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The Council’s ASP Alumni Impact Award is presented annually to recognize distinguished alumni from the wide and diverse community of over 18,000 ASP alumni living around the globe. ASP alumni around the world are accomplished leaders and change makers in so many domains! This Award provides a great opportunity for our community to recognize and honor past students who have exemplified ASP's mission, brought pride to our school, and made a significant positive contribution in their field.
Based on nominations from alumni, past parents, faculty and staff reviewed by the Council’s Impact Award committee members, and validated by Head of School Misha Simmonds, ASP is pleased to announce that, based on the advancement in world health which her achievements in biomedical sciences have contributed to, the recipient of the inaugural Alumni Impact Award is Dr. Christine Johnston '91.
Dr. Christine Johnston, Professor in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine at University of Washington, received her degree in biochemistry from Brown University, followed by medical school at University of Minnesota. She pursued internal medicine residency and infectious diseases fellowship as well as a Master of Public Health degree from University of Washington. As an infectious diseases physician, she has cared for patients with HIV infection and other chronic viral infections. Her research focus is on clinical studies of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection with the ultimate goal of developing successful vaccines and medications to prevent and treat HSV infections. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their two teenage boys.
Lili M ‘26, a member of ASP's INK student Literary Magazine team who plans to study history and political science at university after her graduation next year, recently interviewed Dr Johnston. Dr Johnston cited her ASP experience as 'life changing.' She considers her greatest accomplishment to be training the next generation, inspiring them to follow their passion and encouraging them along the way:
Dr. Johnston: It was life changing. It opened my eyes to so many different worlds. I had never lived internationally before. I made friends who had lived all over the world, who had so many different experiences. I had wonderful teachers at ASP, as well. I had one teacher who really inspired me to go into chemistry, Mr. Jones. He was known to be a tougher teacher, but he encouraged me to pursue science.
Dr. Johnston: I was the fellowship director for infectious diseases for 5 years, and in that role, I trained a lot of newcomers into the field. I believe my greatest accomplishment is training the next generation and inspiring them to follow their passion and encouraging them along the way. In addition, I’ve enjoyed being a role model. When I started, there were many women in the field, but not a lot who were juggling having kids and family while pursuing research and having a leadership role. I think just being there as an example was helpful. I was also proud to contribute to the infectious diseases response during COVID, when I was involved with vaccine and therapeutic clinical trials.
Dr. Johnston: There are a couple: one is just continuing to do the work when there are setbacks, and being resilient in the face of things not always going how you want. This is especially true in the field of medicine, a lot of times we have patients we care greatly about, and despite everything we do, we can’t save them or give them the outcome they want. Of course, that’s terrible for the patient, but it can also be hard for the providers.
As for the science side, it’s difficult having setbacks such as research results not turning out the way you want. My main focus has been herpes simplex virus, and we haven’t really made a lot of progress in terms of having new therapeutics or new vaccines since I’ve joined the field. However there has been so much progress made against other viral infections and we just need to keep learning from each study and pushing forward - that is what science is all about.
Thank you so much for the incredible honor of being selected for this award. I feel so humbled by this recognition, especially knowing everything that people in the ASP community have accomplished. My years at ASP were so special and formative, both for everything I learned and for the friends I made. It truly felt that anything was possible.
Dr. Johnston: A terrible amount. It’s a very stigmatised infection, which is difficult to believe because it’s incredibly common; people just don’t talk about it. The internet really fosters misinformation that makes people feel even worse about the infection. There are also people profiting off the stigma, providing “cures” that aren’t really cures and medications that don’t work. It’s very frustrating.
Dr. Johnston: It was the mentors I worked with initially. I knew I wanted to work with viral infections and something related to HIV infections. I really wanted to work in global health, and that was inspired by my time at ASP. I had an opportunity to work on HHV-8, which is a herpes virus that causes an HIV-related cancer called Kaposi Sarcoma. That work led me to Uganda, where I did research over a period of two years. Herpes viruses are unique in that they cause a chronic infection that people can’t clear. They’re interesting biologically, and as I met some of my mentors for this HHV-8 project, I got more interested in HSV.
Dr. Johnston: I was part of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, in Seattle. I was one of the initial fellows that went to establish a collaborative research program in Uganda. I got to do a lot of research, and learned a lot about cultural humility, trying to do research in a setting where I didn’t know the culture. I had many amazing Ugandan colleagues. It was great to be part of a project where they had a long view of creating a partnership to improve health care.
There really is no ‘one right path for all’ in this world, it’s important to find the right path for yourself. Find that thing that you love, that gets you up in the morning. Connect to and pursue that path. Once you do, it doesn’t feel like work- it's so exciting!
Dr. Johnston: I would say that it’s a great field. I look at my specific area of medicine. We've made incredible strides since I graduated high school. There’s always something new and interesting, and you get to be creative and curious. There are so many ways to be involved.
There really is no ‘one right path for all’ in this world, it’s important to find the right path for yourself. Find that thing that you love, that gets you up in the morning. Connect to and pursue that path, that’s my strongest advice. Once you do, it doesn’t feel like work- it's so exciting!
Past students, parents, and teachers are welcome to nominate past ASP students for the annual Alumni Impact Award. To learn more about the nomination criteria, and to submit a nomination, please refer to this page of our website.