Julia B. Greer, MD, MPH, is an epidemiologist whose work focuses on pancreatic, ovarian, and breast cancers. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Princeton University, Mount Sinai Medical School, Georgetown University Hospital, and the Graduate School of Public Health in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In addition to being a physician and an accomplished writer, some of her past jobs include aerobics instructor, short-order cook, research assistant, and translator of foreign documents. Her early cancer research concentrated on nutrition, body mass index, and hormonal exposures and ovarian cancer risk. Her more current work is focused in high-risk populations and the genetic predisposition to pancreatic cancer, particularly in relation to mutations in the breast and ovarian cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Greer has written numerous articles on pancreatic and ovarian cancer, speaks to local corporations about nutrition and disease, conducts peer review for a variety of medical journals, and is a member of the editorial board of the World Journal of Gastroenterology. She is presently a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, and is also a member of the American Medical Writer’s Association and Mensa International. And she is one darned good cook.