CMDA Speaker's Bureau
Have you ever needed someone to speak to your CMDA group, to a church or community event? CMDA provides for your convenience, a list of some choices. Each speaker has expertise in a number of subjects.
Clinical Professor of Medicine (Neurology)
Robert E. Cranston, MD, MA (Ethics), MSHA, FAAN, CPE, ICF, recently retired after 30 years as a clinical professor of Medicine (Neurology) at University of Illinois College of Medicine, Urbana-Champaign, and Carle Illinois College of Medicine (Urbana-Champaign). An Associate Certified Coach, he is a board-certified neurologist, with additional training and experience in palliative medicine, executive coaching and medical leadership. He served on the Carle Foundation Hospital Ethics Committee for 25 years, including 14 years as the chair of the committee. He is a lifetime member of CMDA..
Travels from Pensacola, Florida:
Physician-assisted suicide
End-of-life decision-making
Research ethics
Importance of palliative care
Right of conscience
Medical ethics
Travels from Pensacola, Florida:
Internist in San Antonio, Texas
Autumn Dawn Eudaly Galbreath, MD, MBA is an internist in San Antonio, Texas, where she lives with her husband, David, and their three children. Though they met in medical school, David now owns a restaurant in the San Antonio area. Between the two of them, they have experienced multiple career transitions and weathered the resultant stresses on their marriage and family. Autumn Dawn speaks to the issues of Christian marriage, being a working mother in the church, and being a woman in medicine with an engaging humor that brings perspective to these difficult issues.
Autumn Dawn earned her MD from the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio, where she also completed her internal medicine residency. She earned her MBA from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama..
Dr. Galbreath speaks on the following topics:
Aging
Depression in Primary Care Practice
Business/Management/Admin. in Healthcare
God's Grace
Working Mothers in the Church
Marriage (especially among Christian, professional women)
Travels from Texas
Autumn Dawn earned her MD from the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio, where she also completed her internal medicine residency. She earned her MBA from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama..
Dr. Galbreath speaks on the following topics:
Travels from Texas
Ethics and Epidemiology at Michigan State University
Kenneth Earl Dudley, MD teaches Ethics and Epidemiology at Michigan State University (MSU) College of Human Medicine as an associate professor. His PowerPoint presentations have been outreach events for medical and college students, or tailored to CMDA and church audiences. He has a BA in Bible-Theology from Moody Bible Institute, a BS in Biology and an MD from MSU. He has practiced as a board certified Family Physician since 1983.
Dr. Dudley speaks on the following topics:
Evidence-Based Faith:
Does Faith Eliminate the Need for Evidence?
Will Science make Faith Obsolete?
Do Any Types of Evidence Support Faith?
Does Evidence for Faith meet Scientific Standards?
Can Supernatural Evidence for Faith be seen today?
How does Evidence for Faith Apply to Me?
Who’s Destroying the Temple of God (before 25 years of age)?
Who’s Destroying the Temple of God (before 65 years of age)?
Travels from Grand Haven, Michigan
Dr. Dudley speaks on the following topics:
Evidence-Based Faith:
Who’s Destroying the Temple of God (before 25 years of age)?
Who’s Destroying the Temple of God (before 65 years of age)?
Travels from Grand Haven, Michigan
Ethics and Epidemiology at Michigan State University
Reginald Finger, MD, MPH received the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1981 and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology in 1983 from the University of Washington in Seattle. For much of his career, Dr. Finger has worked in disease prevention and health promotion in state and local health departments. Dr. Finger has been a CMDA member since 2003. From 2006 through 2013 Dr. Finger lectured and researched for the National Embryo Donation Center, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, the nation’s only national, non-profit, clinic-based embryo adoption agency – founded with the assistance of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA). In the summer of 2013, Dr. Finger joined the faculty of Indiana Wesleyan University, teaching epidemiology, biostatistics, research methods, and supervising practicum assignments for the Master of Public Health program. He also teaches the biostatistics-epidemiology course..
Dr. Finger speaks on the following topics:
Reproductive Bioethics
Public Health
Immunization
Infectious Diseases
Epidemiologic Methods
Epidemiologic Surveillance
Travels from Indiana
Dr. Finger speaks on the following topics:
Travels from Indiana
Critical Care Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital
Dr. Allen Roberts is originally from Alexandria, VA. He took his B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1977 and his M.D. from George Washington University in 1983. He completed his M.Div. at Reformed Theological Seminary in 2013, and will complete a Masters in Bioethics through Trinity International University later this year. In 2003 he retired from the US Navy Medical Corps, after a 20-year career in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care, during which time he served as White House Physician under President George H.W. Bush. For the past 16 years he has practiced Critical Care Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, where he now serves as the Associate Medical Director for the hospital, and Chair of the Clinical Ethics Committee. He is the State Director for DC for the American Academy of Medical Ethics.
Travels from Washington, DC:
End-of-Life Care in the Intensive Care Unit
Biblical Anthropology and Medical Ethics
Ethics of Organ Transplantation
The Definition and Ethics of Brain Death (specifically related to organ procurement)
Travels from Washington, DC:
Senior Vice President for Dental Ministries
Dr. William Griffin has been a CMDA member for almost four decades and has served as Vice President for Dental Ministries since 2019. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received his DDS degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry. During his private practice career, Dr. Griffin cared for the dentally needy in serving as dental director and board chairman for the Lackey Clinic in Yorktown, Virginia. Additionally, he has enjoyed international opportunities to spread the love of Christ through serving on about 60 dental mission trips. His career in healthcare has led him to discover the strong ties between physical health and spiritual health, and he currently serves as Director of CMDA’s Faith Prescriptions video resource to help Christian caregivers share the love of Christ with their patients.
Traveling from Yorktown, Virginia.
Faith Prescriptions: Equipping Healthcare Professionals for Christ-centered Care
Science, Faith and Healthcare: Unapologetic Apologetics for the Christian Caregiver
Dental Mission Trips: International Care in Jesus' Name
Traveling from Yorktown, Virginia.
Internal Medicine in McLean, Virginia
Dr. Matthews practices general internal medicine in McLean, Virginia and is a staff physician in the Primary Care Division of the Virginia Hospital Center Physician Group (Arlington, VA). He conducts research and lectures nationally and internationally on the doctor-patient relationship and the psychological and spiritual dimensions of medicine, including the role of faith, religion, and prayer in clinical care and healing. He has served on the general internal medicine faculty at three medical schools: Yale University, University of Connecticut and Georgetown University. He also teaches continuing medical education courses for the Continuing Medical Education, Inc. University at Sea program. He is the author of The Faith Factor: Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer (Viking, 1998).
Dr. Matthews is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University (AB, 1976), at which he majored in Romance Languages and Literatures with a special concentration in European Civilization. He was graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1980, and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut in Farmington in 1983. In the same year, he was named as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Yale University School of Medicine. At Yale, he studied clinical epidemiology and began his research career by examining patients' perceptions of physician performance in the hospital and outpatient setting.
Dr. Matthews is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University (AB, 1976), at which he majored in Romance Languages and Literatures with a special concentration in European Civilization. He was graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1980, and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut in Farmington in 1983. In the same year, he was named as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Yale University School of Medicine. At Yale, he studied clinical epidemiology and began his research career by examining patients' perceptions of physician performance in the hospital and outpatient setting.
Jennifer graduated from U.T. Southwestern Medical School – Physician Assistant program in 1989. In addition, she holds a master’s in social work from University of Houston. She has worked in primary care most of her career, providing care to Spanish, Mandarin and English-speaking populations.
She served as President of the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants (TAPA) from 1992 to 1993. During this time, under her leadership, Texas’ physician assistants gained prescriptive privileges, a major milestone for all PAs in Texas.
Jennifer and her family lived and served as missionaries in mainland China from 2000 to 2014. During that fascinating time, she became familiar with human trafficking firsthand throughout Asia, in addition to becoming fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
Since moving back to Houston in 2014, Jennifer has worked in a federal qualified health center, as well as volunteered her Mandarin speaking skills for a local anti-sex trafficking organization. She gives lectures on “Human Trafficking for Health Care Providers,” “Sex Trafficking for Health Care Providers” and “Pornography: A Public Health Crisis.
Travels from Houston, Texas
Human Trafficking
Sex Trafficking
Pornography
Travels from Houston, Texas
National Medical Director for Diversicare Healthcare
James Avery, MD, CMD, FAAHPM, FCCP, FACP is the National Medical Director for Diversicare Healthcare and Visiting Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine.
Dr. Avery was in a solo one-physician practice for fourteen years doing internal medicine and pulmonary medicine. He was eventually persuaded to join Suncoast Hospice, the largest hospice in the country at that time, as their Senior Medical Director. Other stints included being Senior Medical Director at VNSNY Hospice in New York City, Chief Medical Officer at Golden Living in Washington DC and the Chief Executive Officer at Hospice of the Piedmont in Charlottesville.
He is board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary, hospice and palliative medicine and is a certified nursing home medical director (CMD).
Dr. Avery was awarded the Lillian B. Wald Award for his hospice and palliative care work in New York City and the Roger C. Bone Award for National Leadership in End-of-Life Care. Dr. Avery was named “One of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives” by Modern Physician magazine and was also nominated as “One of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare magazine.
When not doing medicine, Dr. Avery loves hiking and many years ago climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest point on the African continent.
Travels from Charlottesville, Virginia:
Marijuana
Giving Bad News
The Proper Use of Opioids
Hospice
Travels from Charlottesville, Virginia:
Global Health Outreach Director
Patricia “Trish” Burgess, MD, joined CMDA as the new Global Health Outreach Director in 2018. Trish went to the University of Georgia for her undergraduate degree where she met her husband. She took two years off before attending medical school and worked as a firefighter in Athens, Georgia during this time. She attended the Medical College of Georgia and did her residency in emergency medicine at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Dr. Burgess felt the call to short-term missions early in her career. Her first mission trip was to Nicaragua. During this trip, she felt Him clearly telling her this was the reason He had created her, and His plans for her included continuing with short-term medical missions and leading teams. With GHO, Trish has also traveled to Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Moldova, Peru and Zambia..
Travels from Bristol, Tennessee:
Medical Missions
Human Trafficking
Team Leadership
Healthcare as a Ministry
Global Health Outreach
Travels from Bristol, Tennessee:
Author, Speaker
Dr. David Stevens, author of Jesus, MD, Beyond Medicine and co-author of Leadership Proverbs and Servant Leadership and serves as CEO Emeritus of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), a national organization of Christian healthcare professionals that seeks to change hearts in healthcare. As untold thousands of people who have heard him preach could attest, Dave Stevens is a gifted storyteller and a powerful Christian communicator with a passion for evangelism and a deep understanding and respect for the integrity of God’s Word.
As the son of an itinerant Methodist evangelist who, like John Wesley himself, truly saw the world as his parish, Dave comes by his speaking skills honestly. He’s honed his talent over the years in an incredible variety of settings. Whether he’s recruiting tribal leaders to provide volunteer support for a community health initiative in rural Kenya, preaching at American mega-church missions conferences, testifying before a panel of Washington politicians on Capitol Hill or challenging an auditorium full of healthcare professionals to better integrate their personal faith with their professional practice, Dave knows how to hook and hold an audience.
As a leading, trusted spokesman for Christian healthcare professionals, Dr. Stevens has conducted thousands of media interviews, including JAMA, USA Today, Newsweek, NBC's Today Show, NBC Nightly News, BBC-World Television, CNN and National Public Radio. He has also appeared on FOX Family Channel, PAX-Television, Tech TV, The Odyssey Channel, America's Health Network and many other national outlets.
Travels from Tennessee:
Bioethics
Missions
Religious Liberty
Leadership
Evangelism/Discipleship
Integration of Faith and Health
Preaching
Medical Relief
Organizational Governance and Management
Media Training
Travels from Tennessee:
Author, Speaker
Dr. Rosemary Fernandez Stein and her husband began their own pediatric medical practice, the International Family Clinic, in 1999. The clinic was founded with the mission to give the best medical care and guidance to the underserved in Alamance County. They now have a practice that cares for 5,000 children and employs 14, including four other doctors.
Dr. Stein mentors and sponsors UNC, Duke and Wake Forest medical, nurse practitioner and physician assistant students. She formerly was adjunct teaching professor at the University of North Carolina and Wake Forrest Schools of Medicine.
As a member of the Board of Trustees for Alamance Community College since 2009, her mission has been to increase the graduation rates from the North Carolina Community College system and bring awareness to the fact that the rate of graduation has been terribly low and North Carolinians should not accept these failing numbers but instead support and encourage our colleges to improve the quality of training and education that our young citizens receive.
Dr. Stein has been a member of CMDA since 1991 and has written several articles for their online publications regarding teenage abstinence, parental rights and parenting for good outcomes. She and her husband also aired a commercial warning of the consequences of the Affordable Care Act, that they helped co-write, which appeared on the Fox News Hannity and The O'Reilly Factor in 2009. It was called a "home run" by Frank Luntz, political strategist and pollster.
Dr. Stein serves on Board of the North Carolina Smart Start Foundation and the North Carolina Minority Health Advisory Council, as well as the North Carolina Superintendent's Graduation Task Force. In 2013, she accepted the position of Chair of the North Carolina Republican National Hispanic assembly. She has spoken multiple times on Hispanic voter engagement at multiple North Carolina GOP functions. Dr. Stein has also been a speaker at the Civitas Conservative Leadership Conference on the topic of the Hispanic voter and on the topic of "It Takes a Mom, Not a Village to Raise Your Child."
Travels from North Carolina
Travels from North Carolina
Clinical Professor of Medicine (Neurology)
Dr. Riley is executive director of The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture and serves on the ethics committee of a Nashville-area hospital. Board certified in internal medicine, her writing and lecture topics include medical ethics, organ transplantation ethics, stem cell research, genetics, end-of-life issues and assisted reproductive technologies. With Scott B. Rae, she co-authored Outside the Womb: Moral Guidance for Assisted Reproduction, and with C. Ben Mitchell, Christian Bioethics.
Travels from Nashville, Tennessee:
Travels from Nashville, Tennessee:
Author
After leaving academic medicine, Dr. Al Weir served in private practice at the West Clinic in Memphis, TN from 1991-2005 before joining the CMDA staff as Vice President of Campus and Community Ministries where he served for 3 years from 2005-2008.He is presently Professor of Medicine at University of Tennessee Heath Science Center and Program Director for their Hematology/Oncology fellowship program. Throughout his career, Dr. Weir has acted in many important leadership roles, including Internal Medicine Consultant for Eku Baptist Hospital in Eku, Nigeria from 1983-1985. He is past President of Albanian Health Fund, an educational ministry to Albania where he has been serving for 25 years. He is 2017-2019 president of the national Christian Medical & Dental Associations.
In addition to his specialties, Dr. Weir’s major area of interest is the practical aspect of living out the Christian life as a doctor.
He is the author of three books: When Your Doctor Has Bad News(Zondervan, 2003) and Practice by the Book(CMDA, 2005) and Whispers(CMDA 2015). He has contributed chapters for Handbook of Medicine in Developing Countriesand served as Editor for The Doctor’s Bible, collaboration between CMDA and Holman Bible Publishers. He and his wife, Becky have three children, four grandchildren and live in Germantown, Tennessee.
Professor of Pharmacy Practice
Dr. Dennis Sullivan is professor of pharmacy practice at Cedarville University, Cedarville, Ohio, where he teaches clinical ethics. After undergraduate training in chemistry, Dr. Sullivan received his M.D. from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. He then completed five years of training in general surgery, after which he served in the U.S. Army as a surgeon in the U.S. Army at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Dr. Sullivan and his family worked for twelve years as missionaries with Baptist Mid-Missions, first in the country of Haiti, West Indies, then in the Central African Republic. A major civil conflict in C.A.R. in 1996 forced a return to the United States. Dr. Sullivan then joined the biology faculty at Cedarville University, where he developed courses in human anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, developmental biology, and bioethics. He has been a full professor at Cedarville since 2003. In 2004, He completed his M.A. in bioethics from Trinity Graduate School. He now directs the university’s Center for Bioethics. Dr. Sullivan joined the School of Pharmacy in January, 2015.
Dr. Sullivan is a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Christian Medical Association, and the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. He has authored numerous articles in Ethics and Medicine and other journals, especially in the area of human personhood.
He continues to travel, and has conducted two short-term medical trips to Africa, as well as two teaching tours of medical schools in the Republic of Vietnam. Dr. Sullivan is a frequent speaker on bioethics issues in churches, bioethics forums, universities, and medical schools.
Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Biochemistry and Pediatrics
John Patrick, MD, retired from the University of Ottawa in June 2002. He had been Associate Professor in Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Biochemistry and Pediatrics for 20 years. Dr. Patrick’s medical training occurred in London, England. He has done extensive research into the treatment of childhood nutritional deficiency and related diseases, holding appointments in Britain, the West Indies and Canada. He has worked in Central Africa assisting in the development of training programs that deal with childhood protein-energy malnutrition. He now lectures throughout the world working for CMDA and the Christian Medical and Dental Society in Canada. He speaks to Christian and secular groups and is able to communicate effectively on ethical issues in medicine and culture, as well as the integration of faith and science.
John speaks to Christian and secular groups around the world, communicating effectively on medical ethics, culture, public policy, and the integration of faith and science. He frequently speaks for the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) in the US and the Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) in Canada. He is currently President and Professor of the History of Science, Medicine and Faith at Augustine College.
Travels from Canada
John speaks to Christian and secular groups around the world, communicating effectively on medical ethics, culture, public policy, and the integration of faith and science. He frequently speaks for the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) in the US and the Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) in Canada. He is currently President and Professor of the History of Science, Medicine and Faith at Augustine College.
Travels from Canada
Senior Lecturer in Ethics, Decision-Making & Evidence
Dónal P. O’Mathúna is Senior Lecturer in Ethics, Decision-Making & Evidence in the School of Nursing & Human Sciences at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland, and Chair of the Academy of Fellows at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity in Chicago. He is a member of CMA and the Paul Tournier Institute speaker’s bureau. He is the Chairperson of the DCU Research Ethics Committee and a member of the St James’s Hospital Ethics Committee in Dublin.
Dónal was born and raised in Ireland and earned a B.S. in pharmacy from Trinity College, Dublin. He received his Ph.D. in pharmacognosy/medicinal chemistry from The Ohio State University. His research involved isolating and identifying potential new drugs from herbs. He then pursued his interest in bioethics by obtaining an M.A. in Theology focused on Bioethics from Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio. Dónal was Professor of Bioethics & Chemistry at Mount Carmel College of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio until returning to Ireland in 2003.
Dónal has co-edited Disaster Bioethics: Normative Issues when Nothing is Normal (Springer, 2014). His book Nanoethics: Big Ethical Issues with Small Technology (Continuum, 2009) arose from his involvement with scientists and medical researchers at DCU. His previous book was co-authored with Walt Larimore, MD, Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook. The Updated and Expanded edition (Zondervan, 2007) reviews over one hundred therapies, remedies, and supplements, examining the available research and, where relevant, evaluating the spiritual beliefs underlying therapies in light of traditional Christian values. The book has recently been translated into Hungarian and Croatian. He wrote a weekly column on herbal remedies for the Irish Times, which he hopes to publish soon in book format.
Travels from Ireland:
Ethical issues during disasters for healthcare professionals and researchers
Nanotechnology bioethics (nanoethics)
Literature and ethics
Stem cell research ethics
Healthcare ethics (abortion, assisted suicide, autonomy)
Using the Bible in contemporary bioethics
Complementary & alternative medicine
Travels from Ireland:
What is the Speakers Bureau?
The CMDA Speakers Bureau is a platform that helps third parties connect with qualified speakers on healthcare, public policy, bioethics and other subjects.
How it works
CMDA does not directly recommend speakers to inquiring third parties; we simply provide them access to contact you directly.
How can I be added to the Speakers Bureau?
To be listed as a speaker on the website, you will need to
Have two CMDA members recommend you or send a recording of one of your talks to [email protected] for review.
Once you are approved, you’ll be asked to provide contact information for those making inquiry along with a bio, photo, and a list of topics that you speak on using the Speaker’s form.
Recommended Speakers Disclaimer: Christian Medical & Dental Associations does not manage the expenses, honorariums or speaking schedule for speakers. The opinions of the speakers do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations.