The South Central Alaska AHEC Team would like to recognize Christine for her wonderful contributions to our Contact Tracing Program at the APCA. Working alongside a small team of contact tracers, Christine is helping in Alaska’s fight against COVID-19 and additionally helping to educate community members about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Christine became an Alaskan resident in 2019. She is currently working on her State and National certifications in Therapeutic Recreation, Child Life, and Physical Therapy. She has her Master of Science degree from Arizona State University in Child Life and has completed research in disabled veterans, adaptive learning environments, adolescent obesity prevention, and children in trauma-sensitive situations. Eventually she would like to obtain her doctorate degree and teach allied-health courses at a university. She is a recent 2020-2021 AHEC scholar and completed her Community Based Experiential Learning (CBEL) at Providence Alaska Medical Center (PAMC). While at PAMC, she enjoyed working in Wound Care, the Mental Health Unit, and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). She has always been someone drawn to educating people across a variety of cultures about their health, healing, and the tools necessary to have an optimal lifestyle.

Regarding her current work, she has felt fulfilled in her passion to educate the community about COVID-19 efforts and provide them with necessary resources, near and far in the Great State of Alaska. Being fairly new to Alaska, she has found it aspiring to connect with alike health professionals to research and mitigate COVID-19 trends. She loves when patients are interested in their health and want to help themselves and their community stay healthy and safe. She states, “It has been an especially rewarding experience monitoring patients from rural areas- some of which have to be medevac’d, endure a hospital stay and go home feeling better. However, not all patients return home due to their life-threatening state. COVID-19 has been eye opening to everyone in one way or another. I try my best to educate people of Alaskan community so they can collaborate with their primary care providers and make the best-informed decision(s)”.

Christine first joined APCA in February 2021 and will continue to be a part of the COVID-19 mitigation efforts. As contact tracing comes to a close, she will be transitioning into a new Lead Vaccine Education Specialist role at APCA helping to promote vaccination rates in Alaska. Christine lives in Palmer with her high school sweetheart, cats Lilly and Lumi and Australian Cattle dog Sedona. She loves the thrill of travelling to new places and seeking spontaneous adventure.