Jennifer Ligibel, MD

Dr. Jennifer Ligibel is a professor at Harvard Medical School and a senior physician in the Breast Oncology Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Ligibel’s research focuses on the impact of energy balance factors, such as physical activity and body weight, upon cancer risk and outcomes. She has conducted more than a dozen randomized trials evaluating the impact of exercise and weight loss interventions on endpoints such as cardiorespiratory fitness, biomarkers associated with cancer risk and outcomes, body composition, and quality of life in cancer patients and survivors. This work has culminated in the design and implementation of the Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) Trial, the only fully powered Phase III clinical trial designed to test the impact of a weight loss intervention on invasive disease-free survival in women with early-stage breast cancer and obesity (NCT02750826).

In addition to primary research work, Dr. Ligibel is also the director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living and has built a comprehensive clinical Healthy Living Program for patients at Dana-Farber and beyond that offers an array of exercise classes, nutrition seminars, cooking demonstrations, programs focused on healthy cooking for families, weight management programs, and holistic longitudinal programs to foster wellness during and after cancer treatment.

Finally, Dr. Ligibel is the inaugural director of the Center for Faculty Well-Being at Dana-Farber. In this role, she studies the prevalence and predictors of burnout in academic physicians and develops solutions to mitigate and prevent burnout in Dana-Farber faculty. In recognition of her work in mentoring and supporting faculty, she was awarded the Hologic, Inc. Endowed Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award in 2021.