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Jeff Leman

Jeff Leman is a Family Medicine Physician who also holds a master’s degree in religion. He and his wife, Janet, and their two young children served in rural northern India from 2001 to 2010, serving the rural poor and directing a family medicine residency program. Since returning to the US, he has served as faculty and program director in a family medicine residency as well as other leadership roles, and currently as chair of the CMDE Commission. He is now pursuing a masters in counseling at Westminster Theological Seminary, as well as Level 1 coaching certification, focusing on member care for missionaries. Jeff especially loves hiking and backpacking in mountain regions around the world.

Flourishing by Design: Imagining Medical Missions for 2040

Our predecessors faithfully built institutions that have served for generations. Our challenge is different. We have inherited those institutions into a world they could scarcely have imagined. Population growth, urbanization, changing disease patterns, financial pressures, conflict, climate shocks, and technological change are reshaping healthcare across low- and middle-income countries.

Drawing on new data about the Christian health ecosystem, strategic consultations with global and African Christian health leaders, and field experience across Africa and Asia, this session explores what it will take for Christian health ministries to flourish by 2040.

Together we’ll imagine what it will take for Christian health ministries to flourish by 2040, strengthening resilient institutions, cultivating exceptional local leadership, and mobilizing a broader range of Christian expertise from medicine and nursing to governance, education, engineering, finance, data science, and technology.

How can Christian health ministries become indispensable partners in building resilient health systems that reflect the compassion and hope of Christ? The legacy of the next generation of medical missions will be measured not only by the number of missionaries sent, but by the resilience, flourishing, and Christ-centered witness of systems they strengthen.