INMED
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
– William Arthur Ward
Faculty, Instructors, & Consultants
Welcome to our dedicated academic team. Faculty are the heart of collaborative decision-making in INMED’s academic community. Their voices come together to shape policies, foster innovation, and ensure the academic well-being of our institution. Instructors and consultants are passionate about sharing knowledge and fostering professional growth. They play a vital role in shaping the learning experiences of our students. Explore the profiles and stories that make up the tapestry of our academic community.
Dr. Armistead trained at the Medical College of Virginia and Truman East Family Medicine Residency in Kansas City, where he met Dr. Comninellis as a faculty member. Dr. Armistead and his family lived in Pakistan from 1999-2015, providing medical care at Bach Christian Hospital, with a 1 1/2 year stint at Kanad Hospital in the United Arab Emirates when the security situation in Pakistan worsened.
Since returning from Pakistan in 2015, Dr. Armistead has taught family medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine and was in private practice before joining INMED. Since 2015, he has also worked part-time as a CMDA staff worker at VCU. At the School of Medicine, he started the month-long International Medical Mission elective for senior students during which he has taken a group annually to Karanda Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe. He completed VCU’s TIME (Teaching in Medical Education) certificate course. He loves teaching and has received teaching awards in the Practice of Clinical Medicine program at VCU and from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. He is very keen on the professional, moral and spiritual formation of students. He is active with the Urdu-speaking S. Asian refugee and immigrant population in Richmond, Virginia. His wife, JoAnn, is an ESL teacher and they have three grown sons.
Professor
Nicholas Comninellis MD, MPH, DIMPH
Nicholas’ Blog
Nicholas’ Videos & Presentations
Nicholas Comninellis, MD, MPH, is President and Professor at INMED, the Institute for International Medicine, and practices emergency medicine. He founded INMED in 2003 to advance global health education and service. Dr. Comninellis previously served for two years at Shanghai Charity Hospital, providing care to inner-city communities, and led a healthcare ministry in war-torn Angola for two years. He also taught family medicine and public health for six years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine while caring for patients at Kansas City’s public hospital.
He graduated from the UMKC School of Medicine and Saint Louis University School of Public Health and was a family medicine resident at John Peter Smith Hospital. Dr. Comninellis also earned a diploma in tropical medicine from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and became board certified in both public health and family medicine. Among his authored books is Five Bags of Gold – a Modern Parable of Wealth, Responsibility, and Eternal Investment. Dr. Comninellis is a classical guitarist and faculty co-advisor for UMKC Cru. He was honored as the 2009 United Nations Association of the United States World Citizen and the 2015 University of Missouri-Kansas City Alumni of the Year.
Professor
Joe LeMaster MD, MPH
Dr. Joseph LeMaster is a tenured full professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at Kansas University Medical Center (KUMC), where he is an active researcher (since 2011) and provides targeted primary care for refugees from the Himalayan nation of Bhutan. Himself a graduate of KUMC, Dr. LeMaster and his wife Judy lived in Nepal from 1990-2000, LeMaster in 1994 completed the Public Health in Developing Countries 1-year course from the London School of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine (a tool-box course for public health leaders in developing countries). He served first at Okhaldhunga Hospital (an affiliate of the United Mission to Nepal), the only medical care facility for 300,000 people, where they promoted maternal-child health and conducted leprosy research; and later at Anandaban Hospital, a facility operated by The Leprosy Mission International. He went on to obtain a Master’s in Public Health focused on epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public Health.
Dr. LeMaster has been teaching with INMED since 2008, with particular contributions in cross-cultural skills, health leadership, and participatory learning and action. His research primarily focuses on improving healthcare for US primary care patients (mostly refugees and immigrants) who have limited English proficiency. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and numerous other foundations. He currently Chairs the Committee on Advancing the Science of Family Medicine and is a Board member of the North American Primary Care Research Group; and directs the American Academy of Family Medicine National Research Network (a US-based nationwide practice-based research network. He is also the Medical Director and Local Health Officer for Johnson County, Kansas (population 613, 000). His wife Judy, a retired obstetric and public health nurse, is a member of the INMED Board.
Associate Professor
Fred Loper MD
Fred Loper is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. As a third-year medical student, he was part of the founding of Good Shepherd Ministries Medical Clinic – a faith-based, not-for-profit clinic that serves the uninsured people of Oklahoma City to this day. After completing his residency at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Loper served as a primary care physician at Central Oklahoma Medical Group (COMG). In 1986, he was appointed as the National Missionary for Medical Missions for a North American mission board, and in 2005, he became Executive Director of Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship, leading physicians, dentists and other health professionals in volunteer healthcare service in the US and abroad. In 2012, Dr. Loper returned to Good Shepherd Ministries Medical Clinic to serve as their full-time medical director and completed his active practice career as an Associate Physician at Community Health Centers of Oklahoma, a Federally Qualified Health Center.
Associate Professor
Susan Radecky MD, MPA
Dr. Radecky is a Family Physician with a passion for teaching and serving internationally. She graduated from Northwestern University Medical School and the Grand Rapids Family Medicine Residency training program affiliated with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. She was Director of that program from 1987 until 2006, leading the faculty and guiding young professionals on their journey to Family Medicine. She is an accomplished speaker with involvement with the American College of Physician Executives, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and national Board Review courses. Serving in short term medical missions has been part of her work throughout her career. She and her Hematologist husband, David have served in many hospitals in Asia and Africa for blocks of time at mission hospitals, learning, encouraging and supporting their ministries.
INMED
Faculty
“The supreme task of education is the cultivation of the human spirit, to teach the young to know what is good, to serve it above self, to reproduce it, and to recognize that in knowledge lies this responsibility.”
– David Hicks
Vice President of Academics
Maia Kling PhD
Maia Kling is a bilingual, career educator whose work spans public, private, and government sectors in the U.S., Latin America, and overseas. She has broad experience in teaching multiculturally and in providing educational program and curriculum support in intercultural settings. Dr. Kling received her BA from Smith College, her EdM from Harvard University, and her PhD from George Mason University. Her research has focused on education in multicultural/multilingual, system-settings. She is well versed in qualitative research and educational measurement in the assessment of curriculum and instruction, bilingual/ESL instruction, professional development, and special programs for at-risk students. Dr. Kling lives in Richmond, Virginia where she is an active member of Third Church. She enjoys music, reading, good conversations, spending time with friends, and volunteering with local service initiatives and international ministries.
Vice President of Operations
& Research Librarian
Addison Lucchi PhD, MLIS, MBA
Dr. Lucchi is a librarian, library director, and professor who is passionate about the intersection between education and global mission. Dr. Lucchi has 9+ years of experience in academic librarianship as well as teaching experience across the disciplines of English, Business, and Information Literacy. Dr. Lucchi is a graduate of University of Missouri-KC (Ph.D.) and Simmons College (MLIS). He has received awards and grants from the Kansas Library Association, Association of Christian Librarians, and Humanities Kansas for excellence in librarianship and innovation in the discipline. His research is interdisciplinary, primarily centering on application of narrative theory and storytelling principles towards faculty and student identity development.
In addition to his academic work, Dr. Lucchi has spent several years living in the Czech Republic for service, teaching, and study of Czech language (culminating in a Czech academic degree from Ostrava University). He is the president of Odysea CZ, a nonprofit focusing on empowering individuals and teams to serve in and support ministry in the country.
INMED
“Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”
– Albert Schweitzer
Ultrasound for Primary Care Instructor
David Culpepper MD, FACP
Dr. Culpepper is an internist and Point of Care Ultrasound Fellow with Ultrasound Leadership Academy. Armed with a professional Degree in Pharmacy, he trained at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, he is certified in echocardiography and internal medicine, holds a Fellowship in the American College of Physicians, and practiced general internal medicine plus hospital medicine for three decades. Dr. Culpepper has provided volunteer medical services to marginalized people in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Romania, Kenya, and refugees on the Greek Island of Lesvos. His professional passion is teaching point of care ultrasound skills to those serving around the world in low-resource communities, and since 20015 Dr. Culpepper has taught ultrasound skill for INMED learners.
Ultrasound for Primary Care Instructor
Mark Muilenberg
Mark Muilenburg is an ultrasound technologist originally from the Iowa City area. His is largely focused on equipping healthcare professionals with critical ultrasound skills essential for underserved communities. Such teaching has brought him to Africa and Asia, and several times to teach at INMED. Realizing the limits of infrastructure in low-resource communities, he is currently very involved in the product development of a wireless, battery-powered, cell-phone-sized, high-resolution ultrasound scanner. When he’s not abroad teaching ultrasound, Mark Muilenburg shares his skill at a crisis pregnancy center in Naples, Florida.
Essential Newborn Care 1&2 Instructor
Rebecca Schmitt MD, FAAP
Dr. Rebecca Schmitt is a board certified general pediatrician practicing at Froedtert Holy Family Memorial in Manitowoc, WI. She completed her pediatric residency at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist. She was born and raised in Green Bay, WI and excited to have returned to the area to serve her pediatric patients. She has always had a special interest in global health and medicine, both educating and serving those around the world in most need. Her biggest global health passions are newborn care and clean water projects. She has taught Essential Newborn Care 1 (Helping Babies Breathe) with INMED both domestically and internationally, serving the people of Roatan, Honduras.
Essential Newborn Care 1&2 Instructor
Safia Ahmed MPH, RN, CDE, IBCLC
Safia Ahmed, MPH, RN, CDE, IBCLC, is a public health practitioner with over 20 years of experience in reproductive and early years health. Her work centers on health promotion and disease prevention, with a focus on healthcare provider capacity building in low-resource communities. Through INMED, she has taught Essential Newborn Care training (ENC-1 / Helping Babies Breathe and ENC-2) for nurses, midwives, physicians, and maternal-child health teams serving Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly East Africa. She is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a Certified Diabetes Educator, and she completed INMED's Graduate Certificate in International Nursing and Public Health in 2024.