University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Jensen is Professor of Neurology and Chairman of Neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Co-Director of Penn Translational Neuroscience Center. She was formerly a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Director of Translational Neuroscience, and senior neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is a graduate of Cornell Medical College and obtained her neurology residency training at the Harvard Longwood Neurology Residency Program. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of epilepsy and stroke, and the mechanistic interaction of epilepsy with other disorders such as autism and dementia, with specific emphasis on elucidating new therapies for clinical trial development. Dr. Jensen received the 2007 Director’s Pioneer Award from the NIH to explore the interaction between epileptogenesis and cognitive dysfunction and was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2015. Dr. Jensen was President of the American Epilepsy Society in 2012, has served on a number of other leadership boards including the Society for Neuroscience, NIH, and is currently President-Elect for the American Neurological Association. She has authored over 150 manuscripts on subjects related to her research and has been continuously funded by NIH since 1987 and received an NIH-NINDS Javits Award in 2020. Dr. Jensen has trained numerous clinical and basic research fellows who now hold independent faculty positions nationally and internationally. Dr. Jensen is a Trustee of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and is involved in community outreach for brain research and education. In addition, Dr. Jensen is an advocate for awareness of the adolescent brain development, its unique strengths and vulnerabilities, as well as their impact on medical, social, and educational issues unique to teenagers and young adults, and author of the book “The Teenage Brain”, released by Harper Collins in 2015/16, translated and published in over 25 languages worldwide.