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Cora L. Christian, of Frederiksted, Virgin Islands (VI), is a member of the AARP Board of Directors, Class of 2010. During the 2006 - 2008 biennium, Dr. Christian serves as vice chair of the AARP Insurance Trust, and as a member of AARP's Governance Committee and National Nominating Committee.
Dr. Christian has the distinction of being the first native female of the U.S. Virgin Islands to become a medical doctor and has been a prominent figure in the Virgin Islands for over 30 years. In 1977 she founded the Virgin Islands Medical Institute, Inc., the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO; formerly PRO) for the U.S. Virgin Islands and currently serves as the Health Care Quality Improvement Medical Director. She is chief medical consultant to Hovensa, L.L.C., and a practicing family physician.
Dr. Christian is one of the primary spokespersons on health-related issues for the AARP VI Speakers Bureau. She served on the Board of the American Health Quality Association, and has been active in the American Medical Association and the National Medical Association. She is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Commission on Government and Legislative Affairs.
Dr. Christian was assistant commissioner of the VI Department of Heath and medical director of Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation, the largest oil refinery in the Western Hemisphere. Other noted accomplishments include president of the AARP VI Chapter; chair of the University of the Virgin Islands Foundation, president of Caribbean Studies Association, assistant commissioner of Health of the U.S. Virgin Islands and board member of Interfaith Coalition of St. Croix.
Among her numerous honors and recognitions, Dr. Christian was inducted into the Virgin Island Women Hall of Fame in 2005, received the 2003 Physician of the Year Award from the VI Medical Society, a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary, a Trail-Blazer Award by the Women's Business Center of St. Croix in 2000, and the Best Doctors in America Award in 1999 | 