Legacy of Care
AT UICOMP, Dr. Allison Wallenfang MD ’26 keeps her family’s tradition of ‘womb to tomb’ care alive.
Some of Dr. Allison Wallenfang’s MD ’26 earliest memories of medicine involve the thoughtfulness with which her father, Dr. Paul A. Kinsinger MD ’86, approached his patients. As a family physician, Dr. Kinsinger described his role as caring for people “from womb to tomb.” He believed in treating the whole person, not simply the symptoms of a particular illness, and he took the time to listen.
“He was always running late,” Dr. Wallenfang remembers. “But it’s because he never wore a watch, so he wouldn’t be checking the time during his appointment with a patient.”
For Dr. Wallenfang, medicine is a family tradition; Dr. Kinsinger practiced medicine with her uncle, and her cousin is a pediatric neurologist. Her own path to medicine has led her from a career as an emergency medical technician (EMT) to her first year as an obstetrics and gynecology resident at University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP).
"During her time working as an EMT during college, the physicians around her repeatedly encouraged Dr. Wallenfang to consider medical school. After some hesitation, she applied, but she wasn't accepted the first time.”.
This setback toughened her resolve – prompting her to spend another year looking for ways to serve in her community. She worked 24-hour shifts as an EMT and served in youth ministry. (She also met her future husband, Travis.)
The second time she applied to medical school, she was accepted.
At UICOMP, Dr. Wallenfang found the combination of community and mentorship that helped her grow into the physician she wanted to become. Her class had just 65 students, creating an environment in which faculty knew students personally.
That support became especially important as Dr. Wallenfang and her classmates navigated medical school alongside the demands of family life. Five women in her class, including her, gave birth before graduation, forming a close-knit group that supported one another through pregnancy, parenting and medical training.
Mentorship also helped Dr. Wallenfang find her specialty. During her third year, she completed her required OB/GYN rotation and discovered that she loved the combination of medicine, surgery and the opportunity to care for women during one of the most significant times of their lives.
“I was a part of a few births, and it was just such a miraculous experience,” she says. “I thought, I could do this every day.”
The intensity of OB/GYN work initially made her hesitate. She wondered whether she could reconcile the demands of the specialty with her priorities as a wife and mother. But through mentors and family encouraging her, Dr. Wallenfang applied into the specialty and matched at UICOMP, allowing her to remain in the Peoria area with her husband and their son, Jude.
Dr. Wallenfang’s father sadly did not live to see her become a physician. Dr. Kinsinger died of brain cancer in 2016, when she was a junior in high school and had not yet decided where life would take her. But his memory remains a vivid part of Dr. Wallenfang’s medical career through the community of colleagues he left behind. Health care workers in the Peoria area often tell her stories about him, or recall what it was like to work with him.
“He would be so excited,” she says. “He was all about ‘womb to tomb’ care, and I guess I’m handling the ‘womb’ part!”
Dr. Wallenfang is now building a legacy of her own. She particularly values mentors who have shown her that excellent patient care and teaching future physicians can be inseparable. During a rotation in gynecologic oncology, faculty members took the time to teach her surgical skills while making her feel that she belonged in the operating room. Dr. Stephanie R. DeJong, a clinical assistant professor and the assistant residency program director at UICOMP, has been a particularly important role model.
“She wants to provide the best patient care possible while also educating future generations,” Dr. Wallenfang says.
That combination of service, mentorship and patient-centered care is one Dr. Wallenfang aims to carry forward. She hopes to remain in the Peoria area after completing her residency in 2030, continuing to serve the community where her family has such deep roots.
For now, she is learning to balance the demands of residency with the joys and responsibilities of motherhood. It is another dimension of the care that has shaped her life — a lesson she inherited from her father and is now carrying into her own practice. As she begins her career in medicine, Dr. Wallenfang hopes to follow his example by seeing not only the patient, but the whole person behind the illness.
And if Jude someday chooses medicine too?
“That would be pretty special,” she says with a smile.
Legacy of Care
AT UICOMP, Dr. Allison Wallenfang MD ’26 keeps her family’s tradition of ‘womb to tomb’ care alive.
Some of Dr. Allison Wallenfang’s MD ’26 earliest memories of medicine involve the thoughtfulness with which her father, Dr. Paul A. Kinsinger MD ’86, approached his patients. As a family physician, Dr. Kinsinger described his role as caring for people “from womb to tomb.” He believed in treating the whole person, not simply the symptoms of a particular illness, and he took the time to listen.
“He was always running late,” Dr. Wallenfang remembers. “But it’s because he never wore a watch, so he wouldn’t be checking the time during his appointment with a patient.”
For Dr. Wallenfang, medicine is a family tradition; Dr. Kinsinger practiced medicine with her uncle, and her cousin is a pediatric neurologist. Her own path to medicine has led her from a career as an emergency medical technician (EMT) to her first year as an obstetrics and gynecology resident at University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP).
"During her time working as an EMT during college, the physicians around her repeatedly encouraged Dr. Wallenfang to consider medical school. After some hesitation, she applied, but she wasn't accepted the first time.”.
This setback toughened her resolve – prompting her to spend another year looking for ways to serve in her community. She worked 24-hour shifts as an EMT and served in youth ministry. (She also met her future husband, Travis.)
The second time she applied to medical school, she was accepted.
At UICOMP, Dr. Wallenfang found the combination of community and mentorship that helped her grow into the physician she wanted to become. Her class had just 65 students, creating an environment in which faculty knew students personally.
That support became especially important as Dr. Wallenfang and her classmates navigated medical school alongside the demands of family life. Five women in her class, including her, gave birth before graduation, forming a close-knit group that supported one another through pregnancy, parenting and medical training.
Mentorship also helped Dr. Wallenfang find her specialty. During her third year, she completed her required OB/GYN rotation and discovered that she loved the combination of medicine, surgery and the opportunity to care for women during one of the most significant times of their lives.
“I was a part of a few births, and it was just such a miraculous experience,” she says. “I thought, I could do this every day.”
The intensity of OB/GYN work initially made her hesitate. She wondered whether she could reconcile the demands of the specialty with her priorities as a wife and mother. But through mentors and family encouraging her, Dr. Wallenfang applied into the specialty and matched at UICOMP, allowing her to remain in the Peoria area with her husband and their son, Jude.
Dr. Wallenfang’s father sadly did not live to see her become a physician. Dr. Kinsinger died of brain cancer in 2016, when she was a junior in high school and had not yet decided where life would take her. But his memory remains a vivid part of Dr. Wallenfang’s medical career through the community of colleagues he left behind. Health care workers in the Peoria area often tell her stories about him, or recall what it was like to work with him.
“He would be so excited,” she says. “He was all about ‘womb to tomb’ care, and I guess I’m handling the ‘womb’ part!”
Dr. Wallenfang is now building a legacy of her own. She particularly values mentors who have shown her that excellent patient care and teaching future physicians can be inseparable. During a rotation in gynecologic oncology, faculty members took the time to teach her surgical skills while making her feel that she belonged in the operating room. Dr. Stephanie R. DeJong, a clinical assistant professor and the assistant residency program director at UICOMP, has been a particularly important role model.
“She wants to provide the best patient care possible while also educating future generations,” Dr. Wallenfang says.
That combination of service, mentorship and patient-centered care is one Dr. Wallenfang aims to carry forward. She hopes to remain in the Peoria area after completing her residency in 2030, continuing to serve the community where her family has such deep roots.
For now, she is learning to balance the demands of residency with the joys and responsibilities of motherhood. It is another dimension of the care that has shaped her life — a lesson she inherited from her father and is now carrying into her own practice. As she begins her career in medicine, Dr. Wallenfang hopes to follow his example by seeing not only the patient, but the whole person behind the illness.
And if Jude someday chooses medicine too?
“That would be pretty special,” she says with a smile.
