October 21, 2023 | Cal Baptist University
Schedule
8:00 am – Exhibit Hall & Registration
Start your day by registering for the event and meeting the Exhibitors, who have many missional opportunities available. Enjoy a light continental breakfast.
9:00 am – Opening Plenary
Andre Cipta, MD
About
Dr. Andre Cipta serves as the Program Director of the Kaiser Permanente Palliative Medicine Fellowship, Founding Director of the Kaiser Permanente Palliative Medicine Mid-Career Fellowship, Palliative Medicine Clerkship Director at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, and Associate Medical Director of the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Hospice Agency. He is board-certified in Family Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is a recipient of the 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Leadership Scholar Award and holds the rank of Assistant Clinical Professor at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.
His interest in serving those in need led him to study Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley, spend a year at the Master’s Seminary, and complete a Palliative Medicine Fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a palliative medicine physician, he finds profound meaning in supporting those living with advanced illness and is passionate about training future generations of clinicians to further optimize the care of the seriously ill.
Dr. Cipta has a particular interest in innovation. As Fellowship Director, he created an innovative mid-career fellowship track in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania through the ACGME Advancing Innovation in Residency Education (AIRE) program and expanded the program from two to four fellowship positions (two traditional, two mid-career), which is embedded in a unique, longitudinal curriculum spanning across palliative care settings. He created the Palliative Extubation Simulation-Based Formative Activity for both graduate and undergraduate medical learners, and co-created a novel wellness curriculum entitled, “iRISE (Initiative for Resiliency Self-care and Empathy) which was awarded an innovations grant and presented at numerous national conferences.
His research interests lie primarily in exploring the role of spirituality in optimizing whole-person, patient-centered care, which led him to train at Loma Linda University Medical Center and Glendale Adventist Medical Center for medical school and residency, respectively. He was awarded the Christian Academic Physicians and Scientists Faith and Medicine Research Fellowship Award and most recently published on the topic of spiritual distress in serious illness in the BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care.
Dr. Cipta serves as a deacon at Immanuel Bible Church in Los Angeles, CA.
323-313-5426
10:00 am – Break
Visit the snack table, circle around the exhibitors, and be ready in 15 minutes for the first breakout.
10:15 am – Breakout Session 1
Choose between four breakout sessions to hear more about how to pursue healthcare on mission from your own backyard to around the globe.
Taking a Spiritual History
What is a patient? vs. What does it mean to be a patient?
It’s easy to practice healthcare focused on the first question. But perhaps you want to better address the latter question? Come to this talk where we’ll address the following 3 questions:
1) How do I integrate my faith into my practice of healthcare?
2) Is it ethical to do spiritual care?
3) How do I start going about spiritual care?
Bob Mason, MDiv
About
Bob Mason, MDiv is the executive director of Medical Strategic Network,, an organization that equips healthcare professionals and students to practice whole person care with patients. He is also Adjunct Faculty at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Bob has spoken on this topic on health science campuses throughout the US and numerous countries abroad.
Medicine Opens Doors: 20 years of Medical Missions in China
Stories and words of wisdom from 20 years of medical missions in a restricted access country. The privilege of watching God at work opening doors, giving unique opportunities, supplying needs and changing lives.
John Tannous, MD
About
Dr. John Tannous is a graduate of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. After completing his pediatric residency, John started the American dream of private practice in suburban Phoenix. However, God had other plans and led John, his wife and two young sons to Kunming, China in 2001. Over the next 20 years, the Tannous family served the poor, orphaned, and marginalized in southwest China. They also added 2 daughters, the youngest via adoption. Dr. Tannous spent 2 “sabbatical” years working in inner city Chicago. After navigating the initial COVID pandemic in China, Dr. Tannous returned to the US with his family in 2021. He now works in a Los Angeles FQHC serving a primarily Asian community.
Throughout the years, Jesus has faithfully opened doors and provided unique opportunities to serve and to watch God at work changing lives.
971-389-9667
Plenary Debrief and Follow Up
Come meet with Dr. Cipta for follow up on his presentation and hear more about his heart for and journey with academic medicine and spiritual integration research.
Andre Cipta, MD
11:00 am – Break
Visit the snack table, circle around the exhibitors, and be ready in 15 minutes for the second breakout.
11:15 am – Breakout Session 2
Choose between four breakout sessions to hear more about how to pursue healthcare on mission from your own backyard to around the globe. (See above for breakout details.)
12:00 pm – Break
Visit the snack table, circle around the exhibitors, and be ready in 15 minutes for the closing plenary.
12:15 pm – Closing Plenary
Choosing the Harder Thing: Journeying with Jesus from Skid Row to Africa
Shannon Fernando-Rubera,
RN, MSN-FNP-C
About
Shannon Fernando-Rubera is a California board-certified family nurse practitioner who has devoted her career to increasing access to health care for vulnerable people and communities. She founded Alabaster International, originally Alabaster Mobile Clinic, with a vision for bringing holistic care and education to communities that have been overlooked by going where others choose not to go. She is a tireless advocate for people who live on the margins, and envisions a world where everyone has the resources they need to realize their dreams.
In addition to her work with Alabaster, Shannon serves as Chief Innovations Officer at Los Angeles Christian Health Centers in LA’s Skid Row community, providing primary care for homeless individuals and driving strategy and vision for new programming, including their street medicine initiative. She previously served the Los Angeles homeless population through the St. Vincent Cardinal Manning Center as an AmeriCorps scholar. An active member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, Shannon holds degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and Azusa Pacific University. She has lived in and visited more than 27 countries, including medical outreach trips to Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Haiti, Mexico, and Kenya.
1:00 pm – Lunch (additional fee)
1:30pm – Street Medicine (location given after last plenary)
(There will be an option to select whether you would like to purchase a boxed lunch to take on the way to the Street Medicine site. It is recommended you buy this so that you do not need to stop on the way there. Cost is $15 and can be ordered with registration.)
Street Medicine Leader:
Jen Zamora, DHSC, PA-C
About
Dr. Zamora currently works as the Director of Inter-Professional Education at UCR School of Medicine and is clinical faculty. She is clinically a certified physician assistant (PA-C) and has a Doctorate of Health Science in Global Medicine from AT Still University. She has seven years of teaching experience in classroom settings as well as five years in higher education and as a clinical preceptor. She trained in medicine at the University of Southern California (USC), Keck School of Medicine, Primary Care Physician Assistant Program. She has clinical experience in pediatric, family and urgent care medicine and she currently works at Upland Medical Center. After precepting and guest lecturing for USC, she went on to help develop the PA program of California Baptist University (CBU MSPAS) from August 2015 through July 2020 as a founding faculty member. She coordinated/interviewed all guest lecturers, new faculty and personally taught across most of the clinical courses (especially in the clinical medicine and clinical skills courses, as well as women’s health, pediatrics, pharmacology and research). She also designed and executed the live model exam-program, OSCE exams, simulations, hands-on workshops and incorporated inter-professional education (IPE) and inter-professional practice at CBU and the University of La Verne. She continues to love teaching in the classroom and out in the field, especially taking students out of their comfort zones to various street medicine sites and many outreaches.
