Urgent Calls from Distant Places: A Conversation with Marc-David Munk
Wednesday, April 24, 12-1 p.m. | Hamilton 224/225, Dorrance H. Hamilton Building, 1001 Locust Street
Open to Jefferson students, faculty, staff and alumni. Lunch provided while supplies last.
In Marc-David Munk’s memoir Urgent Calls from Distant Places, in 2008 a young doctor sets out for Kenya to volunteer with the famed AMREF East African Flying Doctors Service. An emergency physician looking to make a difference, Marc-David Munk flew dozens of missions as a flight surgeon to eleven East African countries, including war-torn Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each chapter details the medical challenges of the mission but also explores the greater philosophical questions raised by treating patients in East Africa: African history, the impact of colonialism, communism, religion, terrorism, and war. Munk examines the unique histories and politics of the eleven countries he visits.
Urgent Calls from Distant Places is the story of the doctors, nurses, and pilots who tackled complex and dangerous missions to save lives, as well as Munk’s moral development as a healer and as a human.
Marc-David Munk is a Canadian/American emergency physician and healthcare executive. Over the past decade, he has held leadership roles at various nontraditional healthcare delivery organizations in the US and abroad. He graduated from Colgate University with a BA in philosophy and religion and completed an MPH in international health from Boston University. After graduating from Philadelphia’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College, he did residency training in emergency medicine, completed a clinical fellowship in international health at the University of Pittsburgh, and then completed a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at Peru’s Gorgas Program. He also holds a master’s degree in health care management from Harvard University.
Moderator: Daniella Ibiam, SKMC Class of 2027
Learn more: Jefferson.edu/Humanities
Questions? Contact Kirsten Bowen, Humanities Program Coordinator, Kirsten.Bowen@jefferson.edu.
