is a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the Richard Chamberlain Professor of Research Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in Radiation Biology from Harvard University and remained at Harvard as a faculty member for many years before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been performing research on mechanisms of carcinogenesis and cancer prevention for her entire career, with research investigations including studies on molecular mechanisms, animal studies, and human trials. Much of the work in the Kennedy laboratory has focused on the soybean-derived protease inhibitor known as the Bowman-Birk inhibitor (BBI). BBI was originally identified as a cancer preventive agent from in vitro studies, and was then shown to prevent the development of cancer in many different models of animal carcinogenesis.

BBI, as Bowman Birk Inhibitor Concentrate (BBIC), is now being evaluated as a human cancer chemopreventive agent and as a therapeutic agent for several different human diseases. Much of her recent effort has been aimed at developing countermeasures for radiation induced adverse health effects which could occur in astronauts during space travel. She is currently the Team Leader for the Radiation Effects Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, as well as a Co-Team Lead of the Space Radiation Element of the Human Research Program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dr. Kennedy is an author of more than 265 scientific papers. She is currently a Distinguished Emeritus member of NCRP.