Mary Beth Terry, PhD

Dr. Mary Beth Terry is an internationally renowned cancer epidemiologist with more than 25 years of experience leading studies on breast cancer risk factors, specifically the role of genetics, epigenetics, and other biomarkers in modifying the effects of environmental exposures on cancer risk and outcomes. She joined Silent Spring Institute as Executive Director in July 2024.

Dr. Terry’s current research focuses on environmental exposures during key windows of susceptibility and among individuals, families, and communities with increased susceptibility to cancer. She and her colleagues developed the LEGACY Girls Study, the first study to examine the influence of early life exposures on breast development among girls with and without a family history. The study is part of the Breast Cancer Family Registry (BCFR)—an international cohort of more than 40,000 men and women of multi-generational families from the United States, Canada, and Australia. Dr. Terry has led other multi-generational studies of breast cancer risk through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP), where she was introduced to Dr. Julia Brody.

Author of more than 450 scientific publications, her research has produced definitive data on the role of endocrine disrupting chemicals, including DDT and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and their lifelong and persistent effects on breast cancer risk by altering breast tissue composition and epigenetic changes. Dr. Terry employs novel phenotype assays and translates her work through the validation and enhancement of clinical risk models and improved clinical translation, which supports precision medicine and precision risk reduction initiatives.

Having lived and worked in areas profoundly affected by environmental injustice (which exacerbates long standing health inequities), Dr. Terry recognizes that environmental research that produces evidence that can change policies is essential to improving public health. Her current work focuses on direct community translation through household interventions and data needed to support local and state policies. As former director of the Community Outreach and Engagement Office at the Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, she established extensive impactful and collaborative networks around the New York City region to reduce health disparities in chronic diseases. Through these collaborative networks, Dr. Terry co-leads the Environmental Carcinogens and Climate Health Action Team and the Community Engagement Working Group.

Dr. Terry has served on numerous prestigious committees, most recently on the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Pathways to Prevention panel on maternal mortality. She has served as an invited speaker and member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's workshops on environmental exposures (2017) and on cancer prevention (2022). She recently completed a multi-year position on the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Board of Scientific Counselors and a decade-long service as an invited member of NCI’s Physician Data Query (PDQ) Genetics Board for Breast and Gynecological Cancers. She recently transitioned from this position to an invited member of the overall PDQ Cancer Genetics Advisory Board for all cancers. From 2022 to 2023, she served as an invited member of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) Monographs and Handbook Working Group on Alcohol Reduction and Cancer Risk.

Dr. Terry became interested in the environmental causes of breast cancer as a doctoral student. She had the opportunity to work on the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project in the 1990s. Her early studies included an investigation of the relationship between prenatal exposures and breast tissue density. This work was conducted in collaboration with the National Collaborative Perinatal Project and the California Health and Development Studies, which recruited mothers and babies in the 1950s. Her studies produced some of the first evidence that exposures in the womb affect breast tissue density, a marker of breast cancer risk.

Dr. Terry is a Professor of Epidemiology in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Associate Director of Population Science at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. She earned her PhD in epidemiology from Columbia University and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Washington. Prior to receiving her doctorate, she worked as an econometrician evaluating different governmental programs.