Who We Are

TZEMS is built on relationships — between clinicians, paramedics, and dispatchers in Tanzania and the United States who share a common commitment to the communities of northern Tanzania. This is that team.

TZEMS Leadership Team

  • Dr. Peter Mabula

    Head of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, JKCI-ALMC, Arusha, Tanzania
    Founder and TZ Medical Director, TZ EMS Project

    Dr. Mabula is an internationally recognized Tanzanian Emergency Physician who has trailblazed the practice of emergency medicine in the country and has been at the forefront of their efforts to create a comprehensive EMS system. He is the founder and director of numerous NGOs that focus on providing critical medical care to those most in need in Tanzania.

  • Dr. Tim Kummer

    Emergency Medicine Physician, Hennepin Healthcare
    EMS Medical Director, Hennepin EMS
    Founder and USA Medical Director, TZ EMS Project

    Dr. Kummer has dedicated his career to advancing EMS systems both domestically and internationally. He has lived and worked in East Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania, where he continues to play a vital role in the development of pre-hospital care infrastructure.

    Having responded to some of the Twin Cities’ most complicated and worst medical emergencies, Dr. Kummer brings extensive expertise along with cultural competency and humility to the training of paramedics and EMS system development.

  • Bahati Ng'obo

    Director of Operations and Paramedic, TZ EMS Project
    Arusha Tanzania

    With over 10 years of experience in Emergency and Trauma Care as a nurse and paramedic, Bahati leads the paramedic and dispatch team overseeing emergency response operations, training, mentoring and coordination of pre-hospital care services, including ambulance dispatch. He brings expertise as a paramedic on both road and air ambulance services, exemplifying high-quality pre-hospital emergency care in critical situations.

  • Gabriel Keller

    Paramedic, Hennepin Healthcare
    Founder and Development Director, TZ EMS Project

    As a member of the Hennepin Emergency Medicine System’s (HEMS) advanced care team, Gabriel is trained in cutting-edge pre-hospital interventions, including point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), rapid sequence intubation/airway (RSI/RSA), and finger thoracostomies.

    Gabriel’s journey to the medical field is marked by a unique professional background as a successful architect. He co-founded PKA Architecture, nationally recognized for innovative residential design, before turning his leadership, mentoring and training skills to pre-hospital care. 

  • Ali Ruminsky

    Emergency Medicine Dispatcher, Hennepin EMS,
    USA Director of Dispatch, TZ EMS Project

    As an experienced dispatcher herself, Ali brings her systems oriented perspective, emergency medicine knowledge and strong communication skills to the training of TZEMS dispatchers and paramedics. 

    She holds a Masters of Public Health degree in Epidemiology and graduate minors in Global Health, and Climate Change & Health.

Our Tanzanian Team

Sifuniel Selenya

Paramedic/RN/EMD

Sifuniel is a nurse and paramedic whose talent made an impression long before she joined the TZEMS team. Dr. Peter Mabula first noticed her across the wards at Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre — never having worked directly together, her clinical instincts and the trust she inspired in those around her were impossible to miss. With twelve years of experience, the last five focused on emergency and prehospital care, she brings both sharp clinical judgment and a calm, grounding presence to every call. She serves as a paramedic and dispatcher with TZEMS across the Arusha region.

Joanes Wilbroad

Paramedic/RN/EMD

Joanes has spent more than ten years working across some of the most demanding emergency settings in northern Tanzania — including Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre, Mount Meru Regional Referral Hospital, Aga Khan Hospital Arusha, and Moyomedicare. That breadth of experience shows. Colleagues describe him as someone who can read a patient almost immediately — calm under pressure, clinically sharp, and able to establish trust at the bedside faster than most. He now brings that same presence to prehospital care as a paramedic and dispatcher with TZEMS.

John George

Paramedic/RN/EMD

John's path to emergency medicine is personal. As a survivor of a serious road traffic accident, he experienced firsthand what it means to be critically injured with no coordinated system to respond. That experience shaped everything that followed. Over the past seven years he has built a career on the front lines of emergency care — including as an ER nurse at Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre — and now serves as a paramedic and dispatcher with TZEMS. He brings to every call both clinical skill and a firsthand understanding of what is at stake when the system works, and what is lost when it doesn't.

Our Spring 2026 U.S. TZEMS Team

  • Courtney Cushing Kiernat

    Courtney brings a diverse career background as a leader in nonprofit management. In retirement, she remains actively engaged in the community, serving on nonprofit boards including the Hennepin Healthcare Foundation, where she is Vice Chair and co-chairs the $30 million Addiction Medicine Campaign. Courtney is also an accomplished photographer and serves as Photo Editor for the Hill & Lake Press, where she is both a photographer and frequent contributor. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and has two adult children and four dogs.

  • Abby DiChiria

    Abby DiChiria is a medical scribe lead at Hennepin Healthcare and public health professional at the Minnesota Department of Health, completing her Master of Public Health in May 2026. With TZEMS, she is building the project's clinical data infrastructure — developing systems to capture run-level data across Arusha's ambulance network to help drive evidence-based care.

  • Dre Cantwell-Frank

    Dre Cantwell-Frank is a paramedic and EMS instructor with 19 years of experience across rural Alaska, wilderness medicine, and public health emergency response. As National Clinical Implementation Director at Bridge, she helped grow a California pilot into a nationally recognized model for opioid use disorder care. With TZEMS, she leads clinical education for Arusha's paramedic workforce.