National Environmental Health Association

National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Denver, Colorado, that has been registered to receive federal awards since 2001. NEHA primarily provides training, education, and workforce development services to environmental health professionals across state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) jurisdictions. The organization delivers comprehensive educational programs and conferences designed to advance the knowledge, skills, and competencies of the environmental health workforce, with a particular focus on food safety, regulatory compliance, and public health protection. Through its federal grant awards, NEHA serves as a critical partner to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), supporting the development and delivery of specialized training programs and educational resources that strengthen the nation's food safety system and environmental health infrastructure.

NEHA's federal grant work encompasses several key service areas across cooperative agreements and project grants primarily funded by the FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs and the CDC's Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support. The organization has developed and maintains the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) training framework, delivering over 25 FDA-aligned courses annually through instructor-led, virtual, and hybrid formats while managing the full-service logistics including instructor coordination, learning management system integration, and post-course evaluation. NEHA has established the Retail Flexible Funding Model (RFFM) grant management system to distribute financial assistance to SLTT retail food regulatory programs, created and expanded online self-assessment and verification audit courses for the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards, and hosts the biennial Retail Program Standards Symposium and annual virtual grant kickoff meetings. Additionally, NEHA administers the Annual Educational Conference (AEC), a longstanding event that convenes over 1,400 environmental health professionals to exchange knowledge on food safety, program standards conformance, and emerging public health priorities, which has evolved to include hybrid and virtual formats to ensure accessibility to small, rural, and frontier programs. The organization has also developed specialized training programs in body art facility inspection and conducted longitudinal retention studies to evaluate real-world training application. NEHA's collaborative partnerships include work with the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), the Body Art Education Alliance (BAEA), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the National Conference of State Legislatures, as well as a sub-award relationship with The Center for Rural Development, Inc. for course development and training delivery.