance EHS knowledge, literacy, and health.

Supporting Research

A Career Development Core for early- and mid-career investigators is coordinated with a robust Pilot Project Program that supports collaborative and multidisciplinary EHS projects to enhance the research success of our members. Supplemental funding provides seed funding for , travel funds for , vouchers for .