Christina Rapp Prescott ’94 visits IRP

On the Friday before winter break (12/21/2018), the Independent Research Program hosted a special guest: Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Christina Rapp Prescott, MD, PhD class of ’94.
During her visit, Dr. Prescott described her journey from Hackley to her current role at Johns Hopkins Hospital where she specializes in medical and surgical management of serious corneal diseases. She noted that Hackley provided her with excellent preparation for her undergraduate degree at Columbia, noting that she was “bored” by only taking the standard course load in college, and challenged herself by taking extra classes each semester.

She also highlighted the important role of her mentors in guiding her throughout her career, starting with the role Hackley legend Pavel Litvinov had in encouraging her to major in Physics at Columbia, as well as how Regeneron co-founder Dr. George Yancopoulos (parent of four Hackley alumni) inspired her to purse her MD/PhD in neuroscience at the University of Colorado.

In addition to the stories of her journey and the lessons she learned, she also provided insight into novel cornea replacement surgery techniques she has worked on recently and shared videos of several surgical techniques with the class. Dr. Prescott is a pioneer in the field and an inspiration to us all as she seems to easily balance her professional career with being a mother of three.
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