Jennifer Fan-Yu Tseng is an American surgical oncologist and gastrointestinal surgeon. In 2017, she became the first woman in Boston to lead surgical units at a medical school and teaching hospital.

Early life and education

Tseng was born to Rose Yun-Li Tseng and Raymond Chi-Jen Tseng. Her father was an engineer and her mother a nutritionist and educator whose last position was Chancellor of

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo The University of Hawaii at Hilo (UH Hilo) is a public university in Hilo, Hawaii. It is one of ten general campuses of the University of Hawaii system. It was founded as Hilo Center at Lyman Hall of the Hilo Boys School in 1945 and was a bran ...

. She was born into a medical family as her grandfather was a general and thoracic surgeon and her grandmother was an OB-GYN and primary care doctor in China and Taiwan. Born and raised in Berkeley, California to immigrant parents, Tseng started preschool without speaking English. She learned English in preschool and also through her parents RCA black-and-white TV set. During high school and college, Tseng worked as a medical receptionist at the Palo Alto Medical Center before switching to Valley Medical Center, a county hospital in San Jose. Tseng attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

for her undergraduate's degree in biology and English and enrolled at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

for her medical degree. She then moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, and completed her

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

. She completed a general surgery residency at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

and a research fellowship in molecular medicine at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

Boston Children’s Hospital Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care Pediatrics, children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard ...

, followed by a clinical fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Career

Upon completing her residency and fellowship, Tseng joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In April 2006, Tseng was named the first research scholar of the Pancreatic Cancer Alliance and later won a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Physician-Scientist Early Career Award. The following year, she was the Founding Director of SOAR ( Surgical Outcomes Analysis and Research), a research initiative to improve treatment strategies for surgical conditions and to develop tools to assess and reduce risk. In 2017, Tseng continued her research into oncologic surgery and was granted appointments to various leadership positions across Boston. In March, she was named to the Board of Directors for

Mauna Kea Technologies Mauna Kea Technologies is a global medical device company focused on endomicroscopy, the field of microscopic imaging during endoscopy procedures. The company researches, develops and markets tools to visualize, detect, and rule out abnormalities ...

as an Independent Director. She completed her term and resigned from the Board of Mauna Kea December 2020. She later became the first woman in Boston to lead surgical units at a medical school and teaching hospital when she was appointed Chief and Chair of Surgery at Boston Medical Center (BMC). During 2019, Tseng was selected as a Director of the American Board of Surgery and recipient of the 2020 Pinnacle Award in the "Achievements in the Professions" category by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network. As a result of her research, Tseng was also named to various editorial boards of several journals including the Deputy Editor of ''

JAMA Surgery ''JAMA Surgery'' is an international peer-reviewed journal, which began publication in 1920.Kibbe, MD, Melina R. and Howard Bauchner, MD (2020)"Announcing the 100th Anniversary of JAMA Surgery, 1920 to 2020" editorial, JAMA Network, January 8, 202 ...

.'' She is also an active member of numerous surgical societies, including the American Surgical Association, the Society of University Surgeons, and the Society of Surgical Oncology. In 2021, she was named President-Elect of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract and is a founder and past president of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons.

Personal life

Tseng married Marc Sabatine in 2000. They have two children and live in greater Boston.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tseng, Jennifer F. Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American academics of Taiwanese descent American academics of Chinese descent People from Berkeley, California Academics from California American oncologists American women oncologists American gastroenterologists Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni Stanford University alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni Harvard Medical School faculty UMass Chan Medical School faculty 21st-century surgeons 21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians Physicians from California American women academics