Girl Doc Survival Guide

New Roles, Shifting Identity, and Belonging

July 1 marks a common transition time for medical trainees, faculty, and others moving into new roles. Identity can shift when ending one chapter and starting another, a theme also present in Christine's middle-grade novel-in-verse, Love Language, releasing August 4th. Da Eun Yoon, the narrator of the audiobook, was featured on last week’s podcast and touched on how being bilingual a...

Da Eun Yoon on Names, Voice Work, and Living Between Cultures

Christine interviews multilingual actor, voice artist, and audiobook narrator Da Eun Yoon, announcing her as the narrator of the middle grade novel in verse Love Language (out August 4). Da Eun shares the meaning of her Korean name and her  changing English names, describing challenges introducing “Da Eun” at Northwestern and eventually embracing it. She ...

Redefining “Normal” After Traumatic Brain Injury: Dr. Maria Stella Bonn on Disability, Advocacy, and Checklists

On The Girl Doc Survival Guide, Dr. Maria Stella Bonn, Associate Professor of Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, discusses her 2011 bicycle accident–related traumatic brain injury and her writing on disability and “normal,” including the idea that everyone&rsqu...

Dr. Jason L. Hornick on Balancing Academic Pathology, Parenting, and Personal Passions

Christine interviews Dr. Jason L. Hornick, a senior soft tissue and bone pathologist and academic leader, about balancing a demanding academic career with family and self-care. Hornick shares a personal love of cats and discusses parenting twins while managing work, emphasizing the importance of an understanding partner, being fully present at hom...

Finding Your Niche in Medicine with Ophthalmic and Dermatopathologist Dr. Anna Stagner

Christine interviews Dr. Anna Stagner, a Harvard Associate Professor and Massachusetts Eye and Ear director who is board certified in ophthalmology, anatomic pathology, and dermatopathology and has authored nearly 100 publications. Stagner shares her background growing up in a small town in northern Arizona and her path from ophthalmology to ocula...

Dr. Paul Han on Uncertainty in Medicine and Building Tolerance Through Adaptation

In this episode of The Girl Doc Survival Guide, Christine interviews Dr. Paul Han, an NIH Senior Scientist specializing in risk communication, medical decision-making, and uncertainty in healthcare, whose career shifted from general internal medicine and palliative care to research via an NCI cancer prevention fellowship. Han shares that persistent &ld...

Dr. Sook-Bin Woo on Adventure, Mentorship, and High Standards in Oral Pathology

Christine interviews Dr. Sook-Bin Woo, DMD, an expert in oral and maxillofacial pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, about her career, training, and life lessons. Woo shares a formative post–dental school adventure climbing Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia and a dangerous trip across Borneo, and describes later solo travel to Turkey. She expl...

Planning for the Unexpected: John J. Choi on Guarantees, Diversification, and Distribution

Christine interviews John J. Choi, a New York Life Wealth Management Financial Advisor with experience in corporate finance and marketing, startups, nonprofits, and pastoral ministry, about investing amid life’s unpredictability. Choi shares a nonlinear career path shaped by major life events, including divorce, becoming a single dad, an...

Motherhood and Medicine: Burnout, Balance, and Building a Village

In a Mother’s Day compilation for The Girl Doc Survival Guide, Christine announces her book Love Language releasing August 4 and dedicated to her mother, then shares reflections from multiple episodes on being a physician and a mother. Dr. Tom Helm notes a family legacy of physicians and observes medicine’s shift to  female trainees, while acknowledgi...

Reproductive Empowerment and Fertility Clarity with Dr. Vasiliki Moragianni

Christine interviews Dr. Vasiliki Moragianni, a double Board-certified fertility physician and Johns Hopkins Medical Director of the Fertility Center, about fertility, infertility, and reproductive empowerment for high-performing women. Moragianni shares her personal experience of secondary infertility, miscarriage, diminished ovarian reserve, and unsuccessf...

Failure, Error, and Self-Compassion in Dermatopathology: Lessons from Dermpedia

This episode of The Girl Doc Survival Guide shares reflections after Dr. Artur Zembowicz’s Dermpedia course in Boston on failure, mistakes, and improving in dermatopathology. Dr. Zembowicz emphasizes being prepared to fail when starting new ventures and notes that sports can build resilience by exposing people to stronger competitors. Dr. Alejandro...

DEIAB and Educational Interpreting with Christina Stevens

Christine interviews Christina Stevens, a nationally certified sign language interpreter working mainly in Connecticut public schools for nine years, with degrees in American Sign Language and Theater and leadership roles in state and national interpreter organizations. She shares how she discovered interpreting in college through theater performances, later attending Columbi...

Defining Investing Success: Goals, Asset Allocation, Diversification, and Consistency with John Shanley, CFP

On The Girl Doc Survival Guide, Christine interviews John Shanley, CFP, Partner and Managing Advisor at Connecticut Wealth Management, who shares how he connected with founders Dennis Horrigan and Kevin Leahy, and sought a fiduciary approach where client and firm interests align. Christine discloses Shanley is her family&rsqu...

Decision Fatigue, Perception, and Making Better Choices

This compilation episode of The Girl Doc Survival Guide explores metacognition, limits of explaining perception, and how fatigue affects decision making. Dr. Claudia Mello-Thoms notes that while cognition can be studied, perception cannot be directly accessed; eye-tracking shows clinicians’ explanations often come after perception, which matters for visually based diagnos...

Dr. Lisa Sanders on Diagnosis, Cognitive Bias, and Making Time to Listen

Christine interviews Dr. Lisa Sanders, Yale School of Medicine professor and Medical Director of Yale’s Long COVID Multidisciplinary Care Center, known for the New York Times “Diagnosis” column and consulting on House. Sanders describes switching from Emmy-winning CBS News producer to physician after seeing a sports medicine doctor perform CPR...

Dr. Adam Rubin on Adapting, Coalition-Building, and Time in a Dermatology Career

Christine hosts Dr. Adam Rubin, Director of Dermatopathology at NYU Langone and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology, reviewing his extensive roles in nail disorders, dermatopathology organizations, and major textbooks. Rubin shares an anecdote about taking a medical dermatology fellowship with Dedee Murrell in Sydney after discovering ...

Dr. Kevin Ko on Biomarkers, Oral Dysplasia, and the Limits of H&E Diagnosis

Christine interviews Dr. Kevin Ko (DMD, MD), a pathologist at the BC Cancer Agency with training in oral and maxillofacial pathology, anatomic pathology, and dermatopathology. They discuss his ASDP 2025 lecture on using p53 in oral dysplasia as a potential new approach and the broader problem of diagnostic discordance and over-diagnosis when relying on H...