Rachel Vo Christenson, D.O.’23, was among the seven outstanding minority medical students nationwide who in 2022 received the prestigious William G. Anderson, D.O., Minority Scholarship from the American Osteopathic Foundation (AOF). Appropriately, she shares the passion to serve with the individual for whom the $10,000 award is named – William Anderson, D.O.’56.
The first African American to serve as president of the American Osteopathic Association and named a Pioneer in Osteopathic Medicine by DMU, Anderson is a distinguished surgeon and osteopathic trailblazer who also fought alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement. He was offered the opportunity to practice in Flint, MI, after completing a surgical internship at Flint Osteopathic Hospital, but he instead chose to fulfill his pledge to practice where he was needed most, in rural Georgia.
Christenson is similarly motivated. As a volunteer at rural medical clinics and during her rotations, she observed disparities caused by lack of access to health care.
“I wish to help eliminate the disparities and inefficiencies of our system. I bring with me a commitment to learning and teaching, a dedication to teamwork and community and a drive for change,” she told the AOF.
She hasn’t waited to do so till after she graduates. She volunteers in her community, organizing childcare for families who were affected by COVID-19 and distributing meals to people experiencing hunger and homelessness.
On campus, she mentors other minority students and co-facilitated a course on cultural competency and sessions in DMU’s Diversity Health Series to improve students’ understanding of how personal biases may affect overall patient care.
“For me, those discussions are about creating an open space where people could talk about their experiences and where we all could learn about our own personal biases,” she says. “I learned about myself and also loved helping my peers come to the realization we all have those biases.”
Christenson considers research, another form of service, to be a “big part” of her education and her future. She was among the authors of a paper published in April 2022 in the International Journal of Psychology and Behavior Analysis on maternal and mental health disparities among underserved American women of color and their infants. She also was on a team of DMU researchers who found that reporting of sexual assault cases to hospitals in central Iowa dropped by nearly 40 percent in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the average of the previous three years.
“That was shocking,” she says. “That research is ongoing to help identify barriers victims face in reporting sexual assaults.”
Like William Anderson, Christenson plans to pursue a general surgery residency. “I want to gain a broad set of skills to bring to underserved communities, where they’re needed the most,” she says.
