In Memoriam: Dr. Jill Tirabassi, a Voice for Knowledge & Health

The MBC Alliance celebrates the life and work of our patient advocate member Jill Tirabassi, who passed away on September 7, 2026, at age 40.

Jill was a physician, researcher, educator and advocate whose work was grounded in helping people live healthier lives and making medical knowledge more useful and accessible to the people it was meant to serve.

A sports and family medicine specialist, Jill served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the Health and Wellness Thread Leader at the University at Buffalo. She earned her medical degree at SUNY Upstate Medical University and went on to earn a master’s in public health at the University of Massachusetts.

In her professional roles, she led projects including the development of food literacy initiatives for teens and research into food prescription programs for older adults. She received a clinical leadership award for her work in primary care and implementation science.

As a physician, Jill cared deeply for her patients and shared with them practices she embraced in her own life: the importance of food, movement and time outdoors as medicine for both body and mind. That connection to nature was central to who she was: her husband, family and friends will always remember Jill as being happiest with dirt on her hands.

On October 13, 2022, Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day, Jill was diagnosed de novo with metastatic breast cancer while pregnant with her second son.

Her diagnosis brought a new dimension to work she had already devoted her career to: improving health through evidence, education and better care. Jill became passionate about raising awareness of postpartum breast cancer (PPBC) and improving understanding and treatment of this distinct subtype of breast cancer. She completed Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s Hear My Voice MBC Leadership training program and began integrating her own experience into her work of educating patients and clinicians about PPBC and its unique risks, including its high likelihood of metastasis.

Jill advocated for the oncology community to develop tailored treatment approaches for PPBC and to prioritize research, particularly in immunotherapy, that could improve outcomes for people living with the diagnosis. Her belief in the importance of patient-led research inspired Jill to actively support community-led research through advisory boards and the Patient Voices Network at the University at Buffalo.

Drawing on both her professional expertise and personal experience, Jill advocated for exercise and evidence-based lifestyle medicine to be more fully integrated into oncology treatment plans. She served as a mentor through Project Life, a nonprofit thrivership program that supports people living with MBC in all facets of wellness—from financial and social to spiritual, physical and emotional.

After joining the MBC Alliance in late 2024, Jill partnered with fellow patient advocate members Victoria Goldberg, Martha Carlson, Dr. Ellen Landsberger, Lynda Weatherby, Abigail Johnston and Melanie Sisk to launch the podcast Live From Stage 4: MBC News for Us, by Us. The podcast shares stories, insights and conversations with expert guests while finding room for humor and humanity within the serious realities of metastatic breast cancer.

As a clinician, researcher and advocate who was herself living with MBC, Jill was a valuable colleague on the podcast team. She had a gift for making complicated science understandable while never losing sight of what that science meant in the day-to-day lives of patients. In the podcast’s “S**t We Deal With” segment, which explored the challenges people living with MBC face on a regular basis, Jill dove into research and spoke candidly about her own experience of the time burden of living with MBC, from travel and clinic visits to paperwork and managing medications.

For all that Jill accomplished as a physician, researcher and advocate, her family was at the center of her life. She especially enjoyed sharing her love of the outdoors with her sons, Matthias and Salvatore. From hiking and gardening to watching wildlife in the backyard together, some of her happiest moments were spent experiencing the natural world with them.

Jill’s curiosity, dedication and authentic care for others will be deeply missed. We are grateful for the knowledge and energy she shared with the MBC community, and for the questions she insisted we keep asking. We honor Jill by continuing to push for greater understanding of postpartum breast cancer, more research into the treatments people with PPBC need, and a research culture in which the voices and experiences of patients help shape the path forward.

Listen to “Say Their Name: Remembering Dr. Jill Tirabassi” on the Live from Stage 4 podcast.