Termeh M. Feinberg, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Epidemiologist, NCCIH

Termeh M. Feinberg, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an epidemiologist in the Office of the Director at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). She serves as an expert adviser on pain surveillance and the use of complementary health approaches in the United States. She also leads and consults on the design, implementation, and analysis of research projects on complementary health approaches, including nonpharmacologic approaches and the use of natural products. Dr. Feinberg is dedicated to furthering investigation of pain-related factors and treatment.

Dr. Feinberg has extensive expertise in the application and use of quantitative methodologies, and she has experience managing and analyzing data from public sources such as the National Health Information Survey, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. In addition, she has conceptualized and led primary data collection efforts across multiple settings, including for the development and implementation of clinical trial protocols. She is particularly interested in survey development and hierarchical modeling. She has presented research to national and international audiences and has published several peer-reviewed scientific articles on the use of complementary health approaches, including the use of natural products, in diverse populations for chronic pain and other conditions.

Before joining NCCIH as a contract employee, Dr. Feinberg completed her doctorate in epidemiology at West Virginia University and her master’s degree in community health at West Chester University. Her postgraduate training included a fellowship at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she led and collaborated on nutritional epidemiology and efficacy research. She also completed an advanced dual fellowship in medical informatics with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Center of Innovation for Pain Research, Informatics, Multimorbidities, and Education and the Yale University School of Medicine Center for Medical Informatics. In this role, she acquired foundational knowledge of statistical and informatics methods for investigating natural products and information collected from patient notes and other unstructured text. Dr. Feinberg is a well-rounded public health professional who can identify gaps in all phases of research, ranging from preclinical studies to the dissemination of health interventions in communities. Specifically, she seeks to identify and fill gaps related to the use, efficacy, and effectiveness of complementary health approaches for pain and other chronic conditions. 

Dr. Feinberg has had training and employment experiences in academia, the government, and industry. She mentored graduate students and taught both population and integrative health at the graduate level. As an independent contractor, she was lead analyst for several disparity-focused projects. Prior to this, she assisted with the grantmaking process in a community health, nonprofit setting. She received and continues to pursue training in community herbalism education and has served as an educator in both academic and industry settings. In her free time, she enjoys cooking with her family, exploring nature, and foraging for botanicals. She is currently a contractor at NCCIH.