Dr. Tom Catena, a Catholic native of Amsterdam N.Y., wanted to be a medical missionary since high school. In 2000 he went to Kenya, In 2008, he moved to the Nuba Mountains in Sudan to become the first, and only doctor, at the new Gidel Mother of Mercy Hospital, where he is still works as the hospital’s medical director. Dr. Catena is the only surgeon for 1.3 million people in a region nearly twice the size of Massachusetts. As a medical missionary, he put his life on the line living in the middle of the war-torn and besieged Nuba Mountains, a territory fiercely contested by its inhabitants and the former government of Sudan. Dr. Catena is the only surgeon for 1.3 million people in a region nearly twice the size of Massachusetts. When the fighting in the region started in 2011, most expatriate workers fled. Dr. Catena insisted on staying. Dr. Catena is currently chairing African Mission Healthcare’s Nuba 2020 campaign to ensure the only major hospital in Sudan’s war-torn Nuba Mountains continues to treat and save thousands of children and adults threatened by conflict, disease, and medical emergencies 365 days a year. He is married to Nasima Catena, a native of the Nuba Mountains and a nurse at Mother of Mercy Hospital. The couple is in the process of adopting a child.