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Donna Christian-Christensen
Virgin Islands, Delegate
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“I went into medicine to improve the quality of people’s lives through providing quality and comprehensive health care. With the unwavering support of the Congressional Black Caucus and the entire Democratic Caucus, I have been able to continue that mission in Congress. Our entire country is fortunate to have such a dedicated group of people who understand that the system of health care in this country which allows close to 100,000 premature deaths every year, which we have the wherewithal and the power to correct, is immoral and unjust. We all are committed to changing it for people of color who make up those deaths and for each and every person living in this country. In short, we want to make people healthier and make this a healthier country.”
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Delegate Christensen at a recent cord blood event on Capitol Hill with Congressman Artur Davis, basketball legend Julius “Dr. J” Irving, and a young sickle cell survivor.
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Delegate Christensen joins House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Mel Watt at a Capitol Hill event on minority health.
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Caring for the lives of her patients and their families translated into an even deeper caring and concern for the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the district that she proudly represents for a fifth consecutive term. It is that caring that first motivated Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen to become a community activist on the local Board of Education, her church board, and local party politics.
Delegate Christensen has said that when listening to the concerns of her patients she often realized that--health issues aside--what often bothered them the most were community issues. So in an effort to provide healing on a wider scale, healing that could get to the core of what ailed them most, she sought greater political involvement that led to her historic win in 1996, making her the first female Delegate to Congress from the U.S. Virgin Islands, the first female physician in the Congress, the first female elected from an off-shore territory and the first female to hold such a high political office in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In her 9 years on Capitol Hill, Delegate Christensen has put her healing hand on a myriad of issues facing the Virgin Islands from housing, to economic development, to education, to health care. It is for the latter, that she has become well known in Washington, D.C. and across the country, as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus’s Health Braintrust and as a leader in minority health issues.
From the fight to stem the scourge of HIV/AIDS in minority communities to closing the gap on health disparities that have been shown in an Institutes of Medicine report to exist in this country no matter the income, education or social standing of the individuals, Delegate Christensen has become the go-to person when it comes to common sense solutions to minority health issues. With her colleagues in the Tri-Caucus and with the Democratic Leadership, Delegate Christensen introduced the Health Care Equality and Accountability Act of 2005 in the 108th and 109th Congresses. Known as the Heal America Act it addresses improving access to health care, ensuring culturally competent care and encouraging minorities to enter the health professions. She is an original co-sponsor of legislation to create a Bi-partisan Commission on Medicaid introduced in the House this past February.
On the Committee on Homeland Security, Delegate Christensen has also put her public health background to work for the good of the entire country. On the Subcommittees on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology; Investigations and Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack, Delegate Christensen takes the lead on public health infrastructure issues which come before the Committee. In the 108th Congress, she has participated in hearings on Project Bioshield, the administration’s initiative to create a marketplace for counter biological products for use in the case of a bio-weapon attack and has commented publicly on policies for the utilization of the small pox vaccine.
In her career in the Congress, Delegate Christensen has successfully paired public health with public policy and the result has been positive for both the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands and the nation as a whole.
Visit Rep. Donna Christian-Christensen's Official Website
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