Jeffrey R. Leonard, MD

Jeffrey R. Leonard graduated with a B.A in English and a B.S. in Chemistry from University of Washington; Seattle, WA in 1990 and received his M.D. in 1995.  He completed his neurosurgical training at the University of Washington in 2003.  Upon completion of his fellowship he joined the staff at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.  He remained at St. Louis Children’s from 2003-2014.  During this time he was Director of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Tumor Bank; Committee Chair for CMEC Joint Practice Group; Co-Director of Neuro-Critical Care; Co-Director St. Louis Children’s Neuro-Oncology Center and Physician Co-Leader for the Neuroscience Unit Based Joint practice Team.   In 2014 Dr. Leonard and his family moved from St. Louis to Columbus, Ohio to become Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery & Fellowship Director at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.  He holds The Robert F. & Edgar T.  Wolfe Foundation Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery.

Dr. Leonard’s research interests focused on the pathogenesis and surgical treatment of pediatric brain tumors.  His laboratory efforts are primarily directed at investigating molecular pathways in gliomas, and in particular, pilocytic astrocytomas. He is also currently partnering with Dr. Jonathan Finlay and together they are exploring the role of exosomes in medulloblastomas.  His clinical research is mainly focused on his collaboration with Dr. Julie Leonard where he is serving as the neurosurgical consultant for her work on the management of pediatric cervical spine injury in the emergency room.  In addition, he is currently participating as the neurosurgical lead for a multi-institutional collaboration dedicated to treatment of cerebral palsy in the pediatric and adult populations.

Dr. Leonard has had multiple honors and awards including AANS/Tumor Section-Preuss Award and The University of Washington School of Medicine Robert H. Williams Research Prize.  He has served on a number of national committees and he has actively been involved in the mentoring and training of over 30 neurosurgical fellows and students. He has given more than 60 invited presentations and has co-authored over 100 publications.  He is on the Editorial Boards and Scientific Peer Review Panel for SRA International, Journal of Pediatric Neurology, World Neurosurgery and Associate Editor of Neurosurgery (Pediatrics).

Dr. Leonard is married to Dr. Julie Leonard.  They have 2 children, Jake and Jordan.  He enjoys golfing, running, and fishing.