Faculty

Cynthia Haq, MD: Madison, WI

Brian W. Jack, MD: Boston, Massachusetts

Edward J. Shahady, MD: Fernandina Beach, FL

Inis Bardella, MD: Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Global Health Initiatives at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, IL

Cynthia Haq, MD: Professor of Family Medicine and Population Health Services, and Founding Director, Center for Global Health, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI

Warren A. Heffron, MD: Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Brian Jack, MD: Professor and Vice Chair; Clinical Director, Lesotho Boston Health Alliance, Department of Family Medicine,
Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA

Christopher D. Jenkins, MD: Faculty member of In His Image FM Residency Training Program; Conference Director for Family Medicine Education International

Stephen J. Spann, MD, MBA: Professor and Chair, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Calvin L. Wilson, MD: Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of Colorado Denver
Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, National University of Rwanda

Daniel J. Ostergaard, MD: Vice President for Health of the Public and Interprofessional Activities

Perry Pugno, MD, MPH, FAAFP, FACPE: Vice President, Education

Alexander Ivanov, MBA: Manager, International Activities

Rebecca Janssen: Sr. Program Coordinator, International Activities

Inis Jane Bardella, M.D., FAAFP, is the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Global Health Initiatives, and faculty in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. She actively teaches and mentors medical students, residents and faculty in the United States and internationally. Since 1996, Dr. Bardella’s academic focuses have been medical school curriculum development and evaluation, and faculty development and evaluation. She works globally on the development of family medicine and medical education in the developing world. Dr. Bardella has worked in Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Albania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Haq, Professor of Family Medicine and Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), is a strong advocate for social justice and health for all. She received her M.D. at Indiana University, completed her residency at the University of Wisconsin, and joined the faculty of Dartmouth Medical School. Early in her career, she served as medical director for a rural health center in Uganda, where she trained village health workers and practiced community-based primary health care. Subsequently, she joined the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, where she established the first family medicine training program in Pakistan. In 2005, she returned to Uganda to assist development of family medicine education in East Africa. Dr. Haq served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and Wonca to co-author the book Improving Health Systems: the Contribution of Family Medicine. She has served as a consultant to medical schools and governments and NGOs in the North, Central and South America, Africa and Asia to strengthen primary health care and social accountability in medical education. Dr. Haq founded the UW-Madison Center for Global Health that provides global health curricula, research and global partnerships. She is currently leading the Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health (TRIUMPH) program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and coordinating the Medical Education Partnership Initiative to establish family medicine in Ethiopia.

Dr. Heffron is a professor emeritus in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico. His experience in Latin America is wide ranging. He is a past president for the North America region of the World Organization of Family Doctors (Wonca). He has served as the AAFP liaison representative to the Iberroamerican Center for Family Medicine.

His work with family practice faculty from Latin America includes hosting ECFMG fellows from Ecuador, Venezuela, Guatemala, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. He has participated in multiple faculty development programs. He has consulted with and taught at the residency program at the Hospital Bautista in Asuncion, Paraguay, and the Hospital Volzandes in Quito, Ecuador, and consulted with the Paraguayan Society of Family Medicine.

Dr. Heffron has participated in faculty development programs, as well as international study programs in more than 20 countries. He also regularly consults and teaches in departments of family medicine and residency programs largely in resource-poor countries. He has participated in these activities in more than another 25 countries.

Among his honors are the Gabriel Smilkstein Award from the STFM International Committee and an invitation to serve as an external examiner for the Board of Examinations for the Saudi Arabian Board of Family Medicine. He was awarded an honorary professorship at the National University of Kazakhstan in Almaty. In addition, in 2008, Dr. Heffron received an award as the Educator of the Year by the Christian Medical and Dental Association and the Erna Ferguson Award by the University of New Mexico Alumni Association for outstanding service to the University.

Dr. Jack is the vice chair for academic affairs in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston University. Dr. Jack has had extensive experience in international family medicine development. In 1995, he lived in Budapest working with the Hungarian Institute of Family Medicine to develop a "model family medicine teaching practice." For four years, he worked on a USAID-funded program in Romania to help develop family medicine clinical practice and the national association of family medicine. In Romania, he served as a member of the World Bank Health Sector Reform Team responsible for developing recommendations regarding human resource development and national strategies to implement a primary health care reform. In Albania, he assisted the AAFP-CIHI's USAID-funded project designed to assist in family medicine development and health reform. In Vietnam, he coordinated Boston University's role in the family medicine development project at Hanoi Medical University. He is clinical director of a Boston University family medicine development project in Lesotho in southern Africa designed to improve human resources needs.

Chris Jenkins, MD, is a faculty member of In His Image FM Residency Training Program which is a community based program in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a staff physician at St. John Medical Center, also in Tulsa, where most of the hospital training of the program’s residents takes place. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma and completed his residency training at In His Image FM Residency Training Program.

Dr. Jenkins is Conference Director for Family Medicine Education International and spends approximately four months each year overseas. FMEI has had held teaching events in more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Southern Europe. Over the last fifteen years in his role as Conference Director Dr. Jenkins has conducted over 120 family medicine conferences, seminars and consultations. Groups worked with include national medical schools, residency programs, hospital family medicine departments, ministries of health, national policy makers in family medicine, provincial and national primary care retraining programs, and faith based and secular NGOs involved in post graduate family medicine education. Together with the FMEI staff in Tulsa he has organized educational programs in family medicine for visiting professors, ministry of health administrators, medical school presidents, FM department directors, leaders of NGOs involved with post graduate FM education and family medicine residents and junior faculty from China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Albania, Tajikistan, Mongolia and Ecuador. He was given the Gabriel Smilkstein Memorial Award by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine in 2010.

Dr. Shahady has been involved in international family medicine education for the past 25 years. He was a founding board member and former Vice President of the Iberroamerican International Center of Family Medicine. He is a 20-year member of Wonca and served on the World Council as the STFM representative for 9 years. He was the founding chair of the STFM international committee. He is one of the authors of the WHO-Wonca publication Health System Change the Contribution of Family Medicine. He has visited and taught in several countries in Central and South America, New Zealand and Lebanon. Several residents and faculty from the above countries, Jordan and Vietnam have spent time with him at his various university posts. He recently completed a trip that included visits to 30 different countries. During that time, he observed the different cultures and health care systems.

Dr. Stephen J. Spann, Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, has spent his academic career fostering the development of Family Medicine throughout Latin America. Dr. Spann has taught, lectured, and consulted in ministries of health, medical schools, and private health care organizations throughout the region.

He spent ten years of his youth in Uruguay in a missionary family. Most of his primary and secondary education took place in Spanish. He is bilingual and bicultural. Dr. Spann spent five months on sabbatical in Uruguay in 1990, serving as a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization. He was assigned to the Ministry of Health of Uruguay, training family physicians to lead the new family medicine program in that country. Over his career, Dr. Spann has provided faculty development training for over 100 Latin American family physicians who have rotated through his US-based medical school departments.

Dr. Wilson has been involved in the development of family medicine and education in a variety of settings for over 25 years, and in international community and medical development projects for over 18 years. He is an associate professor of family medicine and of public health of the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Dr. Wilson is currently director of a partnership between the University of Colorado and the National University of Rwanda to develop their specialty residency programs and begin a new family and community medicine residency. In the past, he developed the first university-affiliated family medicine program in Ecuador, and directed a community health development project on the Onzole river of northern Ecuador. He has served as a training advisor for a USAID-funded primary health care project in which he developed a continuing education program for the Ministry of Health physicians, nurses, midwives, health workers and laboratory technicians of Jordan. He also initiated the training of the first primary health care trainers in post-war Iraq, who continued the first phase of primary health care training across Iraq, and continued training in northern Iraq since November 2006. He developed several courses in international and transcultural health issues for students and faculty. He has been active in the Global Health Medical Education Consortium and as a consultant with the Center for International Health Initiatives of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Dan Ostergaard became vice president for health of the public and interprofessional activities in 2011 after having served in a variety of vice-president capacities for the past 24 years.

As vice president for health of the public and interprofessional activities, he has oversight responsibilities for health of the public, scientific and research activities of the AAFP as well as the AAFP’s relationships with other medical organizations in the United States and abroad. Through these relationships, Ostergaard facilitates the continued development of family medicine throughout the world and coordinates AAFP international activities.
His staff works to involve family physicians in targeted public health activities, including tobacco, obesity, exercise and immunization. Science staff develops clinical policies and supports, conducts and disseminates practice-based primary care research with the aim of improving health and health care for patients, their families and communities.

Under Ostergaard’s direction, the AAFP will enhance its leadership role in health promotion, disease prevention and chronic disease management as outlined in the AAFP’s mission and strategic plan. He leads the AAFP in its efforts to explore collaboration opportunities in additional areas related to the health of the public such as health disparities, patient education, social determinants of health and medical genomics.

As vice president, Ostergaard also helps direct organization-wide strategy and policy-development activities in addition to participating actively in the activities of the AAFP Board of Directors. He is based in the AAFP’s headquarters office in Leawood, Kan.

Ostergaard has served as a family medicine representative in a wide variety of medical organizations including terms of service on the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education, the Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education and as Treasurer of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies. He is an Alternate Delegate to the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates. Ostergaard is a member of the World Organization of Family Doctors (Wonca) Executive Committee by virtue of his position President of the Wonca North American Region. In 1998, he was awarded honorary life membership in Wonca. In 2005, Heart to Heart International awarded Ostergaard its Heart for Humanity Award.

In his travels to more than 60 countries, he has presented a wide variety of papers in multiple countries and has served in many international consultative capacities. He has numerous publications to his credit and has served as visiting professor in several states. Among his awards are the 2000 Gabriel Smilkstein Memorial Award of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine for outstanding contributions to the growth and development of family medicine education throughout the world and the 2001 AAFP Humanitarian Award honoring his extraordinary and enduring humanitarian efforts both within and beyond the borders of the United States.

Ostergaard received his Bachelor of Arts degree in natural sciences and psychology from the University of North Dakota. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern School of Medicine in Dallas. In addition to clinical practice in the United States Public Health Service in New Mexico, Ostergaard served as director of the Family Medicine Residency in Duluth and was a faculty member of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine.

Dr. Pugno, a first generation Italian-American, is the AAFP Vice President for Education. He is responsible for AAFP initiatives related to medical school and residency education, continuing professional development (CME), and providing staff support for legislative advocacy on medical education and workforce issues. Following a tour of duty with the National Health Service Corps, he entered the sphere of medical education as a residency director, and accumulated more than 20 years of experience in that role.

He has served as President of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD) and Chair of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Review Committee for Family Medicine, and he is the founding chair of the National Institute for Program Director Development (NIPDD).

Dr. Pugno is conversant in Italian and Spanish. In 1990 he spent time in Warsaw, Prague, and Moscow as part of a State Department team of consultants assisting the former socialist countries in constructing family law with respect to child abuse and sexual assault. Most recently he has assisted Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia in the development of family medicine residency training. He has traveled to New Zealand and Australia, throughout Western Europe, Mexico, and the British Isles.

Alexander Ivanov, MBA, is the AAFP Manager for International Activities. He provides resources for AAFP members interested in learning about or being involved in the development of family medicine globally. As part of his role at the AAFP, Alexander coordinates the international consulting work of the Center of International Health Initiatives. He also serves as the staff executive to the Commission on Education’s Subcommittee on International Family Medicine.

Mr. Ivanov is originally from Kyrgyzstan and his previous international experience includes a summer internship in the World Bank, two years of work in the WHO/EURO in Copenhagen, where he coordinated health care reform programs in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, as well as four years of consulting and project management activities in an NGO in Jackson, MS, where he managed programs funded by the US Government in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other NIS countries.

Mr. Ivanov is fluent in Russian and has reading and comprehension proficiency in Ukrainian, Belarus, French and Kyrgyz. Alexander has significant experience in coordinating cross-cultural exchange and training programs. He does translating and interpreting, including simultaneous interpretation. In addition to his work at the AAFP, Alexander is currently pursuing a PhD degree in holistic nutrition.

Ms. Janssen is the AAFP Senior Program Coordinator for International Activities. Her international experiences include spending a year in Bologna, Italy, as an undergraduate student pursuing Italian/French studies. Upon graduation, she spent two and a half years with the U.S. Peace Corps in a remote section of the Dominican Republic teaching basic nutrition and hygiene. In addition, Ms. Janssen has worked as a Program Coordinator for International Visitors at GTE and as a consultant for Sprint. She has also worked for a Japanese marketing firm in Tokyo, Japan, where she lived for two years. After considerable graduate studies in Spanish, Ms. Janssen is currently exploring programs to complete her master’s degree.