Andrea Leonard is the Founder and President of the Cancer Exercise Training Institute
“Andrea knew that her calling in life was to help make a difference in the lives of cancer patients worldwide.”
– E.G. Beres
Andrea Leonard, MS, is an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of oncology exercise science and the founder and president of the Cancer Exercise Training Institute (CETI) – the world’s leading organization for the advanced education and certification of fitness professionals working with cancer patients and survivors. With a career spanning more than three decades, Andrea has trained and certified nearly 20,000 OncoVie® Cancer Exercise Specialists across 60 countries, authored 23 books on cancer and exercise, and delivered keynote lectures and workshops at premier conferences, major medical centers, and universities worldwide. Her evidence-based curriculum is trusted by hospitals, integrative oncology practices, and fitness facilities worldwide, and her work has inspired an entire generation of health and fitness professionals to redefine movement as medicine for cancer patients and survivors everywhere.
Her commitment to this work is not merely professional – it is profoundly, irrevocably personal. Andrea is a 42-year cancer survivor. Diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of eighteen, she underwent a complete thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine treatment. The physical aftermath – chronic fatigue, metabolic disruption, and significant weight gain – did not diminish her; it ignited her. Determined not simply to recover but to rebuild, and then to serve, she pursued a career in health and fitness with a singular mission: to ensure that no cancer patient would face their recovery without expert guidance, evidence-based programming, and the transformative power of purposeful movement.
Cancer has not merely visited Andrea’s life – it has shaped every dimension of it. She carries the perspective of a survivor who rebuilt her own body after disease. She carries the grief of a daughter who lost her father to multiple cancers. And today she carries the unwavering devotion of a caregiver, supporting her mother through metastatic breast cancer following a remarkable 23-year remission. It is this depth of lived experience – combined with three decades of clinical expertise and rigorous academic preparation – that makes Andrea’s voice in the field not merely credentialed, but irreplaceable.
Andrea began her professional career in 1992 at the National Capital YMCA in Washington, D.C., where she rose rapidly from personal trainer to Director of Personal Training. She simultaneously founded Leading Edge Fitness and developed the EMPOWER program – Energizing, Mobilizing, Post-Operative Workout Enhancing Recovery – one of the earliest structured exercise protocols designed specifically to restore physical function and quality of life following surgical intervention. The trajectory of her mission shifted profoundly in 1996 when her mother received her second breast cancer diagnosis. Witnessing firsthand the devastating physical and emotional toll of cancer treatment – and the near-complete absence of medically informed fitness support – Andrea recognized both a crisis and a calling. She assembled a multidisciplinary medical advisory team from Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Johns Hopkins University Medical Centers, and together they produced “Essential Exercises for Breast Cancer Survivors,” published by Harvard Common Press in 2000 – a landmark text that brought evidence-based exercise prescription into mainstream oncology rehabilitation for the first time.
Recognizing that individual clinical work could never reach the scale the cancer community demanded, Andrea founded The Breast Cancer Survivor’s Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to improving quality of life for survivors and their families, and in 2004 established the Cancer Exercise Training Institute – the organization that would redefine the entire field of oncology exercise education worldwide. Through CETI’s flagship OncoVie® Cancer Exercise Specialist program – delivered through immersive live workshops and advanced online study – participants gain in-depth knowledge of 26 types of cancer and pediatric oncology, including surgical interventions, chemotherapy and radiation protocols, treatment side effects and contraindications, lymphedema prevention and management, reconstructive procedures, and individualized exercise prescription for every stage of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Graduates who successfully complete the comprehensive examination earn the OncoVie® Cancer Exercise Specialist Advanced Qualification, a credential that signals clinical readiness, professional excellence, and an unwavering commitment to the highest standards of survivorship care.
Andrea holds a Master of Science in Functional Nutrition from Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (2023) and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland (1990). Since 1992 she has aquired advanced professional certifications through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the American Council on Exercise (ACE), and is recognized as a Special Populations Expert by the Cooper Institute. In 2019, she was honored with the PFP/Club Industry Personal Trainer of the Year Award – the fitness industry’s highest recognition for excellence in personal training – in acknowledgment of her groundbreaking contributions to cancer rehabilitation and functional exercise programming.
A testament to the clinical rigor and transformative impact of CETI’s curriculum, the American Council on Exercise (ACE) – one of the largest and most respected fitness certification bodies in the world – recognized the tremendous value of the OncoVie® Cancer Exercise Specialist course and has been an official partner of Andrea and CETI since 2017. This enduring partnership reflects ACE’s confidence in the quality, depth, and evidence-based integrity of CETI’s oncology exercise education, and has significantly expanded the reach of Andrea’s mission by connecting her curriculum with tens of thousands of fitness professionals across the ACE global network. It stands as one of the most meaningful institutional endorsements in the history of oncology exercise – a formal acknowledgment by a leading governing body of the profession that cancer exercise specialization is not a niche, but a necessity.
As one of the most prolific authors in the history of oncology exercise science, Andrea’s 23 published books represent the most comprehensive library of oncology fitness education available to health professionals anywhere in the world. Her landmark publication, Essential Exercises for Breast Cancer Survivors, remains a foundational text in the field. Her expertise has been featured in PFP Magazine, ACE Certified, Club Solutions, NASM’s Training Edge, The Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, The Oregonian, and Bethesda Today, among numerous other publications. She has appeared in dozens of educational videos, including the Heartflex Breast Cancer Recovery series, and served as a recurring fitness expert on AM Northwest, bringing evidence-based oncology exercise guidance to mainstream audiences across the Pacific Northwest.
Andrea has delivered CETI workshops and keynote addresses at some of the most prestigious venues in the global health and medical community, including IDEA World, the Healthy Aging Summit, the Asia Fitness Conference, the CPTN Personal Training Conference, the Kaiser Permanente Thriving with Cancer Conference, Georgetown University Hospital, OHSU School of Nursing, New York Institute of Technology, Winona State University, Memorial Hermann, Sibley Hospital, Avera McKennan Prairie Cancer Center, Sanford Health System, Baptist Health System, and Fort Bliss Army Installation, among many others. Her visionary work has inspired hospitals, universities, and medical fitness programs around the world to model their cancer exercise and survivorship initiatives after CETI’s evidence-based framework.
Andrea Leonard did not wait for the medical establishment to validate the transformative power of exercise in oncology care. She built that validation herself – one certified professional, one survivor, one life at a time. Today, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Sports Medicine, and major cancer centers worldwide formally recommend exercise as a cornerstone of cancer treatment and survivorship care. The clinical language, the professional standards, and the evidence-based protocols that underpin those recommendations reflect decades of foundational work that Andrea Leonard laid before it was fashionable, before it was funded, and before much of the field believed it was possible. Under her leadership, the Cancer Exercise Training Institute has become the global gold standard in oncology exercise education – and her legacy is measured not in titles or accolades, but in the hundreds of thousands of cancer patients and survivors who are stronger, healthier, and more hopeful today because the right professional was there to guide them.