When she is not advocating for her patients in Washington D.C., you will find Dr. Lisa Nijm serving as a board-certified corneal, cataract and LASIK surgeon at the practice she founded, Warrenville EyeCare & LASIK. After graduating from Benedictine University summa cum laude, Dr. Nijm completed a post-graduate education that combined her interests in patient care and health care policy advocacy. She pursued a highly competitive 6 year M.D., J.D. dual degree program at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and School of Law which only admits two students per year.
After completing an ophthalmology residency at the University of Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary and a top ranked corneal & LASIK fellowship at UC Davis, Dr. Nijm worked in underserved regions of central Illinois. She established a much-needed cornea clinic in Lincoln, IL and became the first surgeon in central Illinois to perform femtosecond LASIK surgery, bringing state-of-the art care to this area. Dr. Nijm then ventured to open her own practice to provide compassionate, expert eye care to patients in her hometown of Warrenville, IL.
Given her passion for patient advocacy, she has served on the board of directors for several ophthalmology organizations. Presently, Dr. Nijm is the CEO of Women in Ophthalmology, an international organization dedicated to the education and advancement of women ophthalmologists. Under her leadership, the organization has experienced exponential growth and serves to mentor hundreds of young female ophthalmologists.
She is also dedicated to teaching and serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at UIC Eye and Ear Infirmary. Further, Dr. Nijm is one of the directors of the Osler Ophthalmology National Board Review course and is the most frequently requested instructor, having taught over 2500 ophthalmologists to date. She is a published author, serves on the editorial boards of three ophthalmology publications and is a highly requested ophthalmic consultant.
Her interest in contract negotiations stems from having negotiated numerous contracts for herself and helping many colleagues do the same. She often received requests for assistance from colleagues who unfortunately were unhappy with their employment contract or dealing with challenging non-compete clauses. After reflecting on the lessons she learned, she began teaching other young ophthalmologists across the country so that they could benefit from her experience and be better educated on the business aspects of ophthalmology. She sought to share her knowledge on the “things she wish she had been told earlier in her career.” As she integrated this experience with her knowledge of contract negotiations as an attorney, the concept of delivering curated workshops on contract negotiations for ophthalmologists was born.
She is now a recognized expert on the subject and has been invited to speak to many ophthalmology residency programs and national meetings. Dr. Nijm has received numerous awards and honors for her work in medicine and law, most recently the Ophthalmology Power List, 50 Most Influential Ophthalmologists Worldwide 2019, AMA Inspirational Physician Award, AAO Senior Achievement Award and Northwestern Medicine-CDH 50th Anniversary Heroes in Medicine.
Her goal is to serve her patients and colleagues as a compassionate, caring, Catholic physician.
