Adjunct Faculty in the Doctor of Medical Science Program
Dr. Jon B. Christensen is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Lynchburg and a 2022 graduate of the DMSc program, receiving the inaugural Emergency Management Global Health award. He earned his Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) from the University of Nebraska and graduated from the Interservice Physician Assistant Program in 2001. He retired from the military after serving almost 32 years, where he was an early pioneer of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) and Prolonged Field Care (PFC) training. He has earned numerous awards, including the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star’s, was inducted into the Order of Military Medical Merit, and named the European Physician Assistant of the Year ‘16.
Dr. Christensen is the former Program Director of the NATO Special Operations Combat Medic course and the Ukrainian Paramedic Transition Program. He has graduated from numerous military courses, including Ranger School, Special Forces Qualification Course, Military Tropical Medicine, and Command and General Staff College (CGSC). He served more than 20 years in US Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) as both an operator and a physician assistant while holding additional duties as Aeromedical PA (Flight Surgeon) and Hyperbaric Medical Officer (HMO). He has served on multitudinous ARSOF-counterinsurgency, foreign internal defense, humanitarian, disaster, and combat missions earning both the Combat & Expert Field Medical and Infantryman Badges. He has taught global health and wilderness medicine on four continents. His most recent role includes working as a remote medical provider for the indigenous population in the Aleutian Islands and continuously working overseas.
Dr. Christensen is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM-Matterhorn Award), serves on the FAWM committee for the Wilderness Medical Society, a Fellow of Extreme and Wilderness Medicine (FEWM), and earned the Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM). He has been awarded the Certificate of Added Qualifications in Emergency Medicine (CAQ-EM), certified as a Critical Care Paramedic (CCP-C), Tactical Paramedic (TP-C), and S.E.R.E. – Level C instructor. He also serves as an affiliated facility for the College of Remote and Offshore Medicine (CoROM), the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (TCCC/PHTLS), and the University College Cork, Ireland.
