SC AHEC Excellence Awards: Gateway Award

Acting HCP Director Paula Jones and SC AHEC Executive Director Ann Lefebvre present Dr. Christie with the Gateway Award

The South Carolina AHEC Gateway Award recognizes individuals who are committed to furthering the development of future health professionals and are distinguished in their service to students in the health careers pipeline. This year’s Gateway Award recipient is Angelica Ellman Christie, Ed.D.

Dr. Christie is currently the vice president of academic affairs at Denmark Technical College. Previously, she served in the South Carolina AHEC system for numerous years: She started her career in 1998 as the Health Careers Program (HCP) coordinator for Greenville AHEC and advanced as the HCP director in the South Carolina AHEC program office in 2000. In the fall of 2018, Dr. Christie left South Carolina AHEC for her position at Denmark Tech.

Throughout her career, Dr. Christie exhibited her passionate dedication to advancing the mission of South Carolina AHEC. She enthusiastically went above and beyond to research, develop, and successfully undertake new projects and programming to strengthen and enhance the HCP core services, including Bench to Bedside (B2B), Building Coalitions to Increase the Diversity of the S.C. Health Care Workforce, Teach-the-Teacher Academy, and the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) Health Careers Exploration & Literacy Project.

One of Dr. Christie’s AHEC colleagues described her dedication to the Health Careers Program:

Angelica understood the needs of communities, suburban and rural, and worked fiercely to advocate for students to get involved in health careers so that the community at large would become a healthier, more vital, and impactful place to live. Angelica supported all types of programs that local high schools were working to implement and develop by having coordinators befriend health science instructors and create partnerships to educate young people in health careers. There was no program that Angelica did not see value in, and then add more depth to.

Dr. Christie’s dedication to excellence was seen throughout her tenure with the South Carolina AHEC System and she indelibly left her mark on the Health Careers Program. Thank you, Dr. Christie!

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