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Center for Human Health and the Environment

Membership Criteria

Full Member

Faculty member at NC State, ECU, or NCCU.
                        or
Provides scientific or administrative expertise to the CHHE.

In addition, Full Member must have:

Obtained or applied for extramural EHS grant support (PI, Co-PI or Co-I) within the past three years or
                      and
Contributed to the peer-reviewed EHS literature within the past three years.

Junior faculty/early stage investigators planning to conduct EHS research are eligible to apply for Full Membership provided they have a track record of authoring peer-reviewed publications in their respective field. It is expected that such individuals will meet the eligibility requirements listed above within 4 years of receiving CHHE Membership.

Associate Member

Faculty member at NC State, ECU, or NCCU, or professional status at an organization in the Research Triangle area (e.g. NC DHHS).
                     and
Demonstrate strong interest in EHS.

Affiliate Member

Post-doc, research associate, or research scholar at NC State, ECU, or NCCU who has a significant interest in EHS, and whose research area has EHS relevance.

Expectations of Members

  • Participate in CHHE seminars, socials, retreats, interest groups, symposia, and surveys (All members)
  • Use CHHE core facilities to advance their research (Full members).
  • Contribute scientific or administrative expertise to the research mission of CHHE (Full and Associate members).

Membership Approval Process

The Director and the Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) will vote on the appointment of new nominees and reappointment of existing members. Initial appointment is for a term of three years.

Prospective CHHE members must demonstrate a commitment to the goals of the CHHE and will be expected to participate in CHHE events. Member candidates must provide a CV and a letter documenting their interest in membership to the Center Director.

The Director and IAC will discuss and vote on all applications for membership. A simple majority vote in favor of membership will be required to accept the applicant for CHHE membership. Applicants accepted for membership will receive an email from the Center Director welcoming them to CHHE.  Applicants receiving unfavorable votes will receive an email from the Center Director with reasons for the vote. The applicant will be provided an opportunity to provide a rebuttal that will then be considered at the next IAC meeting. A second unfavorable vote will require the member candidate waiting one year before re-applying with the expectation that during that year, they will demonstrate increased activities consistent with Center membership.

Benefits of Membership

  • Priority access to and use of core facilities.
  • Expert guidance by core leaders on experimental design, sample preparation, omics services as well as bioinformatic and statistical analysis of experimental data.
  • Access to Ingenuity Pathway Analysis and CLC Genomics Workbench software.
  • Access to $5K seed funds/year (Full Members only)
  • STC voucher up to $15K (Full Members only)
  • Travel awards for early career investigators to attend workshop, meeting or learn a new technique
  • Scored Grant Program – accepts requests of up to $15K from full members to support the generation of new data for the revision of EHS-related R01s that were scored but not funded
  • Invitation to all CHHE events, monthly newsletter and emails describing EHS relevant events/meeting/opportunities
  • Invitation to participate in CHHE’s Pilot Project Program

Reclassification and Reappointment

The Director and IAC will annually review members’ research, funding and Center involvement and may re-classify membership status according to annual activity. Members may request a review and adjustment of their membership status.

Near the end of each three-year term of membership, each Member will be evaluated by the Director and IAC for renewal of membership for another three-year term. Members will provide an activity report describing their participation in Center activities, use of Core Facilities, funding, and citation of the Center grant in research publications that utilize Center resources.  The evaluation process will proceed as follows:

  1. The Director and Deputy Director will make a preliminary assessment of each member’s activities and suitability for continued membership in the Center based upon the activity report of the Member;
  2. A member obviously meeting the stated expectations of membership will be reappointed; and
  3. A member who is not obviously meeting requirements for continued membership will be brought to the IAC for full consideration. The Director and the IAC will review the activity report and vote; a simple majority will be required for continued membership. Members receiving an unfavorable vote will be notified with reasons why and be provided an opportunity to submit a rebuttal for consideration at the next IAC meeting before being removed from Center membership. A second unfavorable vote by the IAC will be required to remove an individual from Center membership. If the individual’s situation changes, they can re-apply for membership at a future date.