Deborah Cory-Slechta, PhD

Director, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI)
Chair, UMDNJ-RWJMS Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine
Phone: (732) 445-0205 Fax: (732) 445-0131
Email: dcs@eohsi.rutgers.edu

Dr. Deborah Cory-Slechta has been the Director of The Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) since February, 2003. She is also Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Dr. Deborah Cory-Slechta received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1977 and worked as a junior staff fellow at the National Center for Toxicological Research before moving to the University of Rochester in 1979 to begin a post-doctoral fellowship. She was appointed to the faculty in 1982 and in 1998 became Chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Director of the NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of Rochester. From July 2000 - July 2002, she served as Dean for Research and Director of the Aab Institute for Biomedical Sciences, a newly established post at the University and as such, became the first female dean in the history of the Medical School.

Dr. Cory-Slechta has served on numerous national research review and advisory panels, including committees of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Center for Toxicological Research, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control. In addition, Dr. Cory-Slechta has served on the editorial boards of several journals including Neurotoxicology, Toxicology, Toxicological Sciences, Fundamental and Applied Toxicology, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, and American Journal of Mental Retardation. She has held the elected positions of President of the Neurotoxicology Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology, President of the Behavioral Toxicology Society, and been named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Her research has focused largely on the relationships between neurotransmitter systems and behavior, and how such relationships are altered by exposures to environmental toxicants, particularly the role of environmental neurotoxicants in developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases. These research efforts have resulted in over 100 papers and book chapters to date.