Keynote Speakers

Friday Evening

Rick Hodes, MD

Rick Hodes is medical director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Ethiopia.  A native of Long Island, he graduated from Middlebury College, University of Rochester Medical School, and trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview. He has cared for Ethiopian immigrants to Israel, and worked in with refugees in Albania, Rwanda, Zaire, and Tanzania. He practices in an Addis Ababa city hospital, specializing in spinal deformity and rheumatic heart disease. He consults at Mother Teresa’s Mission. He was a CNN Hero, has been ABC’s Person of the Week, is the subject of an HBO documentary “Making the Crooked Straight,” and a book by Marilyn Berger “This is a Soul-the Mission of Rick Hodes” published by Harper Collins. He lives in Ethiopia with his Ethiopian family.

Saturday Morning

Hilarie Cranmer, MD, MPH

Dr. Cranmer is an emergency physician and educator working to advance practice standards for humanitarian responders. She responded during the 1999 Kosovo crisis, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, the 2005 U.S. hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and was the Technical Advisor on Ebola for International Medical Corps during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and as Incident Commander for her teams deployed to the Philippines for 2013 Typhoon Haiyan, the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, 2016 Hurricane Matthew-affected Haiti, 2017 Hurricane affected Houston, Puerto Rico and Dominica and for 2018 Hurricane affected North Carolina, Florida, Saipan and USNS Comfort Operation Enduring Promise for the Venezuelan Migrant crisis. As the founding director of education at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Cranmer designed an innovative training program that culminates in a simulated disaster field experience, now replicated internationally. She is MGH’s first director of global disaster response. She was awarded the 2015 Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Alumni Award of Merit, its highest honor annually bestowed.

Saturday Evening

Paul Osteen MD, FACS

Paul Osteen earned his undergraduate and medical degree from Oral Roberts University and completed his residency training in general and vascular surgery at the University of Arkansas Medical Science program in Little Rock, Arkansas.  He practiced general and vascular surgery in a private practice setting in Little Rock for many years. Since 2007, he spends 4-5 months each year providing surgical care and medical education to remote and under-resourced countries in sub-Saharan Africa. When not abroad, he serves on the pastoral staff at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. In 2016, Paul and his wife Jennifer co-founded the annual Mobilizing Medical Missions (M3) Conference, which connects and inspires healthcare professionals and presents opportunities to be involved in global healthcare missions.