Meet the Director
Joel Shilyansky, MD is the Robert and Hélène Soper Chair of Pediatric Surgery and surgeon-in-chief for University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
His research focuses on the immune response in pediatric cancer patients, and additional studies in his laboratory related to cancer vaccine development.
Why did you decide to be a physician? Medicine is something I found fascinating, interesting, and exciting. Being a doctor provided me with an opportunity to serve the community and the people around me, and that’s always been important to me.
Why pediatric surgery? With pediatric surgery, you must be very proactive. It involves being thoughtful. You make decisions, and you execute them, and you don’t get to ‘wait and see’ too much. But you also get to see the results of what you do—sometimes very quickly and very dramatically.
What attracted you to UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital? I knew that Iowa was an outstanding university, and there was a really strong tradition of excellence in pediatric surgery. In Iowa I had the opportunity to build the division of pediatric surgery and add to that tradition. Most importantly I have really good colleagues and that makes work fun.
What makes our children’s hospital special? It’s just an excellent environment for patient care and work because of the expertise and dedication of employees at all levels of care, from the people who clean the rooms to nurses and doctors and others. It has all the new technologies, is state-of-the-art, and the whole team is together
Lenka Ilcisin, MD, MPH
Residency: Brigham and Women's Hospital, General Surgery
Why Iowa: Iowa is a single fellow program, which is great to be the focus of the faculty's teaching energy. I've been getting to do major cases since the first week! In addition, having a small core faculty I really feel supported as both a person and a trainee. Our NP and nurse support group is fantastic, and it has quickly felt like I'm part of a team. Finally, I grew up in Oregon and have spent most of my training in Massachusetts, I was excited to get to live and work in a different part of the country.
Why pediatric surgery: I have always loved working with children, and for many years I thought I might be a teacher, in high school I had a chance to volunteer in pediatric oncology, and loved it, so until medical school thought that was my path. During medical school I fell in love with surgery. Pediatric surgery is amazing as I get to combine my loves for oncology, critical care and physiology for congenital anomalies and surgery. I love the variety of operations and working with kids and their parents.
Get to know Lenka: I grew up just outside of Portland OR, and spent my childhood traipsing in the woods behind our house and playing soccer. I moved out to the east coast for college and medical school; then stayed in Boston at Brigham and Women's Hospital for residency. I have a strong interest in disparities and global health; and have spent time abroad working on access to care in Uganda as well as working on ameliorating poverty in the pediatric oncology population. When I finish training I hope to continue to help with domestic poverty interventions in oncology, and work on surgical capacity building in developing countries. Outside of work I love to knit, bake, spin (both making yarn and Peloton), play soccer, hike and go running with my husband and our daughter.
Lenka Ilcisin, MD, MPH
2025-2027
Alexis Bowder, MD, MPH
Residency: Medical College of Wisconsin, General Surgery
Why Iowa: In the future, I am very interested in practicing in the Midwest and was excited to move to Iowa City. The opportunity here to operate on complex cases right away as a single fellow coupled with a large referral base was very appealing. The program also supports the fellow well with a strong resident and ARNP team to help with patient care and call distribution. Most importantly, the faculty are all very supportive and are dedicated to your education.
Why pediatric surgery: Throughout my training I always enjoyed working with children and had a passion for global health. I have worked in several countries where children don’t have timely access to pediatric surgical care and as a mother, I can’t imagine living in a place where my children would not have access to lifesaving surgery. Therefore, I have chosen to dedicate my career to improving access to pediatric surgical care worldwide.
Get to know Alexis: I was born, raised, and attended college and medical school in Omaha, Nebraska. Throughout medical school and during my research years I have worked in Haiti with the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School. I obtained a master's in public health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I have global health field experience in Brazil, Costa Rica, Haiti, India, Peru, and Nepal. Outside of work and when I'm not traveling, I love to spend time with my two young boys, husband and Vizsla.
Alexis Bowder, MD, MPH
2023-2025