Today, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., announced that Wendy Weber, N.D., Ph.D., has been selected to serve as director of NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Since October 2025, Dr. Weber has provided scientific leadership and strategic counsel and contributed to budget oversight to NCCIH as acting deputy director. She began her new role on August 23, 2026.
"As the home of complex, multi-system health research, NCCIH is central in our mission to understand multifaceted chronic diseases and the role of nutritional interventions on health," Bhattacharya said. "Dr. Weber's history of leadership in whole-person health, pain management research, and deep connection to NIH make her a natural fit to lead the center into a new chapter of rigorous scientific discovery."
As the head of NCCIH, Dr. Weber will manage the administration of the center's approximately $170 million budget. NCCIH supports research that aims to determine the fundamental science, usefulness, and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care.
During her more than 15 years with NIH, Dr. Weber has fulfilled increasingly significant leadership roles. She served as acting division director of extramural research at NCCIH and, over the prior decade, led NCCIH's Clinical Research Branch, overseeing both its establishment and subsequent growth. She also provided scientific leadership to the multi-Institute NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory and the NIH-VA-DoD Pain Management Collaboratory. Dr. Weber's strategic management of clinical trials in this role has driven real-world advancements in non-addictive pain management, such as acupuncture and mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Prior to joining NIH as a program director in 2009, Dr. Weber led clinical investigations of complementary health interventions at Bastyr University, Kenmore, and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. As a faculty member at Bastyr University, Dr. Weber conducted clinical trials of botanical interventions, including Echinacea for the common cold. She was the first naturopathic physician to receive an NIH career development (K) award, which supported her clinical trial of St. John's Wort for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Dr. Weber is a licensed naturopathic physician. She received her N.D. from Bastyr University, Kenmore, and later earned a Master of Public Health and Ph.D. at the University of Washington, Seattle. This combination of clinical training in naturopathic medicine and doctoral-level research training in epidemiology gives Dr. Weber a rare dual perspective, bridging complementary health practice with rigorous scientific methodology.
"I also want to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. David Shurtleff who has served as Acting Director of NCCIH since October 2025," said Dr. Bhattacharya. "I appreciate his leadership and dedication to advancing NCCIH's mission during this time."
