What We Do

The National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) conducts systems-based, effects research needed to achieve sustainable health and wellbeing. Research encompasses both human and ecosystem health, in that they are inextricably linked. 

NHEERL Strategic Goals:

• Lead innovative research and predictive modeling efforts that link environmental condition to the health and wellbeing of people and society.
• Advance research and tools for achieving sustainable and resilient watersheds and water resources.
• Advance systems-based research to predict the adverse effects of chemicals and other stressors across species and biological levels of organization through the development and quantification of adverse outcomes pathways across multiple scales.
• Use integrated research to identify and characterize modifiable factors that respond to environmental conditions, and through intervention, improve health and wellbeing.
• Translate and communicate integrated environmental and health effects science to impact decisions positively at all levels.

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Organization

William H. Benson, Acting Director

• Biography
• Phone:  919-541-2281
• Email:  benson.william@epa.gov

Kay Holt, Deputy Director

• Phone:  919-541-0633
• Email:  holt.kay@epa.gov

William S. Fisher, Acting Associate Director for Ecology

• Phone:  919-541-2281
• Email:  fisher.william@epa.gov

Ronald N. Hines, Associate Director for Health

• Phone:  919-541-2281
• Email:  hines.ronald@epa.gov

Organization Chart

The National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory includes:

• Atlantic Ecology Division
• Environmental Public Health Division
• Gulf Ecology Division
• Integrated Systems Toxicology Division
• Mid-Continent Ecology Division
• Research Cores Unit
• Toxicity Assessment Division
• Western Ecology Division