Jennifer Ashton

Jennifer Ashton
Jennifer Lee Garfein Ashton (born April 23, 1969) is a physician, author, and television correspondent. She is chief health and medical editor and chief medical correspondent for ABC News and Good Morning America, chief women's health correspondent for The Dr. Oz Show, and a columnist for Cosmopolitan Magazine. Dr. Ashton is also a regular contributor to the ABC daytime program GMA3: What You Need to Know. She is also a frequent guest speaker and moderator for events raising awareness of women's health issues.
Early life and education
Ashton was born in Victorville, California to Oscar Garfein, a New York City cardiologist, and Dorothy Garfein, a registered nurse. Her brother, Evan Garfein, is chief of plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery at Montefiore Hospital in New York City.
Ashton attended Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York City, where she studied French and English. She graduated from Columbia College, Columbia University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in art history. She completed a medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2000. While at Columbia, she served as President of her medical school class for all four years and was awarded the Bartlestone Prize in Pharmacology at graduation.
Upon completion of her residency at Mt. Sinai West (formerly St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in NYC), she was awarded Chief Resident of the Year, this was the first time this award was ever given in the history of the program. She subsequently earned a master's degree in nutrition from Columbia University, in 2016.
Career
Ashton is double board-certified in obstetrics, gynecology and Obesity Medicine. Ashton completed her residency at St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital Center (now Mount Sinai Morningside) in New York.
She has practiced as an attending physician at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, an affiliate of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey, and is currently in private practice.
Ashton launched her television career in 2006 as the first female medical contributor to the Fox News Channel. She appeared on TLC's A Baby Story, on PBS, and on Oprah & Friends XM radio's The Dr. Oz Show.
She joined CBS News as a medical correspondent in 2009.
Ashton co-hosted the short-lived ABC television series The Revolution, canceled in April 2012 due to poor viewership.
She joined the ABC News medical unit as senior medical contributor in 2012, making regular appearances on Good Morning America and ABC World News Tonight.
In 2013 she became an on-air personality for the daytime talk show The Doctors.
As of March 2020, she has been a co-host during showings of GMA3: What You Need to Know (formerly Pandemic: What You Need to Know). Ashton also serves as the chief health and medical editor and chief medical correspondent for ABC News and Good Morning America. She is only the 3rd doctor to hold that position in the history of ABC News, and the first woman.
Ashton is the author of The Body Scoop for Girls (2009), Your Body Beautiful (2012), Eat This, Not That! When You're Expecting (2016), Life After Suicide (2019), The Self Care Solution (2019), and The New Normal (2021). In 2023, Ashton published the first issue of The Dr. Jen Ashton Magazine. Ashton serves as the Editor and Chief. The magazine's launch was the most successful A360 Magazine launch in three years.
Personal life
On August 31, 1996, Jennifer married Robert Ashton Jr, a thoracic and cardiac surgeon and later had two children, Chloë and Alex. They divorced in January 2017. On February 11, 2017, two weeks after the divorce was finalized, Robert, 52, died by suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. On June 6, 2018, after news of Kate Spade's suicide broke, Ashton went public about her ex-husband's death during an interview with colleague George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. She became engaged to Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner in January 2022. They were married on November 5, 2022, at the Harmonie Club in New York City.
Ashton has revealed that she learned Transcendental Meditation through the David Lynch Foundation.
Bibliography
The Body Scoop for Girls: A Straight-Talk Guide to a Healthy, Beautiful You, Jennifer Ashton with Christine Larson, 2009, .
Your Body Beautiful: Clockstopping Secrets to Staying Healthy, Strong, and Sexy in Your 30s, 40s, and Beyond, Jennifer Ashton with Christine Rojo, 2012.
Eat This When You're Expecting, Not That: Your Complete Guide to the Very Best Foods For Every Stage of Pregnancy, Jennifer Ashton, and David Zinczenko, 2016.
Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort & Community After Unthinkable Loss, Jennifer Ashton, 2019.
Awards and honors
In 2007, Ashton was recognized as a Woman of Achievement by the Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey. In 2008, she received the Hope for The Future Award from The Octoberwoman Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness. While working as CBS News Network’s Medical Correspondent in 2009-2011, Dr. Ashton received the prestigious Columbia Alfred DuPont Award for Excellence in Journalism. Dr. Jennifer Ashton is the recipient of the American Heart Association's 2023 Woman Changing the World Award.
She is also a four time Emmy Award winner.
References
External links
Professional practice page
Profile on Vitals.com
1969 births
Living people
American gynecologists
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni
People from San Bernardino County, California
Physicians from California
ABC News people
CBS News people
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Women gynaecologists
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American women physicians
21st-century American physicians