Written by Doug Goodnough
As a Major in the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Alison Bauer Hansen, ’15, actually prefers to spend her free time in or near the water. The former standout swimmer said she “loved every minute” of her academic and athletic experience at Hillsdale College.
“One, I wanted to swim there, and two, [Hillsdale] has a great acceptance rate into medical school,” said Dr. Hansen, who is currently serving at Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Florida. “I really was challenged, probably for the first time academically, at Hillsdale, which was beneficial going into medical school.”
In the pool for the Chargers, she was a standout in the breaststroke, setting a school record in the 200-meter event as a junior. When she graduated with her degree in biology, she accepted a military scholarship to attend Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
After completing LECOM’s program, she spent two years doing her clinicals in the Detroit area. Dr. Hansen then completed her officer training and active-duty residency at Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska. During her three years there, she finished her family medicine residency and met and married her husband, Blake.
They moved to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, where she finished a one-year sports medicine fellowship with the U.S. Naval Academy as well as at several area high schools. For the past two years, Dr. Hansen has been teaching in Eglin’s sports medicine physician program and seeing patients as part of Eglin’s family medicine residency program.
Dr. Hansen said splitting her time between sports and family medicine gives her many career options.
“I think teaching is one of the long-term benefits of my current job,” Dr. Hansen said. “You really get to see the improvement over time. I’ve seen residents go from very new and green to being able to develop some pretty complex treatment plans and do some pretty awesome procedures in just the short time that I’ve been here. That’s really rewarding to be able to watch and know that I had a direct impact on their success. So far in my tenure, we’ve had a 100 percent acceptance rate into sports medicine fellowships.”
She has two years remaining on her Air Force commitment and said she is keeping her future options open.
“Having a broad family medicine training and spending four years doing sports medicine as well, I can do pretty much anything,” Dr. Hansen said. “A lot of it depends on what the job opportunities are in the area where you’re looking. My husband is from Nebraska, and I’m from Michigan, so we’ll probably end up back in the Midwest at some point. But we’re not in a huge hurry to get there.”
They are currently enjoying the Florida weather with their young son, Lincoln, and a daughter on the way later this fall. Once an avid triathlete, Dr. Hansen said family life is now about spending time on splash pads and the beach and growing citrus trees.
“I think the older I get, the more I want to spend time with my family,” she said. “Five or six years ago, I was still very much caught up into the grind and wanted to keep grinding. But now that I’ve slowed down a little bit and started a family, I definitely have different priorities.”
Her parents still live in Michigan, and she gets to visit often. She remembers her Hillsdale experience fondly.
“Breaking the school record, obviously, was one of my favorite memories,” Dr. Hansen said. “Also just spending time with my teammates and getting to decompress with them after practice. We had really good camaraderie, especially after our training trips. The [Florida] training trips were some of my favorite times, just getting out of the Michigan winter for a week or so and spending some time at the beach with my best friends. We also worked really hard for the whole time we were there. It was grueling, but it was fun.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in September 2025
