Donna Christian-Christensen | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from United States Virgin Islands's At-large district |
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Incumbent | |
Assumed office January 3, 1997 |
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Preceded by | Victor O. Frazer |
Personal details | |
Born | September 19, 1945 Teaneck, New Jersey |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Chris Christensen |
Residence | Christiansted, US Virgin Islands |
Alma mater | St. Mary's College, George Washington University |
Occupation | physician |
Religion | Moravian Church |
Donna Marie Christian-Christensen, formerly Donna Christian-Green (born September 19, 1945), is the non-voting Delegate from the United States Virgin Islands to the United States House of Representatives (map).
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Donna Christian-Christensen was born in Teaneck, New Jersey, the daughter of a county judge. She attended St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana and the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. and earned an M.D.[1] She interned at San Francisco's Pacific Medical Center and performed her residency at Howard University medical center.
Donna Christian-Christensen worked as a physician, first in the emergency room and later in the maternity ward. She then served as medical director for the St. Croix Hospital in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. She was the Commissioner of Health for the Virgin Islands in 1993 and 1994 and also ran a private medical practice until 1996. Christian was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions for the 1984, 1988, and 1992 elections. She has also previously served on the Status Commission and the Board of Education for the USVI.
Donna Christian-Christensen ran unsuccessfully for the position of USVI delegate in 1994, losing a three-way race to Victor Frazer of the Independent Citizens Movement. However, she was elected as a Democrat to the House in a 1996 rematch with Frazer and has served from January 3, 1997, to the present.
Donna Christian-Christensen is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She was featured on The Colbert Report's Better Know a Protectorate segment. She is also the first female physician to win a congressional election.
During the 2008 electoral campaign,[2] she appeared in a TV advertisement endorsing the reelection of neighboring Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, who went to trial after the November 2008 elections for a twenty-four-count federal Grand Jury indictment for corruption.[3] The jury found him not guilty, though he did lose his bid for re-election.
She was reelected in a landslide on November 2, 2010.[4]
On March 23, 2009, Delegate Christensen became the Ship Sponsor of the USCGC Reef Shark during the vessel's commissioning ceremony in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Reef Shark is a new 87' cutter, built at an approximate cost of $7.5 million by Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana.
United States House of Representatives | ||
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Preceded by Victor O. Frazer |
Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from U.S. Virgin Islands January 3, 1997 – present |
Incumbent |
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