Christensen, Donna Marie, 1945-

<p>Delegate Donna Marie Christensen won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, the first woman to represent the U.S. Virgin Islands, a multi-island territory in the eastern Caribbean. During her tenure, Christensen, who was also the first female medical doctor to serve in Congress, focused on improving the living conditions and economic opportunities on the Islands, especially where they intersected with federal issues. Christensen noted that being a doctor and serving in Congress were not that different. “In my practice you always find that there are a lot of social and other issues that impact the health of your patients,” Christensen noted. “Many times people would come in just to talk about whatever problems they were having, so I kind of looked at it as bringing my office work from a local level to a larger, national level.”</p>

<p>Donna Christensen was born Donna Christian on September 19, 1945, in Teaneck, New Jersey, to Almeric L. Christian and Virginia Sterling Christian. Her mother was from New York, and her father, who served in the U.S. Army in World War II, returned to his native Virgin Islands with his young family after earning a law degree at Columbia University. Almeric became a U.S. attorney and then a chief judge of the Virgin Islands district court. Christensen, who described herself as a girl who “lived in the library,” attended boarding schools in Puerto Rico and New York. She earned a BS from St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in 1966, and an MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine in 1970.</p>

<p>Christensen completed her residency at Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1974 and returned to the Virgin Islands. “I began working in a small emergency room in 1975, and after being home and hearing some of the issues that were of concern to the community, I decided to become active in the community,” she recalled decades later. “It is home and there were things that were happening that I thought individuals needed to be more proactive about, so I decided to involve myself in different issues like the appointment of local judges, sale of land that was important to my community and the private industry. But I was doing it as an organizer myself, organizing different coalitions and different groups to advocate or oppose an issue." In addition to running an active family practice, she also worked as a health administrator, rising to the position of assistant commissioner of health for the Virgin Islands. In 1974 Christensen married Carl Green, and the couple had two daughters, Rabiah and Karida, before they divorced in 1980. In 1998 she married Christian O. Christensen who had four children from a previous marriage.</p>

<p>Donna Marie Christian-Christensen, formerly Donna Christian-Green (born September 19, 1945), is an American physician and politician. She served as the 4th elected non-voting Delegate from the United States Virgin Islands's at-large district to the United States House of Representatives from 1997 until 2015.</p>

<p>Born Donna Christian in Teaneck, New Jersey, she is the daughter of a Virgin Islands Federal District Court judge, Almeric Christian. She received her Bachelor of Science from St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana in 1966. Christensen then attended the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., where she received an M.D. in 1970. She interned at San Francisco's Pacific Medical Center from 1970 to 1971 and performed her residency in family medicine at Howard University Medical Center from 1973 to 1974.</p>

<p>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.</p>

CHRISTENSEN, Donna Marie, (elected under the name Donna Christian-Green in the One Hundred Fifth and One Hundred Sixth Congresses), a Delegate from the Virgin Islands; born in Teaneck, Monmouth County, N.J., September 19, 1945; B.S., St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., 1966; M.D., George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., 1970; physician; medical director, St. Croix Hospital, St. Croix, V.I., 1987-1988; territorial assistant, commissioner of health for the Virgin Islands, 1988-1994; acting commissioner of health for the Virgin Islands, 1994-1995; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions for the 1984, 1988, and 1992; television journalist; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Fifth and to the eight succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1997-January 3, 2015); was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, but was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of the Virgin Islands in 2014.