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2021 WPDC CONFERENCE
September 30 - October 3, 2021
2021 Presenter Biographies
You may select one or more names from the list below by checking and unchecking the box next to their name, to focus on one or more individual biographies. Clicking on the presenter's "Conference Speaking Schedule" button will take you to their first conference engagement as shown on the 2021 Conference Schedule.
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Alvera Stern
Amy Givler
Andrea B. Braun
Ann Tsen
Cara Brown
Elisa Ghezzi
Elizabeth Sherrill
Ellen M. Dailor
Jane Goleman
Jean Wright
Joy K. Ruff
Kelly McCluskey-Erskine
Kelsey Thompson
Lanette Guthman
Leslie Walker
Lina Abujamra
Linda Wrede-Seaman
Madie Hartman
Nadine Duhan Floyd
Nancy Mabe
Patti Francis
Rashel Haverkorn
Regina Frost
Sarah Rahkola
Taryn Boik
Tiffany Owens
Tom Grosh
Wendy B. Kang
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Dr. Stern grew up in Zambia as the daughter of Brethren in Christ missionaries. After graduation from Messiah College, she and her husband, Jacob, served as BIC missionaries in Rhodesia for six years, where she taught biology. She then received her doctorate in educational psychology and counseling from Penn State University. Dr Stern worked at the county, state, and federal levels for 36 years in substance abuse prevention, retiring as Senior Administrator of Media and Communications for Sam HSA in 2007. She and Jacob then served with Mennonite Central Committee in Kenya until 2014, when they retired to Messiah Village after Jacob's diagnosis of Frontotemporal Dementia. -
Amy Givler, M.D., a cancer survivor, shares her experience and the stories of others with the voice of encouragement, faith, and strength she so desperately needed at the point of her diagnosis. With medical knowledge and insight into the path to come, Dr. Givler is able to offer answers and hope as she discusses: looking at cancer through the lens of hope; seeking, evaluating, and making decisions for treatment; drawing closer to God along the journey; and facing family and friends. Dr. Givler shares more than professional wisdom; she extends her friendship. And as a fellow survivor she provides a comforting presence during an experience that too often is mired in uncertainty, fear, and loneliness. -
Dr. Andrea Braun is a board certified intensivist (ICU doctor) in Houston, TX and is affiliated with Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center. She received her medical degree from Ruprecht Karl University Faculty of Medicine in Heidelberg, Germany in 2002 and came to the US for residency training in 2005. She is board certified in internal medicine, critical care medicine and nephrology. She also speaks multiple languages, including German. She specializes in critical care and is experienced in nephrology and critical care medicine. Her interests include critical care ultrasound, medical education and critical care nephrology. -
Dr. Ann Tsen is a Certified Physician Life and Leadership Coach and Director of Coaching for the CMDA Center for Well-being. She is also a board-certified internist and serves on the advisory council for the Women Physicians in Christ ministry. Dr. Tsen is passionate about combatting the rising tide of burnout through her coaching work and Center for Well-being ministry. She helps women healthcare professionals align with God, rediscover joy in their personal and professional lives, and courageously move forward into their full God-given potential. She is also a licensed coaching trainer, has experience in international missions, has served as campus advisor to her local CMDA student group and currently practices part-time at a faith-based charity clinic, using coaching to help patients maximize health outcomes. When not coaching, she enjoys singing and playing guitar, capturing beauty with her camera, and taking long walks on the beach. -
Dr. Brown graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and St. Anthony’s Medicine Residency in Oklahoma City. After 6 years of rural practice in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, she taught at Cox Family Medicine Residency in Springfield, Missouri before returning to private practice in Johnstown, Colorado. Cara has been involved in CMDA since medical school and was the WPC chair from 2010-2012. She believes that Christian female physicians have unique roles and challenges, and that WPC is ready to help them meet those challenges -
Elisa M. Ghezzi, DDS, PhD provides dental care for residents of nursing and assisted living facilities in the Detroit Michigan Metropolitan area. In addition, she is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Cariology, Restorative Sciences, and Endodontics at the Universityof Michigan (UM) School of Dentistry. She received her DDS (1995) from UM, completed a General Practice Residency (1995-6) at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN, trained in a geriatric dentistry fellowship (1996-8) at UM, and obtained both an MS (2001) in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis and a PhD (2005) in Epidemiology from UM School of Public Health. Dr. Ghezzi serves as the chair of the Michigan Coalition for Oral Health for the Aging, a board member of the Michigan Society of Gerontology, and is a member of the American Society for Geriatric Dentistry of Special Care Dentistry. Her research focuses on the effects of oral diseases on systemic health. She has written and -
Elizabeth (“Tib”) Sherrill has published some 2000 articles and authored more than 30 books, with sales in excess of 60 million. Books authored, many co-written with her late husband John, include The Hiding Place, The Cross and the Switchblade, God’s Smuggler, They Speak with Other Tongues, and Return from Tomorrow. For over sixty years, Elizabeth has been a writer and editor for Guideposts Magazine. -
Dr. Ellen Dailor is a cardiac anesthesiologist and medical missionary currently living in Florida. She has worked in academic and community care in the United States and served overseas short and medium term contributing both general and cardiac clinical anesthesia as well as teaching with organizations including Mission Doctors Association, Helping Hands Medical Missions, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation. She serves as a volunteer for the American Board of Anesthesiology. Other clinical interests include quality improvement, patient safety, and physician wellness, while related mission interests include ecumenical dialogue, evangelization, and theology. -
Jean is a pediatric anesthesiologist and ICU physician. She has practiced over 30 years, in academic medicine at Emory, and Mercer. She received an MBA from Emory and has served in a variety of physician executive roles including leading the Children's & Women's Hospital of Savannah, a Chief Medical Officer for Atrium Health, and most recently Chief Innovation Officer. -
: Dr. Ruff is a partner at Family Physicians of Greeley, LLC. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and attended residency at In His Image Family Medicine Residency Program. in Tulsa, OK. She is board certified in Family Medicine and completed a fellowship in Obstetrics and Surgical Obstetrics at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Formerly, was a faculty at North Colorado Family Medicine Residency, where she served as the director of a 2-day OB US CME course and was the curriculum champion of Point-of-Care Ultrasound. Dr. Ruff now practices full-spectrum Family Medicine with OB, where she provides Point-of-Care Ultrasound services for her patients. She lives in Greeley, CO with her husband and four children. -
Kellie Hooker recently retired from a career that included: a decade teaching middle school; 13 years in missions with Southern Baptists in Canada, Central America, and Mexico; and most recently, 16 years with CMDA campus and community ministry in San Antonio, TX. She lives in Tyler, TX, where she and her husband, Robert, have restored the 130 year-old farmhouse built by his great-grandfather. She enjoys reading, road trips, mission trips, and her 5 grandchildren. -
Dr. Kelly L. Mccluskey-Erskine is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Dayton, Ohio and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Miami Valley Hospital and Kettering Medical Center. She received her medical degree from Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and has been in practice between 11-20 years. -
Dr. Thompson is a general dentist currently working in Detroit, MI at a faith-based community health center. She graduated from University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 2015 and following graduation went on to participate in the CMDA Dental Residency in Memphis, TN. She has a passion for caring for the underserved and marginalized and using dentistry to share the good news of Jesus Christ. She is a proud wife to Chad and mom to two beautiful kids, Kai and Zarah. -
Lanette Guthmann is an OB-GYN who practiced in Omaha for 33 years and loved her job! She retired in January 2020. She’s married to John of 41 years and has three children: son Michael married to Lan and daughter Christina married to Austen - who live and work in Seattle – and son David, who lives in Omaha, NE. -
Graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School, where I also received my master's degree in Neuroscience. After an internship in internal medicine, I completed my residency in psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. I have been in private practice since 2000, first in Baltimore, and since 2007 in Cleveland. "I help patients learn to manage their psychiatric conditions effectively, so that they can reach their own professional and personal goals. Together, we develop a path to resilience." -
Lina AbuJamra is a Pediatric ER doctor, now practicing telemedicine, and founder of Living With Power Ministries and She Gives Hope. Her vision is to bring hope to the world by connecting biblical answers to everyday life. A popular Bible teacher, blogger, and conference speaker, she is the author of several books and the host of the Living With Power Hope Podcast. Lina is also ministering to singles through her Today’s Single Christian show on Moody Radio and is engaged in providing medical care and humanitarian help to Syrian refugees in the Middle East. She is single, calls Chicago home, and would not survive without her iPhone. -
Dr. Linda Wrede-Seaman is triple board certified in family practice, emergency medicine and hospice & palliative medicine. She has practiced 'front lines' medicine since the early 1980's. She recently lost her husband, Matt, a 33-year veteran in emergency medicine to suicide. She will share her perspective on how this has impacted her life. -
Dr. M. Jane Goleman, MD, M.Div., D.Min. is a member of the Section of Ambulatory Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) and a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Goleman’s clinical interest is in primary care, ADHD, and doctor-patient communication and its impact on health outcomes. She is the medical lead for the Office of Health Equity at NCH, and a founding member of the Pediatric Health Equity Collaborative which is a national collaboration between pediatric organizations working together to eliminate disparities in health care and outcomes. She leads quality improvement teams addressing HPV vaccine rates, Infant Mortality due to unsafe sleep, and tobacco cessation. Dr. Goleman earned her BS and MD degrees from The Ohio State University in 1979 and 1982. She completed a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1991, and a Doctor of Ministry from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in 2010. -
Dr. Madie Hartman was born and raised in Philadelphia PA. She attended Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and did her residency at Altoona Family Physicians. She works as an assistant professor with the Family and Community Medicine Department at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Hartman enjoys crocheting and spending time with her husband, their three children and two furry babies, Jet Junior and Dasher. -
Dr. Floyd is certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery, and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Notre Dame and her medical degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She trained in general surgery at Rush University and Cook County Hospitals in Chicago, Illinois, and in colon and rectal surgery at St. Vincent Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania. She has been practicing in Fort Wayne since 2005 and is a Volunteer Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine-Fort Wayne. Dr. Floyd is dedicated to a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to the management of colon and rectal disorders, especially colon and rectal cancer. She was the first surgeon in Fort Wayne to perform transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), offering patients with rectal polyps and early rectal cancers an alternative to major abdominal surgery. Dr. Floyd practices the full scope of colon and rectal surgery, and has additional training in TEM, laparoscopic colon surgery and endorectal ultrasonography. She is certified in daVinci Robotic Surgery, Solesta treatment for fecal incontinence, and the THD procedure (Transanal Hemorrhoidal Dearterialization) for minimally invasive treatment of hemorrhoids. -
Dr. Nancy C. Mabe is an internist in Columbia, Missouri and is affiliated with University of Missouri Health Care-Columbia. She received her medical degree from University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years. -
Patti Francis, MD, has been in private practice in a partnership at Lamorinda Pediatrics since 1985, located in Lafayette CA. Patricia (Patti) graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara, completed her medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine and her residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics; was a founder and chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Women in Medicine and Dentistry from 1990-1996; and is a member and past chair of the Marriage Enrichment Commission. She has served on the Physicians Resource Council of Focus on the Family, as an Advisor Board Member of the Medical Insitute and DiscoveryHealth.com Disease and Conditions; and has worked on missions with Samaritan’s Purse, GHO, Kids Alive International, and Women of Vision/World Vision. She is married to Ron and has two daughters—Corrie and Erica. -
Dr. Haverkorn completed her residency in Urology at Louisiana State University in Shreveport with a special interest in female urologic care. She pursued fellowship in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at UT Southwestern. Rashel was in private practice for nearly 10 years and recently switched gears to become Medical Director with a large insurance group, Optum Healthcare. -
Dr. Regina Frost is an OB/Gyn and works out of St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan. She has been in practice for over 10 years, the majority of which was spent as the owner and solo physician of her former private practice. Regina enjoys educating women about their health and seeing God work in the lives of her patients. She is married to Darren Clark and enjoys serving at church, cooking/eating, reading, exercising, listening to music and spending time with friends and family. -
Reverend Barbara Boss is an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in America--a path she pursued after turning 50 years old and after spending many years as a director of Christian Education, as well as being active in women's ministry. Once ordained, she had the privilege of planting and pastoring a church in their former community. Barb is now retired, and she and her "doctor" husband Rick have been married for nearly 50 years. They have 10 grandchildren and reside in Norton Shores, Michigan. -
Dr. Knox is a surgical oncologist specializing in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast cancer. She practiced for 30 years at Baylor Scott & White downtown Dallas with a team of breast cancer specialists who are passionate about stamping out breast cancer. She started what is now the Bridge Breast Network over 25 years ago to assist women in the community who were under-insured to obtain breast services including mammograms, diagnostic procedures, surgical and oncologic care. Currently she is teaching leadership skills with Global Advance ministry. -
Sarah Rahkola, MD, believes to achieve optimal health, it is important to address the needs of the whole person - physical, mental and spiritual. In her practice, Dr. Rahkola emphasizes patient education and shared decision-making. "I coach my patients to make sound decisions for their own health," she says. Dr. Rahkola earned her medical degree from Oregon Health & Science University. She completed her internship, residency and a chief-resident year at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. She is an active member of the American College of Physicians and the Christian Medical and Dental Association. Raised in Hillsboro, Oregon, Dr. Rahkola is married with three children. Outside of the office, she enjoys gardening, cooking, reading and visiting the Oregon Coast. -
Dr. Boik is an internal medicine-pediatrics primary care provider in the Minneapolis suburbs. She enjoys cooking, baking, exercising, reading, crocheting, and spending time with her husband, Chris. -
As a former pediatrician at Wright-Patterson Medical Center, I had the opportunity to receive training in the diagnoses and treatment of allergic disorders. It was my experience with allergists at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and the U.S. Air Force allergy training program that made me feel passionate about this subspecialty. I give the same care and attention to my patients as I did with children and their families when I was a pediatrician. I enjoy helping patients understand what we know (and don’t know) about their condition, the limitations of testing, and the use of medications and non-medication treatments. I listen to their concerns, gather relevant history, order any necessary tests and partner with the patient to determine a personalized treatment plan. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center stands out because of the institution’s long-standing history of education, research and patient care as well as its community involvement and way of practically applying translational research to patient care. While working here, I would love to get involved in research relating to allergic rhinitis, venom allergy and/or allergy education. I’m also fascinated by immunomodulation, the possibility to change the immune system to be less reactive to allergens such as environmental (dog, cat, dust mite), pollens and venom. -
Through a decade of interactions with current and future healthcare professionals as a CMDA affiliate staff at the Penn State College of Medicine's Christian Medical Society (CMS) / CMDA, the Lord ignited in Tom Grosh IV a passion to devote his next season of ministry to transforming lives with the Gospel through healthcare. Tom brings to CMDA in South Central PA over 20 years of experience with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. Most recently he served as the Associate Director of the Emerging Scholars Network (2012-2018). His responsibilities included conferencing, digital ministries, fund development, networking, and resource development. Tom has completed a B.S. in Biology (Grove City College), a M.A. in Higher Education (Geneva College), a M.A.R. in Spiritual Formation (Evangelical Seminary), and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction (Evangelical Seminary), and a Doctor of Ministry in Ministry to Emerging Generations (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary). He is licensed in the Brethren in Christ Church, U.S. Tom and his wife Theresa grew up in Lancaster County, PA. They met while attending Donegal High School. Currently, Tom and Theresa are active members of Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ, where they serve in a number of ministry capacities. The Lord has blessed them with four children: Hayley, Ellen, Eden, and Lily. -
Dr. Kang said she always knew what she would do after earning her bachelor’s degree. “From the moment of consciousness, my mom said I knew I would be a physician. My aunt always said I had a calling. It was strange. There were no physicians on either side of our family. But, I just always knew I was going to be physician,” she said. Dr. Kang, a clinical professor of anesthesiology at the Health Science Center, said she didn’t play with dolls like other girls. “My first patient was my teddy bear. He received bandages, and I checked his vitals with a pretend stethoscope,” she said. “I was fortunate to grow up in a small town, but one that was large enough to have two family physicians. I admired both of them. They looked like doctors out of a Norman Rockwell painting.” She started medical school at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. In her third year, Dr. Kang said she had a hard time deciding on a specialty. “I loved everything about medicine. I decided to specialize in anesthesiology because I can use everything I learned. I get to work with all ages of patients. You have to know every aspect of medicine so you can treat the patient.”
