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
It started with her own diagnosis
Andrea was eighteen when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She had a complete thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine treatment, and came out of it with chronic fatigue, metabolic disruption and significant weight gain, and no guidance on what to do about any of it.
That absence became the work. She is a 42-year survivor.
Cancer has since shaped every part of her life. She lost her father to multiple cancers. She now cares for her mother through metastatic breast cancer, following a 23-year remission.
How the field started
Andrea began her career in 1992 at the National Capital YMCA in Washington, D.C., rising from personal trainer to Director of Personal Training. She founded Leading Edge Fitness and developed EMPOWER — Energizing, Mobilizing, Post-Operative Workout Enhancing Recovery — one of the earliest structured protocols for restoring function after surgery.
In 1996 her mother received a second breast cancer diagnosis. Watching the physical toll of treatment, and finding almost no medically informed fitness support anywhere, Andrea assembled a medical advisory team from Georgetown University, George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University Medical Centers.
Together they produced Essential Exercises for Breast Cancer Survivors, published by Harvard Common Press in 2000. At the time there was no field to cite. There was no exercise oncology. The book had to establish its own ground.
She then founded The Breast Cancer Survivor's Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting survivors and their families — and in 2004, recognizing that one trainer could only reach so many people, established the Cancer Exercise Training Institute.
What CETI does
CETI trains health and fitness professionals to work safely and effectively with cancer patients and survivors, through the OncoVie® Cancer Exercise Specialist program — delivered as live workshops and online study.
Participants learn 26 cancer types plus pediatric oncology: surgical interventions, chemotherapy and radiation protocols, treatment side effects and contraindications, lymphedema prevention and management, reconstructive procedures, and individualized exercise prescription at every stage of diagnosis, treatment and recovery.
Graduates who pass the examination earn the OncoVie® Cancer Exercise Specialist Advanced Qualification.
Nearly 20,000 specialists have been trained across 60 countries — more than any other organization in the world.
The ACE partnership
The American Council on Exercise, one of the largest fitness certification bodies in the world, has been an official partner of CETI since 2017.
That partnership connects the curriculum to tens of thousands of fitness professionals across the ACE network. It also represents something harder to obtain than reach: a formal acknowledgment from a leading governing body that cancer exercise specialization is not a niche.
The formal record
Education. Master of Science in Health and Wellness Coaching, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, 2023. Bachelor of Arts, University of Maryland, 1990.
Certifications. Advanced professional certifications through NASM, ACSM and ACE, held since 1992. Recognized as a Special Populations Expert by the Cooper Institute.
Recognition. PFP/Club Industry Personal Trainer of the Year, 2019.
Publications. 21 books on cancer and exercise, the most comprehensive library of oncology fitness education available anywhere. Essential Exercises for Breast Cancer Survivors remains a foundational text.
Press. PFP Magazine, ACE Certified, Club Solutions, NASM's Training Edge, The Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, The Oregonian, and Bethesda Today, among others. Dozens of educational videos including the Heartflex Breast Cancer Recovery series, and a recurring fitness expert on AM Northwest.
Where she has taught
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 · Fort Bliss Army Installation
Why this matters now
The American Cancer Society, the American College of Sports Medicine, and major cancer centers now recommend exercise as part of cancer treatment and survivorship care.
The clinical language and professional standards behind those recommendations rest on work done before it was funded and before much of the field thought it was possible. Andrea did not wait for the medical establishment to validate exercise in oncology care. She built the validation.
Greg Hendrickson is the CMO of the Cancer Exercise Training Institute and Business Advisor for the global OncoVie® Cancer Exercise Specialist team
With a lifetime of managing cardiac issues with exercise and diet, and multiple family members managing cancer, Greg's connection to the work of CETI is one of both purpose and passion.