Dr. Maria Cristina Chan joined UP Health System - Marquette this autumn. Dr. Chan — Tina — knew she was going to be a doctor her whole life, because her parents told her so.

MARQUETTE — You can call her Tina, said Dr. Maria Cristina Chan, who joined UP Health System – Marquette this autumn.

“I have a Filipino name,” she said, a bright smile lighting up her face. “But I go by Tina.”

She grew up, she said, the younger by 10 years sister of three protective, older brothers.

“They still think I’m a baby,” she chuckled.

But the young UPHS – Marquette Family Medicine physician is married — to Dr. Michael Mellana, who is a clinical cardiac electrophsyiologist at UPHSM —  and has two daughters of her own, Adriana, age 6, and Christiana, 18 months old.

Dr. Chan — Tina — knew she was going to be a doctor her whole life, because her parents told her so.

“It wasn’t something I wanted when I was young, but my parents were both doctors and were on the faculty at the medical school in the small city in which we lived,” she said. “They told me I was going to be a doctor. I had a lot of rebellion about it at first, but I went to medical school and I finished it.

“Now I love it.”

Dr. Chan received her medical degree from the Cebu Institute of Medicine in Cebu City, Philippines, and her Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from Velez College also in Cebu City. She went on to complete a postgraduate internship at the Cebu Doctors University Hospital, and an Internal Medicine residency at Soundshore Medical Center in New Rochelle, New York, where she also held the position of chief medical resident.

The small-town Filipino girl said the big city was a huge change for her.

“What is it they say? ‘You can take the monkey out of the jungle, not the jungle out of the monkey.’ I could not have been more ‘fresh off the boat.’ But I learned to like the city.”

From New York, Tina next went to Providence (Rhode Island) Community Health Centers, where she served as an internal medicine provider. Dr. Chan is board certified in internal medicine and is a member of the American College of Physicians.

“That was my first job and I was there for six years,” Dr. Chan said. “I loved it in Rhode Island. There were a lot of Hispanic people and there were lots of foods similar to those I grew up with. Spicy foods.”

Tina said she was a bit surprised when her husband told her he had taken a job in Marquette.

“Michael said we were going to the Upper Peninsula,” she said. “I told him I had thought we would be going someplace more south of Providence. I started reading about Marquette and found it was not just in the Midwest, it was at the top of the Midwest.

“So this will be my first winter in this kind of snow,” Dr. Chan said, adding with a chuckle, “Maybe I will hibernate. It will be coffee, book and Netflix.”

But she wants her daughters to learn to love the snow.

“I am not much of an outdoor person, but I am bent on my daughters not being like me. I want them to love the outdoors.”

Her daughters will be learning to ski and skate and do other activities, Tina said.

Michael started at UPHS – Marquette a few months before she did, so Dr. Chan had the chance to get to know her new community.

“My favorite thing about Marquette is the people are very friendly,” she said. “When I started in New York, no one would ask me anything or talk to me. Here, everyone asks how I am and will talk about anything under the sun.”

Having arrived in Marquette during the warm portion of the year, Tina has been awed by the beauty of the area, she said.

“We rented a place by the lake and my oldest daughter loved going right into the water. Too cold for me, but I would sit and soak up the sun,” she said. “When I first got here, one of our favorite things to do was going around Presque Isle. Beautiful.

“Autumn here reminded me of New Hampshire. Everywhere you looked you could see these beautiful hills, with all the fall colors.”

While she was a bit sad to leave behind the people in Rhode Island, she has made the adjustment now.

“I worked with a great team of nurses and doctors there,” Dr. Chan said. “But I find I am working with another great group of nurses and doctors here. That made it easy for me to think of this as home now.”

To schedule an appointment with Dr. Chan or other providers from UP Health System – Marquette Family Medicine, call 906-225-3864. Learn more online by visiting www.mgh.org/familymedicine.

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