Coronavirus and Ebola
Don’t miss a single podcast of CMDA Matters. You can subscribe through iTunes or GooglePlay, download our free CMDA app and or listen on our website at www.cmda.org/cmdamatters. This weekly podcast hosted by Dr. Mike Chupp features one interview with brief news and announcements that matter to you.
Reverend Dr. Stephen Ko, a pastor and former CDC medical officer returns to CMDA Matters this week with an update on the Coronavirus. Dr. Rick Sacra, a CMDA member who is a missionary to Liberia and an Ebola survivor, talks with Dr. Mike Chupp this week recounting his experience with Ebola and how God used it to open the door for ministry.
Meet Our Guest
Reverend Dr. Stephen Ko, MD, MA, MPH, MDiv, serves as Senior Pastor of New York Chinese Alliance Church in New York, New York. As an ordained Christian & Missionary Alliance pastor, he is passionate about evangelism, global health missions and holistic ministry, as exemplified by the life of Christ. In addition to seminary training, Dr. Ko’s healthcare specialties include pediatrics, preventive medicine and public health. He is currently Adjunct Professor at Alliance Theological Seminary, where he enjoys teaching. Previously, he served as a Global Health Professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health and as a Medical Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has worked extensively in Africa and Southeast Asia on diseases of epidemic potential, helping low and low-middle income countries implement their national public health programs. He encourages individuals to embrace evangelism while galvanizing faith-based organizations to action. He enjoys helping individuals flourish in their faith, mentoring church leaders and teaching seminary and graduate students. Writing at the intersection of faith, medicine and public health is a particular passion.
Dr. Rick Sacra grew up in Massachusetts. He attended Brown University and graduated in 1984 with a degree in biochemistry. In 1985 he married Deborah Stanton, and they have three children.
Dr. Sacra earned his medical degree at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1989. After completing a family medicine residency in Bristol, Tennessee, he worked at the Family Health Center of Worcester from 1992 until 1995.
Dr. Sacra has served as a medical missionary in Liberia since 1995 at ELWA Hospital. He serves with the non-denominational Christian mission group SIM. He initiated the founding of ELWA’s HIV/AIDS counseling and treatment program. Dr. Sacra was the Acting Medical Director at ELWA Hospital from 2008 to 2010, and from 2018 to present. From 2010 to 2016, during time in the U.S., he taught residents at the Family Health Center of Worcester and served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UMass.
Since recovering from Ebola Virus Disease in 2014, Dr. Sacra has returned to Liberia to assist the team at the ELWA Hospital, run by SIM. Rick is currently the residency director at Liberia’s first Family Medicine Residency Training Program at ELWA Hospital which opened in July 2017.
