Wendy Weber Named New NCCIH Director: What Her NIH Research Background Means for Complementary Health

Wendy Weber, N.D., Ph.D., has been selected to lead the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), one of the National Institutes of Health’s centers focused on evaluating complementary and integrative approaches through scientific research. She officially began her new role on August 23, 2026.

The appointment brings a familiar NIH research leader into the center’s top position at a time when questions around chronic disease, pain management, nutrition and complementary health approaches continue to attract scientific and public attention.

Weber has spent more than 15 years working within the NIH system. Before becoming NCCIH director, she served in several research and leadership positions at the center, including acting deputy director from October 2025.

Her background is notable because it combines training in naturopathic medicine with graduate-level research training in public health and epidemiology.

Who Is Wendy Weber?

Wendy Weber is a licensed naturopathic physician and researcher whose career has focused heavily on clinical research involving complementary and integrative health approaches.

She joined the NIH in 2009 as a program director. Before that, Weber conducted clinical investigations at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Her academic training includes a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine degree from Bastyr University, followed by a Master of Public Health and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle.

That combination gives Weber experience on both sides of the research question: clinical training in complementary medicine and formal research training in epidemiology.

NIH has highlighted this combination as an important part of her scientific background.

From Clinical Research to NIH Leadership

Weber’s new position is not her first leadership role at NCCIH.

Over the past decade, she led the center’s Clinical Research Branch, where she was involved in establishing and expanding the branch’s work.

She also served as acting division director of extramural research at NCCIH and provided scientific leadership for major NIH collaborative research initiatives.

Among those were the NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory and the NIH-VA-DoD Pain Management Collaboratory.

Her work in clinical trials has included research into non-addictive approaches to pain management, including acupuncture and mindfulness-based stress reduction.

That experience is particularly relevant to NCCIH because the center’s role is not simply to promote complementary health practices. Its stated mission is to investigate their scientific basis, usefulness and safety and determine how they may contribute to health and health care.

What Does NCCIH Actually Do?

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health is part of the NIH, the U.S. government’s primary agency for medical research.

NCCIH supports research into a wide range of complementary and integrative health approaches.

The focus is on questions that can be tested scientifically: Does an intervention work? For whom? How safe is it? What are its potential risks? And where, if anywhere, could it fit within health care?

This distinction matters because the center’s work is fundamentally research-oriented.

NCCIH is not simply an organization that endorses alternative treatments. Its mission includes determining the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative approaches through rigorous scientific investigation.

The center also examines how these approaches may interact with conventional health care and how they could potentially contribute to improved health outcomes.

A Center With an Approximately $170 Million Budget

As NCCIH director, Weber will oversee the administration of an approximately $170 million budget.

That makes the appointment more than a personnel announcement.

The director is responsible for helping guide how the center approaches its scientific priorities, research programs and broader mission.

NCCIH’s research portfolio covers areas connected to complex and multifaceted health problems, including pain management and other issues where patients may use complementary approaches alongside conventional medical care.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said NCCIH is important to research into complex, multi-system health problems and the potential role of nutritional interventions in health.

The appointment therefore places Weber at the center of decisions involving a substantial federal research program.

Why Weber’s Pain Research Experience Matters

Pain management has been one of the important areas of Weber’s research leadership.

Her work through NIH collaborative initiatives has involved clinical research into approaches that could help address pain without relying exclusively on addictive medications.

Acupuncture and mindfulness-based stress reduction are examples of non-pharmacological approaches associated with this research.

However, the significance of this work should not be overstated.

Research into a particular intervention does not automatically mean that the intervention has been proven effective for every condition or patient. NCCIH’s role is to investigate evidence, effectiveness and safety rather than simply assume that a complementary approach works.

That evidence-focused distinction will remain important as Weber takes over the center.

Her Earlier Research Included Botanical Interventions

Before joining NIH, Weber also worked on clinical trials involving botanical interventions.

At Bastyr University, she conducted clinical investigations involving botanical products, including Echinacea for the common cold.

She also became the first naturopathic physician to receive an NIH career development, or K award, which supported clinical research into St. John’s Wort for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

These earlier studies help explain the unusual combination of clinical and research experience that Weber brings to her new leadership position.

Rather than entering NCCIH from outside the field, she has spent much of her professional career working directly on questions involving complementary health interventions and clinical evidence.

What Changed at NCCIH?

Weber’s appointment also marks a change from the center’s temporary leadership arrangement.

Dr. David Shurtleff had served as Acting Director of NCCIH since October 2025.

Before taking over as director, Weber herself had been serving as NCCIH’s acting deputy director since October 2025, providing scientific leadership, strategic counsel and contributing to budget oversight.

She began her permanent role as director on August 23, 2026.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya publicly thanked Shurtleff for his leadership during the interim period.

What Could Weber’s Leadership Mean for NCCIH?

It is too early to predict specific policy or funding changes under Weber’s leadership.

However, her career provides some clues about the areas of expertise she brings to the position.

Her background spans clinical trials, pain research, complementary interventions, epidemiology and NIH research administration.

That combination could be particularly relevant as researchers continue examining chronic and complex health conditions where patients and clinicians are interested in approaches beyond conventional treatment alone.

Her appointment also puts a researcher with direct experience in complementary health research at the head of the federal center specifically responsible for studying these approaches.

The important question going forward will not simply be which complementary therapies receive attention, but what the evidence shows about their effectiveness, safety and appropriate role in health care.

The Bigger Picture

Complementary and integrative health remains an area where public interest can move faster than scientific evidence.

Patients may use supplements, mind-body practices, acupuncture, botanical products and other approaches for a variety of reasons. At the same time, safety, effectiveness, interactions with conventional treatments and the quality of available evidence remain critical questions.

That is where NCCIH’s research mission becomes important.

Under Weber, the center will continue operating within the broader NIH research system, where scientific evidence and clinical research are central to evaluating health interventions.

Her own career reflects that same intersection: naturopathic clinical training on one side and formal epidemiological and clinical research training on the other.

For now, her appointment represents a change in leadership rather than evidence of a new treatment policy.

But with an approximately $170 million budget, a long history inside NIH and extensive experience in complementary-health clinical research, Wendy Weber’s tenure is likely to be closely watched by researchers, health professionals and others interested in the future of integrative health research.

What to Know

• New NCCIH director: Wendy Weber, N.D., Ph.D.
• Started as director: August 23, 2026
• Previous NCCIH role: Acting deputy director since October 2025
• NIH experience: More than 15 years
• NCCIH budget: Approximately $170 million
• Medical training: Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
• Graduate education: MPH and Ph.D. in epidemiology
• Research areas: Complementary health, clinical trials, pain management and botanical interventions
• Previous acting director: David Shurtleff

Sources

• National Institutes of Health (NIH), announcement of Wendy Weber’s appointment as director of NCCIH, August 24, 2026.
• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), official mission and research information.
• National Institutes of Health, official biography and institutional information concerning Wendy Weber.

This article is based on information released by the National Institutes of Health. The appointment itself should not be interpreted as an endorsement by NIH of any particular complementary or alternative treatment.