2010 Induction Ceremony, Awards Presentation and Reception
The University of Toledo - Health Science Campus
Atrium, Center for Creative Education
March 27, 2010
8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
2010 Recipients:
Dame Aileen Coleman RN, SCM, BSc, MA, AM
Annoor Sanatorium for Chest Diseases – Mafraq, Jordan
Since coming to Jordan as a young Australian missionary nurse in 1956, Aileen Coleman has worked tirelessly to bring healing and the love of Christ to the people. The nomadic Bedouin tribes affectionately call her “A’Raiisa,” meaning leader, or “The Angel of the Desert,” though she calls herself the Desert Rat!
Aileen was born in Bundaberg, Australia – the youngest of seven children. Her relationship with Christ began when she attended a tent revival meeting in college. That surprise encounter with the Lord changed the course of Aileen’s life by directing her into medicine. In 1951, she graduated from Queensland University with a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Nursing. She went on to obtain a Masters degree in Nursing Education & Administration.
After her nursing education, Aileen attended Bible College in Victoria, Australia. It was there she heard the call to become a missionary. In 1956, she took up a post as a nurse and administrator at Baraka Hospital near Bethlehem – then a part of Jordan. These experiences affected her deeply and confirmed her path as a missionary to the Jordanian people. While stationed at Baraka, she pursued an Honours Bachelor Degree in Classical Arabic from a London University, and has since become completely fluent.
Aileen’s more than 40 years of leadership and service at the Annoor Sanatorium in Mafraq, where she oversees a 50-bed inpatient hospital and clinic treating chronic chest diseases such as tuberculosis and other chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma, have endeared her to the people of her adopted country. The Bedouin have made her an official blood brother, and in 1989, Queen Noor al Hussein presented her with the Queen’s Medal in honor of Aileen’s ongoing medical services to the Kingdom of Jordan. In 2000, King Abdullah II gave Aileen the King Hussein Medal of Honor for her “service of mercy and healing to the citizens of Jordan.”
Aileen and the sanatorium enjoy a close relationship with the royal family and have an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to the Jordanian people in the name of Jesus. Aileen has also been honored by her native Australia. In 1990, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Despite her many honors and much public praise, Aileen is a humble woman whose primary satisfaction comes from the impact her work has on her Bedouin brothers and sisters. By God’s grace, the Annoor Sanatorium continues to seek out the lost sheep and to minister to the Bedouin people with physical healing and real love.
Diane C. Downing RN, BS, MPH
Primary Care Provider and Community Health Nurse, Congo
It was sixth or seventh grade and Diane Downing’s future had already been determined. Exposed to missionary work by professional parents who provided financial support for church and school missions, the mid-Michigan native knew she wanted to become a nurse to help people. And after seeing pictures from the other side of the world, she longed for the opportunity to go where the need was greatest.
Diane made her first trip overseas following the completion of bachelor’s degree in nursing from Wheaton College. Having been accepted into a missionary program that would see her placed in the Congo, she went to Switzerland to study French. From there it was on to the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, where she earned a diploma in tropical medicine for nurses.
In 1971, Diane began her missionary work in the Congo. With only short breaks in her assignments, she spent nearly 20 years working as a primary care provider and community health nurse. At her first stop - Oicha - in the Inturi Forest, she joined a staff that served 1,200 outpatients per day. At her final destination - Assa – Diane was the sole medical professional within a 100-mile radius.
Diane arrived in Assa to find that 500 children had recently died from a measles epidemic. One of her first projects was giving measles immunizations in the villages. In the next ten years, there was only one death from the disease. She was so well known that some would travel 100 miles on foot for her assistance.
While serving as a primary care provider at most of her stops, Diane examined, diagnosed and treated patients. She also taught hygiene practices, well-child clinics and trained clinical assistants.
At the forefront of health promotion and disease prevention, Diane is renowned for her expertise in the treatment of endemic goiters and neonatal hypothyroidism (cretinism).
Now based in Gaithersburg, MD, Diane teaches at Montgomery College where she is an instructor for certified nursing assistants.
Diane has two daughters who are nurses, Dawn Ryckman of Rochester, N.Y. and Shelly Downing of Boston. Dawn and Shelly have performed missionary work in locales that include Haiti, Jamaica and Chad. Diane’s son, Scott, who was born in Congo, is a missionary school builder based in Chad.
Robert L. Foster MD
Hospital Founder, Surgeon and Medical Director, Zambia and Angola
In the forward to the book that documents Dr. Bob Foster’s career - Sword and Scalpel: A Surgeon’s Story of Faith and Courage in Africa - Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse and World Medical Mission and son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, writes: “I believe Bob is the number one missionary statesman in the evangelical world today and the man God has used in a mighty way to open up new frontiers for the Gospel in some of the roughest areas of Africa.”
In all, the Greensboro, N.C.-based Dr. Foster devoted his career – some 60 years of medicine and ministry – to the people of Zambia and war-torn Angola, founding three hospitals in remote areas and serving as a surgeon and medical director.
Dr. Foster has been described as a modern Christian hero, serving in primitive conditions and helping those in need despite suffering some of the worst conditions possible, including a civil war that saw thousands flee Angola for their lives. In 1988, World Vision International named Dr. Foster as its Missionary Statesman of the Year.
A graduate of the University of Toronto’s College of Medicine, Dr. Foster completed his medical residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville in 1949 and immediately went to Zambia where he founded and served for 12 years as medical director of Mukinge Hospital. While in Mukinge, he also founded the school of nursing.
In 1962, he founded and served as medical director at Luampa Hospital in Zambia, leaving in 1967 to serve as interim director of Africa Evangelical Fellowship.
In 1970, Dr, Foster became medical director of Cavango and Kalukembe Hospitals in Angola. He remained in that role in 1981 when he became international director of Africa Evangelical Fellowship and medical coordinator for mission medical work in Zambia, Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Since 1990, he has performed short term medical work at Jamba, Lubango and Rio da Huila clinics in Angola.
From 1990 to 2008, Dr. Foster served as the United States representative to AEF-SIM.
Concludes Franklin Graham in Sword and Scalpel: “Bob Foster has inspired and challenged me, not only in the ministry with which I’m involved, but also in my personal spiritual journey. When I get to the end of life’s road, I pray that God will have used me even a fraction of the way He has used Bob Foster.”
Lawrence V. Conway Distinguished Service Award
Jeffrey P. Gold MD
Provost and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs
Dean of the College of Medicine The University of Toledo
As the Provost and Executive Vice President of the Health Science Campus, Dr. Gold coordinates the leadership of the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Science and Human Service, and Graduate Medical Study. In addition, the clinical enterprise of hospitals and ambulatory care sites, the research programs of the colleges, and development/philanthropy activities come together under Dr. Gold’s leadership, as does the entire health care delivery system of hospitals and clinics.
As Dean of the College of Medicine, Dr. Gold is responsible for the cultivation and recruitment of faculty, development and implementation of its curriculum and ensuring the highest level of education and fulfillment possible for its students, residents and faculty. Dr. Gold also works closely with the hospital’s medical director and senior administration to ensure that the visions and initiatives of The University of Toledo Medical Center Hospitals and Clinics maintain a close alignment.
Dr. Gold came to The Medical University of Ohio from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He received his BSE in 1974 from the Cornell University College of Engineering and in 1978 received his medical degree from the Weill Cornell College of Medicine. He served his General Surgery residency at the New York Hospital, his Cardiothoracic residency at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and had additional training as pediatrics cardiac surgery chief resident at the Children’s Hospital of Boston. Dr. Gold is a board certified thoracic surgeon and specializes in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery.
Dr. Gold serves on over 50 professional committees and over 100 national organizations, volunteer boards, government/public health councils, and industry. He was recently elected to the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and has served as president of the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, a national organization devoted to improving the education of resident physicians. Dr. Gold has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles, 250 national presentations, 40 books and chapters and more than 60 invited professorships.
Dr. Gold looks forward to continuing a vital role in helping The University of Toledo be a nationally recognized leader in health care education, delivery and research and to significantly elevate its standing among other health science colleges and academic health centers in the country.