Christina Hernon, M.D. is an Emergency Physician & Medical Toxicologist who got her start in medicine at age 14-and-a-half in a unique high school program in Massachusetts that trains teenagers to volunteer on the town ambulance. Becoming a fully certified Emergency Medical Technician at age 16-and-a-half, she went on to the University of Massachusetts for her undergraduate degree and then to the University of Massachusetts Medical School to earn her medical degree. She completed an Emergency Medicine Residency & Medical Toxicology Fellowship, becoming Board Certified in both Emergency Medicine & Medical Toxicology. Fellows of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and of the American College of Emergency Physicians, she often lectures on topics in EMS, disasters, Emergency Medicine and Toxicology.

Despite years of training and experience, nothing really prepared her for the reality of being at the Finish Line medical tent at the Boston Marathon Bombings in 2013. Amidst blood and glass, she got an instant education, and afterwards, while also processing feelings of shame and pain, she identified a large gap in the way we teach disaster response.  Now she is passionate about teaching about Disaster Gap and the trained and untrained Spontaneous Responders within it. She's on a mission to change every course and every textbook, and to promote the addition of a Gap Report to every After-Action Report.