Plenary Speakers
Mitchell W. Duininck MD, FAAFP
President/CEO of In His Image, Inc
Biography | Mitchell W. Duininck MD, FAAFP
Mitchell W. Duininck, MD, is the President and CEO of In His Image, Inc. and the Program Director of the In His Image Family Medicine Residency. This program emphasizes training doctors in Christ-centered, whole person medicine and preparing them to care for the medically underserved in the United States and globally. Many of the graduates of this program are full-time medical missionaries. Dr. Duininck is also the CEO of In His Image International and Good Samaritan Health Services. He is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Medicine.
Dr. Duininck has done medical missions in many countries, including India, Kenya, Ghana, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Russia, Romania, and the Czech Republic. He has led multiple crisis response teams to Zaire, Honduras, Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nepal, Iraq, and Turkey.
Dr. Duininck and his wife Leah have six children and eight grandchildren. As a family, they served at Manna Mission Hospital in Ghana, West Africa, for two years. They also lived for one year in Kabul, Afghanistan, helping train Afghan physicians in the Hope Family Medicine Afghanistan (HFMA) Residency Program.
Dick Furman MD, FACS
Founder of World Medical Mission
(medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse)
Biography | Dick Furman MD, FACS
Dr. Richard W. Furman and his late brother Dr. Lowell Furman are co-founders of World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse. World Medical Mission was founded in 1977 and has made it possible for thousands of Christian doctors to serve as short-term volunteers at missionary hospitals around the globe.
Dr. Furman served 30 years as a vascular surgeon and retired from the Watauga Surgical Group in Boone, N.C. He is past president of the North Carolina Surgical Society, past president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and a two-term governor of the American College of Surgeons. He has served since 2006 as a member of the Samaritan’s Purse Board of Directors.
Through World Medical Mission, he has personally served at dozens of mission hospitals around the world, including emergency trips to Nepal, Haiti, Rwanda, and Iraq. In 2019, He received the International Surgical Volunteerism Award from the American College of Surgeons Board of Governors.
Dr. Furman and his wife Harriett live in North Carolina.
He is the author of several books, including Prescription for Life, Defeating Dementia, Your Cholesterol Matters, Winning Your Blood Sugar Battle, and To Be A Surgeon.
Edward Graham
VP of Operations, Samaritan’s Purse
Biography | Edward Graham
Edward Graham is the Vice President of Operations for Samaritan’s Purse, he is the youngest son of Franklin Graham.
Edward graduated from the United States Military Academy where he went on to serve 16 years in the US Army. After multiple combat deployments within the Special Operations Community and working in various leadership and command positions, he felt called to return home and serve in the ministry starting in the winter of 2019.
Edward has one daughter and three sons and has been married for 17 years to his wife, Kristy, who hails from a proud Army family. Edward and Kristy are raising their four children in the mountains of North Carolina, serving in the name of Jesus Christ.
Victor Chen MD
Global Coordinator, MAI-Medical Ambassador International
Biography | Victor Chen MD
Dr. Victor Chen serves as the global coordinator for Medical Ambassadors International and has been involved in transformational development and community health for 15 years. In his role, Victor considers it a privilege to support a diverse and dynamic global team of coordinators, specialists, and partners. Victor and his family lived in Central Asia for 4 years where he served as the director of community development and health for an NGO working in the sectors of community development, preventive health, and disability. Before joining MAI, Victor worked as a family physician in a community health center and served as a faculty member of a family practice residency in Modesto, CA. He received his MPH from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health and his MD from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Victor and his wife Christine live with their two daughters in Modesto. Christine serves with MAI and also has a background in public health with experience in community-based child survival interventions (Rwanda) and monitoring and evaluation (Central Asia). She has been highly involved with welcoming refugee families in their community.
Bibiana MacLeod MD
Technical Advisor for Disaster Response and Anti-trafficking, MAI-Medical Ambassador International
Biography | Bibiana MacLeod MD
Bibiana MacLeod MD MA (Wheaton, Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership) serves as Technical Advisor for Disaster Response for Medical Ambassadors International. Wearing many hats, she also coordinates MAI’s involvement with anti-trafficking initiatives, work with oral cultures, MAI’s 1000 Days program in Haiti, and trauma healing groups. Prior to her current role, Bibiana trained as an internal medicine physician in Argentina and served for 18 years in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Fluent in Spanish and Haitian Creole, Bibiana would serve for 15 years as MAI’s Regional Coordinator for South America and the Caribbean, helping to grow over 100 community health evangelism programs all coordinated by national partners and local leaders. Bibiana is a co-founder of the Latin American Anti-trafficking Network under the World Evangelical Alliance, is a strong believer in kingdom collaboration, and dreams of a world where modern slavery no longer exists – “I love Jesus and live for His Kingdom to be here among us.” Bibiana and her husband Alexander are based in Cape Breton in eastern Canada.
Dr. Bill and Sharon Bieber
Technical Advisors for Integral Health Systems and Special Projects, MAI-Medical Ambassador International
Biography | Dr. Bill and Sharon Bieber
Dr. Bill and Sharon Bieber have served with Medical Ambassadors International since 2002, initially as coordinators for Papua New Guinea and East Timor and then as Regional Coordinators for Southeast Asia and the West Pacific. Prior to their service with MAI, the Biebers worked with Wycliff Bible Translators and Samaritan’s Purse Canada. Bill would go on to serve as a provincial health officer with the Department of Health in PNG. After returning to Canada in 1986, they joined groups that co-founded innovative organizations such as Health Plus medical center and a successful “street clinic” ministry called Calgary Urban Project Society (CUPS), which continues to thrive more than 25 years later. The Biebers were recognized for this work by the Governor General of Canada with the Meritorious Service Medal in 2017. After discovering the community health evangelism (CHE) strategy and joining MAI, they helped build up a CHE network of church denomination, NGO, and government partners across 9 countries in Southeast Asia and the West Pacific. This includes the Christian Health Services and the Effective Development Empowering the Nation (EDEN) program in PNG. They are passionate about seeing the emergence of sustainable national leadership and thriving local communities. Their latest partnership involves a specialty coffee social enterprise that will support transformational development work in PNG. Crossing denominational and cultural boundaries, seeing communities experience abundant life through Jesus is what they find to be a delightful privilege. In 2020, Sharon authored a book about their years in transformational ministries titled, Outside the Margins: Lesson from Walking with Communities of the World.
Dayo Obaweya
Regional Coordinator for West Africa, MAI-Medical Ambassador International
Biography | Dayo Obaweya
Dayo Obaweya has been a pioneer and catalyst for integral mission in West Africa for over 20 years. With a keen interest in entrepreneurship and sustainable development, Dayo learned about community health evangelism (CHE) in 1998 and developed a passion for the church to make wholistic disciples and to live out the gospel of the kingdom in word and deed. Serving as West Africa Regional Coordinator for Medical Ambassadors International, Dayo has helped to catalyze the growth of multiple country networks in West Africa and the development of CHE master trainers and local ministries in 17 countries. National partners in West Africa influenced CHE training integration into national university health and social graduate programs, coordinated collaboration between community health centers and local churches, catalyzed church planting movements, multiplied local business development, and responded to humanitarian crisis in areas of conflict and persecution. In addition to his role with Medical Ambassadors, Dayo serves as a leader in the Nigerian Anglican Church, the coordinator of an annual training internship in Ghana, and the chairperson of the Global CHE Network, a network of 900 organizations in 130 countries. One of his fellow co-leaders has said of Dayo: “He eats, breathes, and constantly thinks about how to help Africa through the work of CHE.”
Rebekah Ann Naylor MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern, Director of Health Strategies-International Mission Board
Biography | Rebekah Ann Naylor MD
Rebekah Ann Naylor MD graduated from Baylor University and subsequently from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She then became the first female resident in general surgery at Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, completing training in 1973.
Rebekah was appointed by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention as a missionary to India in 1973. Arriving at the new Bangalore Baptist Hospital in early 1974, she launched a missionary career that included clinical practice, administrative responsibility, and teaching. In the 1990’s she organized training programs in allied health disciplines, set up accredited residency training programs for doctors, initiated a training program for chaplains, and established the Rebekah Ann Naylor School of Nursing. During all the years, Rebekah was involved in church development in the state of Karnaaka.
Returning to the States in 2002, Rebekah joined the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center as Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery. Since 2010 she is serving as director of health strategies for the International Mission Board, Awards include the Surgical Humanitarian Award from the American College of Surgeons, an honorary doctorate of missiology from Oklahoma Baptist University and the 2022 Pro Ecclesia Medal of Service from Baylor University.
Ben Shin
Pastor & Author of Tapestry of Grace
Biography | Ben Shin
Benjamin C. Shin has served in the ministry as a pastor, parachurch leader, and professor for more than 25 years. He is a graduate of UCLA, Talbot School of Theology, and Dallas Theological Seminary. He enjoys reading, music, sports (especially the UCLA Bruins), and spending time with people. His vision and passion include mentoring leaders, re-building churches, and teaching the Word of God. He is married to his bride, Jen and has 2 wonderful sons named Adam and Zachary. He currently serves as the Teaching Pastor at New Life Vision Church in Glendale, CA and as an Associate Professor of Christian Ministry & Leadership and Director of the Asian-American Ministry track for the Doctor of Ministry at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, CA. He is the co-author of Tapestry of Grace: Untangling the Cultural Complexities of Asian American Life and Ministry.