Dr. Alicia Thompson Lenzen '02

The following bio was published in September 2024

Dr. Alicia Thompson Lenzen ’02 is a pediatric neuro-oncologist whose medical career has been dedicated to caring for children with brain and spinal cord tumors. She is currently an attending physician in pediatric neuro-oncology at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Rory David Deutsch Malignant Brain Tumor Research Scholar. 

Every day, 13 children are diagnosed with a brain tumor, equating to almost 5,000 children each year. Of those currently battling this awful disease, 30% will not survive. For those that do survive, they battle lifelong physical, cognitive and psychological consequences from the toxic chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Though Alicia did not know all these facts as a young child and student at Mother McAuley, she enthusiastically created a path toward her dream of helping these specific children early on. 

After Mother McAuley, she obtained her bachelor of arts in Psychology with a focus on neuroscience and neuropsychology from Brown University. While a student, she participated in several projects studying behavior, brain structure and chemical changes in the mouse brain within the neuroscience department. Through the help of a Mother McAuley alumna, she spent her summers in the Emergency Medicine Research Department at John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County learning the skills of obtaining and analyzing clinical data. She then went on to receive her Doctor of Medicine from The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, where she focused on clinical research in pediatrics and implemented an evidence-based intervention program. She also co-created The Adolescent Leadership Council (TALC), providing mentorship for youth with chronic illnesses at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, RI. 

She was then drawn back to the south side of Chicago, completing her pediatric residency at Advocate Children’s Hospital, Oak Lawn Campus. Alicia was later nominated as Pediatric Chief Resident, where she was able to build her foundation of clinical research, leading interdisciplinary groups, implementing new clinical protocols and teaching trainees. From there, she completed her pediatric hematology/oncology/stem cell transplant fellowship at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital. This allowed her to spend time in a basic research lab studying immunobiology and immunotherapy possibilities for children with DIPG, the deadliest form of pediatric brain cancer. She later completed an advanced fellowship in pediatric neuro-oncology and has transformed her career into a clinical and translational investigator in pediatric neuro-oncology. Alicia’s days are now spent taking care of these children at Lurie Children’s Hospital, translating basic research into early phase clinical trials through several international consortia, as well as educating the next group of trainees in medicine. 

She has received numerous professional awards for her teaching and excellence in research, has published several scientific articles, presented at international conferences and is currently bringing forth new ideas into clinical trials.