2022 Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award Winner
Elliott Tenpenny, MD ’09, serves as director of the International Health Unit for Samaritan’s Purse. Dr. Tenpenny is a native of Tennessee, and he received his postgraduate medical doctorate at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. He subsequently completed residency and served as chief resident in Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Following training, Dr. Tenpenny was part of the post-residency program with World Medical Mission, serving overseas for two years. During this program he trained in surgery at CME Nyankunde Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo and then served at Pioneer Christian Hospital in the Republic of Congo.
He now works to develop and maintain the emergency medical response readiness of the International Disaster Response Unit, including the management of the Emergency Field Hospital. Recently, in response to COVID-19, he served as the Emergency Field Hospital Director in New York City and California. Dr. Tenpenny also served in this role in Ukraine during the war, in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian; Mosul, Iraq, during the battle for Mosul; and Ecuador after the 2016 earthquake. Additionally, he was the area coordinator and cholera treatment center manager in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew and managed the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2019.