dourson worked in various roles in cincinnati, chicago, and washington d.c. before founding the nonprofit toxicology excellence for risk assessment (tera) in 1995. tera determines the risk profile of chemicals, and maintained the international toxicity estimates for risk (iter) database until tera was invited by the university of cincinnati in 2015 to join as a separate center within the department of environmental health. the national institutes of health (nih) toxicology data network (toxnet) includes iter in its list of reference databases for public use. the nonprofit has accepted payments for criticizing studies that raised concerns about the safety of its clients' products. although tera has collaborated with industry sponsors, the organization’s annual reports indicate that tera collaborates with government sponsors twice as often---over 70 government organizations during its history.