Joanna R Fair, MD
(SWC-SNMMI President 2014-2015 and 2015-2016)

Please tell us about yourself.

I am originally from Huntsville, TX, lived in Texas for 21 years, and attended Rice University for a bachelor's degree in Chemistry before heading to the University of Colorado for a PhD in Chemical Physics. I then went to St. Louis for medical school at Washington University, followed by Diagnostic Radiology residency at the University of New Mexico, then back to Wash U for Nuclear Medicine residency.  I’ve been on the faculty at the University of New Mexico in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine section since 2009.  I live in Albuquerque with my husband and two teenage children, and I spend my spare time being a Girl Scout troop leader, judging speech and debate, and singing in the choir and doing volunteer work at my church.   

Give us your background information related to your professional training, including nuclear medicine, and what inspired you to enter this field.

As a 4th year medical student, I did away rotation at the University of New Mexico because my husband was a postdoc in Nuclear Chemistry at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  During a month of diagnostic radiology at the Albuquerque VAMC, I was taken under the wing by Dr. Michael Hartshorne, my long-term mentor, sponsor, colleague, and friend, who got me so hooked on nuclear medicine that I spent another month-long rotation just working with him on nuclear medicine.  The rest is history. 

What do you consider your primary contribution(s) to Nuclear Medicine?

As a board member of the American Board of Nuclear Medicine, I played a role in introducing longitudinal testing for maintenance of certification as an ultimate replacement for high-stakes testing every 10 years.  Additionally, I followed in Dr. Hartshorne’s footsteps at the University of New Mexico by bringing high-quality nuclear medicine imaging and therapy (including starting our Ga-68 DOTATATE/Lu-177-DOTATATE theranostics program) to the people of New Mexico, an underserved, minority-majority state. 

In what year were you a SWC-SNMMI President, and how did you first become involved with the chapter?

I was president in 2014-2015 and again in 2015-2016.  I became involved as a trustee a few years before that, encouraged by Mike Hartshorne along with Darlene Metter.