Dr Hivert is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute (Harvard Medical School). She is a clinical investigator with primary focus on the etiology and primordial prevention of obesity and related co-morbidities, particularly type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes. Her interests also include fetal metabolic programming mechanisms and the integration of genetics, epigenetics, and environmental factors contributing to obesity and related disorders. She is currently involved in many international consortia investigating the genetics determinants of glycemic regulation during and outside of pregnancy.
Dr Hivert completed her clinical training as an Endocrinologist in 2007 at the Université de Sherbrooke (QC, Canada). From 2007 to 2009, she completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and a Master in Medical Sciences (MMSc) in the Scholars in Clinical Sciences Program at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr Hivert was awarded a Scholar Research Award from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé, a Clinical Scientist Award from the Canadian Diabetes Association, and the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). From CIHR, she also received the Maud Menten New Principal Investigator Award from the Institutes of Genetics in 2011.
Dr Hivert has initiated her research in primary prevention by conducting a trial of lifestyle intervention to prevent weight gain in young adults and her work led to upgrading the medical school curriculum at Universite de Sherbrooke to allow better training in lifestyle counseling of future physician. Related to this expertise, she is involved in the Physical Activity Committee at the American Heart Association. Future research projects will include lifestyle interventions aiming at primordial prevention of fetal metabolic programming phenomenon, targeting women and infants during pregnancy and early post-partum periods in the hope to reduce the burden of obesity and diabetes in future generations.
