To look at Former Damon Runyon-Dale Frey Breakthrough Scientist Angela J. Waanders, MD, MPH, one would never imagine she has faced failure. She is Director of Precision Medicine in Oncology at the Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, an Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s The Feinberg School of Medicine and a pioneer in developing more effective treatments for children with brain tumors. “The fact that I failed to gain admittance to medical school the first time I applied is one of the experiences I credit for my success now. If I didn’t learn to overcome failure, I don’t think I’d have been as fearless in my career,” says Dr. Waanders. She recognized early on that she wanted to make a difference in the world through a career in science and medicine and has never looked back. 
Dr. Waanders is also the Executive Board Chair for the Children's Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC), a multi-institutional effort to collect and share massive amounts of data about individual patient tumors. For a child with a brain tumor, this means that the brightest minds in the world have access to the data they need to do actual research and discover novel, targeted treatments and individualized therapies.
