Brief Bio

Christina VandePol, M.D. is a writer, physician, and former elected coroner. Her memoir, Madam Coroner: A Memoir of Death and Politics in Suburbia is forthcoming from Exposit Books, a McFarland imprint. Christina’s creative nonfiction essays have been published in The Sun, Killer Nashville Magazine, The Rumpus, and Months to Years. Recognized as an expert on coroners and death investigation, Christina has been interviewed and quoted by the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, and multiple other media outlets.

Long Bio

Christina VandePol, M.D. is a writer, physician, and former elected coroner. Her memoir, Madam Coroner: A Memoir of Death and Politics in Suburbia, is forthcoming from Exposit Books, a McFarland imprint. Madam Coroner won the Killer Nashville 2025 award for best unpublished nonfiction. Christina’s creative nonfiction essays have been published in The Sun, Killer Nashville Magazine, The Rumpus, and Months to Years.

Christina was the first woman and first Democrat to be elected coroner of suburban Chester County, Pennsylvania in over two centuries. During four stormy years (2018-2022), she steered her office through both the opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing 5,697 death investigations and achieving the advanced level of national certification as a medicolegal death investigator.

Recognized as an expert on coroners and death investigation, Christina has been interviewed and quoted by the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, NBC News, the LA Times, and multiple regional and local media outlets on topics including drug deaths, unclaimed bodies, the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths in custody, and climate-related deaths.

Christina has been a speaker for the Delaware Valley Chapter of Sisters in Crime, the Pennsylvania Sierra Club, and the Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference, among others. She is a member of the Nonfiction Authors Association, Sisters in Crime, and the Authors Guild. Christina was also a long-time Officer and Board Member of the Chester County Medical Society.

Born in the Netherlands, Christina emigrated to the United States when she was four and became the first in her family to attend college. A graduate of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Christina is board-certified in internal medicine and endocrinology. Before her election as Coroner of Chester County, PA, she worked as an internist, rural emergency-room doctor, clinical researcher, educator, and medical writer. Christina co-authored an academic study titled Coroner/Medical Examiner Services in Pennsylvania, and is the creator of Cause & Manner, a Medicolegal Death Investigation Blog. After completing her term as coroner, Christina returned to medicine, volunteering at a free clinic. She lives in southeastern Pennsylvania where she writes, tends a wild garden, and supports the election of other progressive women to public office.