Dr. Marian Fitzgibbon’s is the Associate Director of the Population Health, Behavior and Outcomes Program at the University of Illinois Cancer Center and also the Principal Investigator on the Cancer Education and Career Development Program. Her work has focused predominantly on cancer risk reduction interventions in minority and underserved populations, particularly among families with young children. She has received consistent funding through the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the United States of Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Department of Defense (DOD) for more than 20 years. Dr. Fitzgibbon has extensive experience in conducting both prevention and treatment interventions with obesity-related co-morbid conditions. She has led teams that have a strong track record of both recruiting high-risk populations and following them for up to three years with excellent retention. Dr. Fitzgibbon was a standing member of the NIH Behavioral Medicine Intervention and Outcomes (BMIO) study section (2011-2015) and is currently the former chair of the Psychosocial Risk and Disease Prevention (PRDP) study section (2007-2009). Through graduating from her Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) fellowship in 2013, she enhanced her leadership and mentoring skills. She was also the 2015-2016 President of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the largest multidisciplinary professional organization in the country dedicated to health promotion and disease prevention.
Her research is focused on underserved populations and behavioral risk factors for cancer.