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Portraits from AAWR |
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Melissa L. Rosado de Christenson, MD, FACR – 1998 President
of AAWR,
I was born in Puerto Rico, the only child of a civil engineer and a housewife who always emphasized the importance of education and self-improvement. I attended high school in Puerto Rico, where I acquired the necessary skills to pursue higher education in the United States. I was one of the first 100 women to enroll in The Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the charter class of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. I graduated from medical school, was commissioned a Captain in the United States Air Force and married Dr. Paul J. Christenson all on the same weekend. I completed my radiology residency at the George Washington University Medical Center. My first duty station as a radiologist was at the 13 th Air Force Medical Center in the Philippines where my husband and I became parents to our children, Jon, Jennifer and Heather. After four years overseas, I became the first woman faculty member of the Department of Radiologic Pathology at the AFIP and later the first woman and Air Force officer ever to serve as the department’s chairman and registrar. At the AFIP, I became an educator and have trained over 18,000 radiology residents over the course of 18 years. I began serving in the AAWR in 1993 and became its first military president in 1998. I am blessed with a beautiful family, the ability to practice a specialty I love and the privilege of continuing to train residents at the Ohio State University.
What would be your most important advice to your junior colleagues? I truly believe that success and achievement have one common denominator… hard work. I would give my junior colleagues the same advice I give my children. Come to work “ready to play”. Develop a work ethic that is characterized by always giving the very best effort to every aspect of the job. Compete against yourself and not against others. Do the very best that you can do. My accomplishments can all be traced to my ability to work hard. I succeeded where others failed, simply because I took the job seriously and gave it my very best effort. Look around you. In every walk of life there are outstanding and mediocre performers. I believe that in most cases, the outstanding performers simply took the job seriously, did it to the very best of their abilities, and took pride on and rejoiced with each accomplishment, no matter how small. When did you realize you were interested in a radiology career? I was privileged to attend the Charter Class of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). The early leaders of the then new military medical school understood the importance of diagnostic imaging in medical training. My medical school offered a one-year course in diagnostic radiology during the second year of training taught by the faculty of the Department of Radiologic Pathology at the AFIP. I was exposed to outstanding educators such as David Hartman, John Madewell and Joel Lichtenstein during my second year of medical school and decided to become a radiologist. How could I choose any other specialty? There were 28 members of the Charter Class of USUHS. I received immense encouragement and support from the USUHS radiology faculty when I announced my intention to pursue radiology. I was the only military resident selected for civilian training the year I started my residency. I received excellent training and continue to learn each day from my colleagues, my residents and my students. If I had to do it all over again, I would again embrace diagnostic radiology as my specialty.
Melissa L. Rosado de Christenson, MD, FACR is Professor of Radiology at the Ohio State University
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