About Breakout Leaders
Nichole Adair, D.O. ACOOG
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Dr. Adair received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Cal Poly Pomona followed by her Doctor of Osteopathic degree from Western University of the Health Science. She went on to specialize in Ob/Gyn at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center Dr. Adair enjoys working at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California and teaching Woman's Health at Cal Baptist University. Her hobbies include walking her Labrador, making bread, and traveling with her family.
909-518-9122
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Room 204
Catherine Chang-Letherer, MS, MBA, PA-C
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Cathy Letherer has been in clinical practice for 27 years with 3 of those years overseas as a certified Physician Assistant (PA-C). She teaches as associate professor and academic director at CBU's PA Program. Her goal is to live my highest calling as a mother, wife, in clinical practice with the geriatric population, and at CBU teaching and mentoring future healthcare professionals to care wholistically for their patients.
951-552-8298
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Andre Cipta, MD
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Dr. Andre Cipta serves as the Program Director of the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Palliative Medicine Fellowship, Founding Director of the KP Palliative Medicine Mid-Career Fellowship, Palliative Medicine Clerkship Director at the new KP School of Medicine (SOM), and Associate Medical Director of the KP Los Angeles Hospice Agency. He is board-certified in Family, Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is a recipient of the 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Leadership Scholar Award and serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Kaiser SOM.
His interest in serving those in need led him to study Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley, spend a year at the Master’s Seminary, and complete a Palliative Medicine Fellowship at UCLA. As a palliative medicine physician, he finds profound meaning in supporting those living with advanced illness and is passionate about training future generations of clinicians to further optimize the care of the seriously ill.
Dr. Cipta has a particular interest in innovation. As Fellowship Director, he created an innovative mid-career fellowship track in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania through the ACGME Advancing Innovation in Residency Education (AIRE) program and expanded the program from two to four fellowship positions (two traditional, two mid-career), which is embedded in a unique, longitudinal curriculum spanning across palliative care settings. He created the Palliative Extubation Simulation-Based Formative Activity for both graduate and undergraduate medical learners, and co-created a novel wellness curriculum entitled, “iRISE (Initiative for Resiliency Self-care and Empathy) which was awarded an innovations grant and presented at numerous national conferences.
His research interests lie primarily in exploring the role of spirituality in optimizing whole-person, patient-centered care, which led him to train at Loma Linda University Medical Center and Glendale Adventist Medical Center for medical school and residency, respectively. He was awarded the Christian Academic Physicians and Scientists Faith and Medicine Research Fellowship Award and most recently published on the topic of spiritual distress in serious illness in the BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care.
Dr. Cipta serves as a deacon at Immanuel Bible Church in Los Angeles, CA.
323-313-5426
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Mike Chupp, MD, FACS
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During his fourth year of medical school, he volunteered for two months at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya where he met CEO Dr. Ernie Steury and Medical Director Dr. David Stevens. During his third year of surgical residency, God brought Mike’s high school sweetheart Pam back into his life, and they married in August 1991. A few months later, they traveled to Kenya and Tenwek Hospital in 1992 for two months where both enjoyed getting to know the Tenwek community while Mike was immersed in surgical care in a busy surgery referral center in rural Africa.
Mike completed a general surgery residency at Methodist Hospital in 1993 and then joined Southwestern Medical Clinic, a group in Southwest Michigan dedicated to global healthcare missions. Former CMDA and ICMDA president Dr. Bob Schindler and his wife Marian mentored Mike and Pam until their departure for Tenwek in 1996. Mike was board certified in general surgery in 1995 while working with Southwestern.
Mike was drawn to the orthopedic surgery service as Tenwek had no long-term bone surgeon. He was also named Medical Director in mid-1997. Tenwek grew remarkably during Mike’s tenure as surgeon and medical director to a clinical staff of over 80 physicians and clinical officers and more than 700 total staff. Training programs for interns, family medicine, general surgery and orthopedics were also developed and launched during those years.
Mike and Pam left for Kenya in August 1996 with two small children and added two more while at Tenwek Hospital: Steven, Melody, Kayla and Ashley.
In 2015, Dr. David Stevens invited Mike to consider returning to the U.S. to assume the role of CMDA Executive Vice President. After seven months of prayer and seeking counsel from mission leaders, mentors and close friends, Pam and Mike decided to leave their Kenya home and mission life of 20 years and moved to Bristol, Tennessee in July 2016. Mike has counted it an amazing privilege to serve alongside David Stevens and Gene Rudd and all the national CMDA staff for nearly four years. In September 2018, after an eight-month CEO search process, the Board of Trustees asked Mike to become the next CEO of CMDA and he began September 1, 2019, when Dr. Stevens stepped down. Mike’s life verses are from 2 Timothy 1:6-7: “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (ESV). To God be the glory, great things He has done!
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Room 125
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Rick Donlon, MD
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Rick Donlon grew up in New Orleans and graduated from Texas Christian University in 1986. He completed medical school at LSU-N.O., and a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. In 1995 he and three medical school classmates opened a primary-care health center in Memphis’ most medically underserved neighborhood. The work eventually grew to include eight health centers, three dental clinics, and a family medicine residency program—providing over 170,000 patient visits annually.
Beginning in 2003, many of the medical and dental providers, including Dr. Donlon, moved into the underserved communities where they work. In those same low-income settings, they’ve planted over a dozen house churches. That house church network has subsequently sent dozens of long-term medical missionaries to North Africa, Central
and South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa.
In September of 2020, Dr. Donlon became the Memphis Area Director for the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (while continuing to practice medicine half time).
Physicians, dentists, and other healthcare workers who’ve trained with Dr. Donlon in
Memphis have started or joined similar ministries in low-income communities across the US. Dr. Donlon, his wife Laurie, and their seven children live in the Binghampton neighborhood where he serves as an elder in the house church network.
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(with Dr. Doug Lindberg)
Breakout 3, 1:15pm Saturday
Room 123
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Breakout 4, 2:15pm Saturday
Room 123
Steve Flores
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After serving as Hope Christian Health Center’s first CEO from 2013 to 2015, God brought Steve Flores back to Hope again in 2018. Prior to working at Hope, Steve operated clinics in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, where he directed a team of outreach workers, case managers and psychiatrists, collaborating with L.A. County, the California Department of Developmental Services and the Social Security Administration to provide benefits for the homeless and underserved.
He previously opened and operated a clinic as the Clinic Administrator, and was accountable for providing operations management as a Director of Clinic Operations for a primary care clinic staffed by 54 people. He has also worked as a clinic Community Outreach Director and Communication Director.
Earlier in his career, Steve worked as a General Manager for a major telecommunications corporation, managing a $15 million annual budget and leading nearly 200 technicians, 25 front-line managers, and six area managers, across three divisions. At another telecommunications company, Steve was an Area Manager, where he managed and led 22 supervisors and 275 technicians. In each position, Steve improved service levels and was rated very highly across a number of indicators.
Steve also served in the United States Air Force from 1976-1980
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Running to the margins: Christ-Centered considerations for serving individuals without housing
Early Bird Breakout, 8am Saturday
Room 106
Laurel G., MD
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Dr. G is in her last year of a Complex General Surgical Oncology fellowship. As she has journeyed through medical training, she has actively looked for ways to learn from and to serve God’s children around the world. Travel to multiple regions of the globe has strengthened her passion for reaching the unreached with hope. Her desire is to be among those who “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” Revelation 14:4
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Jonathan Hallsted
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Jonathan Hallsted holds a blended combination of experience in pastoral work (5 years), missionary service (7 years), and private medical practice management (13 years). His wife Rebecca and he founded and now lead an organization called Healthbridge Global. Their mission is to connect the beauty of healthcare to the hope of the gospel. They partner with doctors around the world on medical projects that are intentionally gospel-centric and financially viable. He is currently working in Eastern Europe, North Africa, India, and the United States.
While on earth, 75% of Jesus’ recorded miracles were healthcare interventions. Healthcare is still one of the most strategic tools at our disposal to build bridges to closed nations, closed cultures, and closed hearts.
In Jonathan’s healthcare management experience, he developed a passion for, and a calling to, operational excellence combined with a high-touch, relationship-oriented management style. Admittedly, he learned this perspective via a series of mistakes, a misguided pursuit of perfection, and a revelatory understanding that he was called to “pastor” his team.
He resides in Northern California, just outside of Sacramento, and has four fantastic children - one of whom is a student here at CBU.
(530) 264-6067
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A Weaving of Operational Excellence, Culture, and Faith in Healthcare
Room 104
Jeff Kraakevik, MD
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Room 203
Jennifer Kang, MD
Sadly, Jennifer was snowed in and cannot be here this weekend!
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Dr. Jennifer Kang is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist actively practicing in Redding, California, where she resides with her husband and four children. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience and M.D. at the University of Rochester, and then completed residency training in Ob/Gyn at Brown University/Women & Infants Hospital. She then served in the US southwest Indian Health Service, where she began to discover the reality of her dual-realm authority, synergizing her medical and scientific training with Jesus-centric lifestyle and values in a way that more comprehensively meets the needs of individual patients, systems, and communities.Email Jennifer
In 2013, she moved her family to Redding, California and founded Selah Women’ Health, a private medical practice where partnership with the Holy Spirit is regarded as central to healing and the practice of medicine. She also founded a non-profit, Selah Health International, that has a mission to elevate the health and value of vulnerable individuals, communities, and healthcare provisioners. As part of this, she leads Restore Healthcare Project, which seeks to inspire, recruit, and connect healthcare innovators who believe that healthcare can be a living manifestation of the gospel and power of Jesus Christ.
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Room 124
Hobart Lee, MD
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Hobart went to medical school at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He completed his family medicine residency at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was a chief resident there and completed an Academic Faculty Development Fellowship with a focus on creating a Global Health Track. He is passionate about whole person care and training new family physicians!
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Room 125
Doug Lindberg, MD
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Doug joined CMDA as the director for the Center for Advancing Healthcare Missions (CAHM) in 2020. He and his wife Ruth are both family physicians. He graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2003, completed his family medicine residency at Waukesha Family Practice Residency outside Milwaukee in 2006, and did a one-year rural health fellowship at East Tennessee State University.
The Lindbergs served in Nepal as missionaries from 2009 -13, and Doug served as the medical director at HDCS TEAM Hospital Dadeldhura. They returned to the US in 2013 for what was intended to be a one-year home assignment. But a series of events, including a life-threatening cancer diagnosis for Ruth, led them to permanently relocate back to Wisconsin. Ruth is now miraculously cancer free since 2015. Doug is thrilled to utilize his experiences as a healthcare missionary and family physician to advance the cause of healthcare missions with CMDA. In addition to his work for CAHM, he continues to practice part-time as an urgent care physician for ProHealth Care. He has two children, Maddie (2008) and James (2011).
773-706-3093
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Janet Ma, MD
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Janet Ma is a Med-Peds primary care physician at UCLA. She integrates her faith into medicine and practices spiritual care with her patients. She is also a clinical educator, and works regularly with residents and medical students. She is the current faculty advisor for the UCLA Christian Medical Student Association, and mentors Christian trainees during their medical journey.
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Bob Mason, MDiv
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Bob Mason, MDiv is the executive director of Medical Strategic Network,, an organization that equips healthcare professionals and students to practice whole person care with patients. He is also Adjunct Faculty at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Bob has spoken on this topic on health science campuses throughout the US and numerous countries abroad.
909-800-0665
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(with Andrew Wai, MD MPH)
Early Bird Breakout, 8am Saturday
Breakout 4, 2:15pm Saturday
Room 125
Rebecca Meyer, PhD, MSNed, BSN, FCN, RN
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951-343-4952
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Steve Noblett
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Steve has been the Executive Director of Christian Community Health Fellowship (CCHF) since 2007. He has been involved in church planting and Christian leadership development in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Southern and Central Africa, India and Central America. In 1993, he founded City Builders Youth Organization, a youth-based Christian community development organization in urban Memphis, Tennessee. “There is no great field of need or opportunity than among the underserved. Christian healthcare to the poor is a major key in helping the church to break out of its bubble and reconnect the world with the message of Christ and His kingdom.” In addition to his work with CCHF, Steve and his wife Victoria continue to work with urban youth in a under-resourced area of Memphis. They have two grown daughters and a foster son, all of whom love Jesus and are committed to serving Christ by serving others.
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Room 103
Michael Parsa, MD, FACEP
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Description text goes hereDr. Parsa is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Department of Emergency Medicine, Paul L Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, where he and his pediatrician wife have served as the CMDA campus advisors for over 13 years.
As an active member of the Samaritan's Purse DART teams, Dr. Parsa has served with SP in Iraq, Bangladesh, Haiti, Ecuador and Ukraine, and also in Kenya with the SP World Medical Mission branch. Prior to El Paso, Dr. Parsa and his family served as long term missionaries with Pioneers at Rumginae Hospital in Papua New Guinea. A California native, he completed his emergency medicine residency in El Paso, his MD at Creighton and his BA at UCSD.
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Breakout 2, 10am Saturday
Room 103
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Breakout 3, 1:15pm Saturday
Room 203
Mitchell Schoen, MD
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Dr. Mitchell Schoen has experienced deep healing and freedom from addiction, first hand. Now, however, he has the joy of seeing God give that freedom to others. He serves as an addiction medicine consult physician and has been part of support groups as well. Together with his wife, he has a passion for equipping people to love their neighbors. They hold interested in international health and exploring it now! Dr. Robin Schoen and Dr. Mitchell Schoen live in San Bernadino.
763-218-4490
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Scott Southard, MD
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Scott Southard, MD is the founder and president of In Jesus Name Medical Ministry (IJN). He is joined by Dr. Carol Swartz as they discuss how Doctors, PAs, FNP’s and APRN’s can “reach into communities” by “partnering” with local area churches and providing FREE medical clinics for people in need.
775-782-1073
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John Tannous, MD
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Dr. John Tannous is a graduate of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. After completing his pediatric residency, John started the American dream of private practice in suburban Phoenix. However, God had other plans and led John, his wife and two young sons to Kunming, China in 2001. Over the next 20 years, the Tannous family served the poor, orphaned, and marginalized in southwest China. They also added 2 daughters, the youngest via adoption. Dr. Tannous spent 2 “sabbatical” years working in inner city Chicago. After navigating the initial COVID pandemic in China, Dr. Tannous returned to the US with his family in 2021. He now works in a Los Angeles FQHC serving a primarily Asian community.
971-389-9667
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Room 203
Andrew Wai, MD MPH
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Andrew Wai grew up in Orange County and graduated from UCLA. He completed medical school and residency in combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics (Med-Peds) at Loma Linda University. He has been a part of CMDA since his first year of medical school. While in medical school, he also got involved with Medical Strategic Network where he did the Whole Person Care Preceptorship which helped him to integrate spiritual care into his practice of medicine. He is currently on faculty at Loma Linda University where he practices as a Primary Care Physician and also does Pediatric Hospital Medicine. He also practices as the Pediatrics Clerkship Director and enjoys getting to train the next generation of healthcare professionals. He also had the privilege of participating in the "Taking a Spiritual History" video in the CMDA Faith Prescriptions Series.
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Cory Wilson, MD
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Dr. Wilson practices Emergency Medicine in Southern California, where he lives with his wife Michal. They have 2 grown sons, Caleb and Joshua, who live in Southern California as well. In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Wilson completed an MA in the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at Talbot School of Theology, with a focus on issues related to the mind-body problem and personal ontology. Exploring the impact of the metaphysics of the soul on the practice of medicine is a particular interest of his.
402-960-2635
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Warren Yamashita, MD MPH
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Dr. Yamashita is a double-board certified Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine physician currently serving as interim Medical Director of Hurtt Family Health Clinic in Santa Ana, California. He completed his Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Stanford where he serves as adjunct faculty teaching their Stigma and Disparities curricula. Dr. Yamashita founded and currently Chairs the Christian Medical and Dental Association’s Addiction Medicine Section, which is an multi-professional and interdisciplinary network of healthcare professionals and faith-based leaders working together to free their communities from addiction. He served on CMDA’s Racism, Reconciliation, Equality, and Diversity Committee. He is passionate about caring for the whole person and exposing myths and stigmas that contribute to addiction, overdoses, and poor health in our communities.
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Chris Yan, MD
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Dr. Yan grew up in Orange County, went to UCLA for undergraduate and medical school, then moved to the Inland Empire for Kaiser Fontana Family Medicine residency and sports medicine fellowship. Since 2005, he has worked at Kaiser Ontario and is now mainly running an on-site company clinic at a steel company where Kaiser Steel used to be. He lives in Rancho Cucamonga with his wife and son, and they attend Summit Bible Church in Fontana, a church plant of Foothill Bible Church in Upland. He became interested in Biblical Counseling through patient care experiences and is pursuing a Master's Degree in Biblical Counseling.
909.781.8909
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Utilizing Biblical Counseling in Patient Care: A Strategic Tool
Early Bird Breakout, 8am Saturday
Room 204
Jennifer Zamora, DHSc, PA-C
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Dr. Zamora currently works as the Director of Inter-Professional Education at UCR School of Medicine and is clinical faculty. She is clinically a certified physician assistant (PA-C) and has a Doctorate of Health Science in Global Medicine from AT Still University. She has seven years of teaching experience in classroom settings as well as five years in higher education and as a clinical preceptor. She trained in medicine at the University of Southern California (USC), Keck School of Medicine, Primary Care Physician Assistant Program. She has clinical experience in pediatric, family and urgent care medicine and she currently works at Upland Medical Center. After precepting and guest lecturing for USC, she went on to help develop the PA program of California Baptist University (CBU MSPAS) from August 2015 through July 2020 as a founding faculty member. She coordinated/interviewed all guest lecturers, new faculty and personally taught across most of the clinical courses (especially in the clinical medicine and clinical skills courses, as well as women's health, pediatrics, pharmacology and research). She also designed and executed the live model exam-program, OSCE exams, simulations, hands-on workshops and incorporated inter-professional education (IPE) and inter-professional practice at CBU and the University of La Verne. She continues to love teaching in the classroom and out in the field, especially taking students out of their comfort zones to various street medicine sites and many outreaches.
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