Public Health
Director of Surveillance Military Environmental Exposures, Health Outcomes Military Exposures
Erin Dursa, PhD, MPH
Dr. Erin Dursa is the Director of Surveillance Military Environmental Exposures (SMEE) for Health Outcomes Military Exposures (HOME). She previously served for 13 years as a senior Epidemiologist in the HOME Epidemiology Program, where her research focused on the long-term health effects of deployment, specifically for 1990-1991 Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn Veterans.
Prior to joining HOME, Dr. Dursa was a biostatistician for the VA Office of Research and Development’s Cooperative Studies Program. She has published widely on post-deployment health issues including Gulf War Illness/chronic multi-symptom illness, respiratory health, post-traumatic stress disorder, military sexual trauma, and women’s health.
Dr. Dursa is the principal investigator of the Gulf War Era Cohort Study, the largest and longest-running longitudinal cohort study of Gulf War Veterans, which VA has been following since 1995. She is leading VA’s effort to use machine learning to develop a data-driven case definition for Gulf War Illness.
Dr. Dursa received her MPH in epidemiology from the Yale School of Public Health and a PhD in epidemiology from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Dursa is a Navy spouse and former Ombudsman of the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.