Kathryn (Kate) Ackerman, MD, MPH, FACSM

Kathryn (Kate) Ackerman, MD, MPH, FACSM is the Founder and Director of the Female Athlete Program and Biennial International Female Athlete Conference at Boston Children’s Hospital, the Associate Director of the Sports Endocrine Research Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She earned her BA from Cornell University, her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her sports medicine fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and endocrinology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. 

She is currently the chair of the US Rowing medical committee and a member of the World Rowing medical commission. Her research focuses on the female athlete health and the various aspects of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). She has authored/co-authored over 100 articles and book chapters related to sports medicine, endocrinology, rowing, bone health, and female athletes, including position statements with the International Olympic Committee. Athletically, Dr. Ackerman represented the US as a lightweight rower at the World Championships, having taken up rowing as a walk-on at Cornell. She has multiple National Championships titles and still competes with her teammates for life as a masters athlete. Most recently, she has become a member of the national leadership council for the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a $220mill initiative to improve health and performance globally. Dr. Ackerman is leading the Alliance’s focus on scientific advancements for women.