Celebrating Women in Medicine Month: Serena Auñón-Chancellor, MD ’01

Physicians often wear many hats,  particularly in academia. One can go from being a doctor, to a professor, to an administrator, to a parent all in the same day.

Serena Auñón-Chancellor, MD, ’01, is no stranger to the different hats physicians must don. However, for her, one of her hats just happens to be an astronaut helmet.

“Ever since I was eight years old, I watched shuttles launch and land all the time,” Auñón-Chancellor said. “I remember watching them on television with my father, and I was just absolutely fascinated. I felt like, ‘Wow, that’s what I want to do; the space program is the coolest thing ever.’”

Wearing different hats started early for Auñón-Chancellor. Originally an electrical engineering major at George Washington University, she didn’t decide on a career in medicine until making the switch to pre-med during the summer between her sophomore and junior year.

“I was never one of the people who grew up thinking ‘I want to be a doctor. I want to be a doctor,’” Auñón-Chancellor said. “I always wanted to be an astronaut, but the doctor part came later.”

After graduation from McGovern Medical School, Auñón-Chancellor completed an internal medicine residency at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), in Galveston, Texas, including a year as chief resident in the Internal Medicine Department. After that, she finished an aerospace medicine residency and a master’s of public health degree at UTMB in 2007.

In 2009, Auñón-Chancellor was selected to the 20th NASA astronaut class just three years after joining Johnson Space Center as a flight surgeon. On June 6, 2018, Auñón-Chancellor strapped into the Soyuz spacecraft and blasted off to space for 197 days as a member of Expeditions 56 and 57.

“I wanted to be an astronaut for a very long time,” she said. “I kind of had to wait and see where my path was going to take me, but opportunities open up. I didn’t know that path would follow the field of medicine at that time, but it did, and I love it.”

For her on-earth job as an internist, Auñón-Chancellor likens her role to that of Sherlock Holmes, playing detective to get to the bottom of what’s ailing a patient. Not one to shy away from pressure, she loves being responsible for the patient’s care.

“I may consult with several people to help, but in the end, I’m the one that is with the patient all the way,” she said. “The patient interaction is my favorite part. I like having the responsibility of being the one person in the hospital that knows the most about my patient.”

Away from the hospital, Auñón-Chancellor wears her academic faculty hat for the LSU School of Medicine teaching third- and fourth-year medical students, interns, and residents. She also serves as the COVID-19 lead for the astronaut office with NASA and as an associate program director for the aerospace medicine program at UTMB.

“All my roles don’t add up to 100 percent,” Auñón-Chancellor said. “It’s probably about 180 percent, but I love it because it’s exactly what I want to do. Combining all three aspects of my life which is academia, internal medicine, aerospace medicine, and being in the astronaut corps.”

Despite how busy Auñón-Chancellor stays professionally, she still finds a way to help encourage future generations of both women physicians and astronauts. Her message to women interested in either field is that there are opportunities out there, and to have the courage to take advantage of them.

“I’ve never felt limited or discriminated against in any of my professions because I was female, and I think that’s because of all the hard work that came before me that other women had to go to and break down those barriers, break down those walls,” Auñón-Chancellor said. “Now I feel like it’s up to me to know that those barriers are not completely gone. Those barriers are lower, and I just encourage women to jump over those barriers, to approach those barriers, and just go for it.”

Auñón-Chancellor says she loves the fact that on any given day, what she does can have an impact on one single person, or can reach a much broader population. Whether in a one-on-one scenario with a patient, teaching a small team of students or residents in the hospital, or presenting a lecture to thousands on the future of the space program, every day for Auñón-Chancellor is a new adventure.

“Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day,” she said. “I’m always balancing my job time with family, and making sure that I have time with them and time to grow as a person myself. I’m always trying to accomplish the things I want to do and making sure that I have enough time dedicated for those.”

When she does have free time, Auñón-Chancellor puts on her family hat. She enjoys traveling with her husband, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and watching college baseball. One of her newest hobbies since she returned from space however, has become enjoying everything she missed while gone.

“As much as I loved the views out there, and as much of an honor as it was to serve my country up there, I miss the people of Earth,” Auñón-Chancellor said. “I miss being a doctor on Earth.”

Auñón-Chancellor returned from space in December 2018, and although the astronaut helmet is on the shelf for now, and her bones are still recovering from more than six months in zero gravity, she said she continues to love wearing multiple hats.

“I’m happy, because what I’m doing right now is working in the three areas I love, medicine, aerospace medicine, and the astronaut office,” Auñón-Chancellor said. “If someone were to ask me what’s in store for the future, I would just say ‘Great things.’ I don’t know what those are. They tend to kind of pop up out of nowhere; opportunities just come. I try to step through that door when I see them. I know there’s a lot coming down the road, but I just love being on Earth right now.”

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