The first annual meeting of the leaders of all the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) extramural Centers occurred in Denver on October 3-4, at the University of Colorado.  This included the Directors and Associate Directors of the three types of Centers:

• 17 Education and Research Centers (one at the University of Washington in Seattle)
• 9 Agricultural Safety and Health Centers (one at the University of Washington in Seattle)
• 4 Total Worker Health Centers (one at Oregon Health & Science University, with collaborators from Portland State University, University of Oregon, and Oregon State University)

The Center Directors and Associate Directors held the meeting, but the NIOSH Director and program leadership did not attend due to the US government shutdown.

These Centers represent over 50% of the total NIOSH budget for extramural grants (mostly to Universities).  The group discussed questions about how Centers might develop cross-cutting themes such as Total Worker Health and new ways to combine together to serve the entire country.  The Total Worker Health Centers also met separately on October 4.  They are working on resources and toolkits to develop TWH programs.  NIOSH is working on a bibliography of all TWH publications that it plans to publish on it’s website by the end of 2013.  Learn more about NIOSH programs here:

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/

Learn more about the NIOSH TWH program at:

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/TWH/