A Big-Picture Doctor—with a Big Heart

As a 30-year-old doctor who has focused her career in underserved communities, Lenz Kreamer is already making a big impact on the world. But this isn’t the path she would have necessarily pictured for herself. She thought she might go into teaching but couldn’t envision focusing on teaching one subject her whole life.

Reading Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World her senior year ignited her interest in public health. Lenz Kreamer also credits mentorship from LJCDS’ former Community Service Director Susie Nordenger (now assistant head of school for development) and participation in the Girl Scouts as inspiration to serve the public.

“I've always felt uncomfortable with the idea that serving the community or donating is something we do with our extra time or money, or is the last thing you add on to an already busy schedule… Not to discount the good work that happens with one-time donations of time or money, but I wanted to make service a priority to be the first and main thing I’ll do, and we’ll see what follows.”

 

After LJCDS, Lenz Kreamer attended the University of Pennsylvania to study chemistry and English. “I figured I’d have my East Coast experience and then return to California!” But life had other plans for her. Lenz Kreamer fell in love with Philadelphia’s city vibe and met Jonathan, a fellow UPenn student, on the subway and fell in love with him, too.

 

She went on to attend medical school at Howard University, a historically black college, in part to experience what it feels like to be a minority. “In my medical school class of 120, two of us were white, and I think I can count on one hand the number of white patients I saw in D.C. during my seven years there. Howard Hospital was the first to care for newly freed slaves, and is still the only hospital that won’t turn anyone away; it can be a financial and business challenge for them to uphold that mission,” she says.

 

In 2013, Lenz Kreamer began her medical residency at Georgetown’s Providence Hospital, an urban community hospital similar to Howard, with a large Spanish-speaking population. In her third year, Lenz Kreamer served as chief resident. “It was fun because I got to focus on the bigger, messier picture—the deeper cause of healthcare problems,” she says. It was then that she became dedicated to the idea of practicing evidence-based medicine that focuses on prevention as a means to save lives and dollars.