Christine Hartmann was born in Toledo, Ohio and grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. Her German immigrant parents fostered in her a love of all things international. She spent part of her junior year studying in Nepal and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1987 with a B.A. in German literature. For the next nine years she pursued her love of teaching in rural Japan, first working in the public school system and then in her own private school, which she developed into a successful business. To this day she maintains her fluency in Japanese and German.

After returning to the U.S. in 1996 to study clinical social work, she earned her Master’s and Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. Though she enjoyed working directly with clients, she also learned the importance of helping individuals through research. Having held a number of research positions, she now works at the Veteran’s Health Administration conducting studies to improve the quality of care in nursing homes. She also holds a faculty appointment at Boston University.

In 2008 Christine began to hone the tale that became So Far Away. She is currently conducting interviews for her second book, Understanding Glaucoma from the Inside Out: A Guidebook for Patients and Physicians, detailing patient perspectives on glaucoma with physician commentary. Christine has glaucoma herself. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, the writer, conservationist, and trail developer, Ron Strickland.