National Children’s Study Federal Advisory Committee Member (ex officio)
Dr. Dearry is the 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 PhD 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 played a key role in cloning the gene for the human D1 dopaminergic receptor; he has two US patents for this and subsequent investigations.