Jennifer Willcox named Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Governance Officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

After a nationwide search, Jennifer Willcox has been named Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Governance Officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, effective June 1. In this role, Willcox has overall responsibility for the legal and board governance function of Dana-Farber. She will serve on the Institute’s executive leadership team and lead the Office of General Counsel which includes overseeing a range of commercial, litigation, labor and employment, regulatory and intellectual property matters.

“Jennifer is a deeply experienced leader with expertise in complex healthcare legal issues, developed both as a legal leader within an academic healthcare organization and as a partner at a large, regional firm. The work of our legal department is foundational to our  growth and innovation and in advancing our mission and she will be a strong asset to our organization,” said Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, president and CEO of Dana-Farber.

Willcox joins Dana-Farber from Yale New Haven Health (YNHH), where she served as Vice President of Legal Services, leading a legal department that provides corporate, litigation, clinical risk management, patient care regulatory, employment and labor advice for the five-hospital, 28,000-employee health system.  She has played a leading role in significant acquisition and financing transactions, as well as advising the boards of Yale New Haven Health and senior executives on matters such as antitrust compliance, governance of tax-exempt organizations, and enterprise risk management, as well as other legal matters.

As a leader committed to diversity and health equity, Willcox helped establish the first “Medical Legal Partnership” at YNHH and led ongoing department initiatives to improving the hiring of diverse attorneys at partner firms. She serves on the boards of a number of community organizations and has written and spoken extensively on healthcare legal issues at conferences around the country.

“I am thrilled to join Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and honored I’ve been asked to lead a team of such high-performing and committed lawyers. I look forward to working with Dana-Farber leadership and the Board of Trustees to help achieve the Institute’s vision of a world free of the fear and burden of cancer,” said Willcox.

Previously in her career, Willcox was a partner in the healthcare department of Pullman & Comley, representing hospitals, academic medical centers, and other healthcare organizations. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law.  She and her husband, Donald Johnson, have 15-year-old twins.