Quentin Young, MD
PNHP National Coordinator

PNHP members are excellent speakers for medical conferences, grand rounds, medical student meetings, debates, and public forums. If you would like to have a PNHP speaker for your event, please contact the PNHP National Office, or e-mail any of the following speakers directly with your request.

JOHN BOWER, M.D. (South) is Chief of the Division of Nephrology at the University of Mississippi in Jackson, Mississippi. His practice includes many patients in the publicly financed and highly successful end-stage renal disease program. Dr. Bower has been a PNHP member for six years, and is the founder of PNHP's Mississippi chapter. He brought a single-payer resolution before the the state medical society, and is active in speaking and writing editorials and letters on the need for universal access to health care.

OLVEEN CARRASQUILLO, M.D., M.P.H. is a Puerto Rican born physician, raised in the Bronx. He is Assistant Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and co-director of the General Medicine Fellowship Program. His research includes minority health, health insurance, access to care, and managed care. Carrasquillo is frequently called upon by the Latino media. He has studied access to care among Latino elders and Medicare Managed Care in Washington Heights. Dr. Carrasquillo is a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Hispanic Medical Association. At Columbia he also serves onthe Internal Medicine Residency Admissions Committee and is active in minority recruitment. He is a practicing internist with patients in the predominantly Latino community of Washington Heights.

CAROLYN CLANCY, M.D. (Past PNHP President) Dr. Clancy is an internist and Director of Primary Care at the Agency for Health Care Quality and Research. She is an Assistant Professor at George Washington University and a former Director of the Medical Clinic at the Medical College of Virginia. Dr. Clancy is Chair of PNHP's D.C. chapter.

LINDA FARLEY, M.D. (North Central) is Assistant Professor Emeritus in the Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin. Semi-retired, she practices at the Madison Community Health Center and supervises medical students in the Salvation Army homeless clinic. Dr. Farley is the co-founder (with her husband, Dr. Eugene Farley) of PNHP's Wisconsin chapter, and is a frequent lecturer and media spokesperson for universal access to health care. Dr. Farley received the "Physician of the Year" award for her region by the Wisconsin Medical Society.

CLAUDIA FEGAN, M.D. (Past PNHP President) Dr. Fegan is the Medical Director of Outpatient Care at Provident Hospital on the South Side of Chicago. She is the coordinator of the Illinois PNHP chapter's Speaker's Bureau, and has lectured extensively to both medical and community audiences on health care reform in the U.S. and Canada. She is a co-author of "Universal Healthcare: What the United States Can Learn from Canada" (The New Press, 1999, $14.95).

JERRY FRANKEL, M.D. is a urologist in private practice in McKinney, Texas. He is a leader in the development of less-invasive surgical techniques in his field. Dr. Frankel is a longtime member of PNHP. He ran for Congress in 1996
against House Republican Dick Armey. Dr. Frankel has published numerous articles and letters on single-payer national health care and appeared on the local affiliates of ABC, NBC, PBS, and NPR. He has spoken at many churches, synagogues, and civic organizations throughout the metroplex. Dr. Frankel is on the Board of Directors of Common Cause of Texas, and actively supports numerous organizations which strive for social justice.

OLIVER FEIN, M.D. is Professor of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Public Health at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he serves as Associate Dean of Network Affairs. His work has focused on health system delivery reform. He was Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow during 1993-1994, when he worked as a legislative assistant for Senate Democratic Majority Leader, George Mitchell. Dr. Fein has been concerned with access to health care for vulnerable populations and the role of the Academic Health Center. He spent 17 years at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center developing ambulatory care practices. He is Chair of the NY Chapter of PNHP and Immediate Past Chair of the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association.

DAVID HIMMELSTEIN, M.D.(Co-Editor, PNHP Newsletter) Dr. Himmelstein practices and teaches primary care internal medicine at the Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard. He was a co-founder of PNHP and one of two National Coordinators for the first five years of the organization. Dr. Himmelstein co-authored PNHP's original proposal, its long-term care proposal, and its proposal for financing a national health program. He recently co-founded the Center for a National Health Program Studies at Harvard. His research focuses on problems in access to care, administrative waste, and the advantages of a national health program.

PAUL JUNG, M.D. (Northeast) is a graduate of the University of Maryland Medical School. He is currently the Legislative Affairs Director for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), and has entered a residency in primary care internal medicine. Dr. Jung worked for single-payer in California on the Proposition 186 campaign and as an intern at Citizen Action. In his position at AMSA, he is a frequent speaker to medical students on health policy, working to increase student political awareness and activism.

CAROL KIRSCHENBAUM, M.D. (South) Dr. Kirschenbaum is an internist in private practice in Durham, NC. She completed her residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Kirschenbaum is the President of the North Carolina Chapter of PNHP known as the The North Carolina Committee to Defend Health Care, and has been a member of PNHP since 1989. She is active in speaking, outreach to the media, and organizing. About ten to fiften active members meet every two weeks in Chapel Hill to plan strategy and discuss organizing activities. A bill in the North Carolina General Assembly for the "right to health care" is central to the organizing effort in North Carolina.

BOB LEBOW, M.D, M.P.H. (West) Dr. LeBow is a family practitioner (including obstetrics) and is also board certified in general preventive medicine. Since 1972 he has been Medical Director of Terry-Reilly Health Centers, a group of community health centers in southwest Idaho which serve a largely low-income, Hispanic population. He was a Peace Corps physician in Bolivia, and has worked in over 20 countries worldwide, helping to develop primary care health systems. Dr. LeBow has been active in PNHP since its founding, was one of the authors of Idaho's 1992 single-payer legislation, and has run for the Idaho state legislature three times. He is a prolific writer with frequent essays on the need for universal coverage.

MARTHA LIVINGSTON, PH.D. is Associate Professor of Health and Society at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury, where she teaches and researches U.S. health care, comparative health care systems, international health, health policy, social determinants of health, medical ethics, and women's health. She is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Public Health Policy. She has spoken at academic and professional conferences, universities, nursing schools, diverse agencies and community groups on the topic of health care reform. Dr. Livingston lived and studied for several years in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, has researched and written on the Canadian health care system, and was a recipient, in 1994, of the Canadian Embassy's Canadian Studies Research Grant.

DON MCCANNE, M.D. (West). Dr. McCanne is a family physician in San Clemente, California. For three decades, Dr. McCanne has allotted one-half of his practice hours to indigent patients. He has been cited by the San Clemente City Council as being "...outspoken, especially when it involves the elderly and underprivileged, because he believes that the ability to pay should not be the major criterion for receiving health care." Dr. McCanne was a tireless supporter of Proposition 186, the California single-payer initiative. He has written extensively in the lay press on single payer and patient-oriented health care, often using the concept of "Universal Medicare" as a model for single payer that the public can understand and support. He has elected to dedicate the remainder of his productive years to full-time activism on behalf of the single-payer cause.

DAN O'CONNELL, M.D. has been a family physician in the Bronx since 1991. He practices at Montefiore Family Health Center and teaches Family Medicine residents in Montefiore’s Social Medicine program. He has worked on universal health care issues since 1986, and has been on the Executive Board of NYC PNHP since 1995.

KAREN PALMER, M.P.H., M.S. Karen Palmer is an independent consultant in Public Health specializing in health policy/planning and international health. Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, she has lived in California and later in Hawaii where she attended graduate school. She currently resides in Utah and consults to a variety of health care-related groups within the U.S. She is on the Board of Chicago-based Physicians for a National Health Program, a progressive group of 9,000 physicians dedicated to advocacy for universal health care. Her extensive experience with the Canadian health system has strengthened her passionate advocacy for universal, comprehensive, equitable, publicly-funded health care for the U.S.

GLENN PEARSON, M.D. (North Central) Dr. Pearson is a psychiatrist in a staff model HMO in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the Chair of the Minnesota chapter of PNHP and has worked extensively with consumer and senior organizations in the state. He is an active speaker, and has testified on behalf of single payer before both the state legislature and Congress. Dr. Pearson's article on why physicians should support single payer appeared in Minnesota Medicine. His experience with the problems of managed care in a state experimenting with managed competition would bring a valuable perspective to any speaking engagement.

ALEC PRUCHINICKI M.D. is Assistant Clinical Professor, Dept. of Geriatrics, Mount Sinai Medical Center. He has a Masters of Philosophy Graduate Center of the City University of New York and an M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Pruchnicki has ten years experience in the field of geriatrics in a variety of outpatient and in-patient settings. He has done basic science and clinical research, primarily in the field of Alzheimer's disease, and has given presentations and presented posters at the Annual Convention of the Society for Neuroscience, the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Geriatric Society. He has taught at UCLA Extension, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y., and Beth Abraham Hospital, Bronx, N.Y.

CECILE ROSE, M.D. (Past PNHP President) Dr. Rose practices internal medicine in the Pulmonary Division of the University of Colorado and the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Division at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine. She is Chair of PNHP's Colorado chapter, where she has worked closely with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union in Denver to mobilize unions locally and nationally on a national health program.

DEB RICHTER, M.D. (Northeast) Active in PNHP for 7 years, Dr. Richteris practicing in Montpelier, Vermont and is President of PNHP. She has spoken extensively to both community and medical groups, is a frequent spokesperson in the print, TV, and radio media, and is active in coalition building on the need for universal access to health care. She was recently recognized by the Buffalo News as an upcoming "local leaders in 2010". Dr. Richter's experience caring for the uninsured and knowledge of the Canadian system are a welcome addition to PNHP's Speakers' Bureau.

JEFFREY SCAVRON, M.D. (Past PNHP President) Dr. Scavron is a practicing internist and the Medical Director of the Brightwood Health Center, a community health center in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tufts University. Dr. Scavron is a founding member of PNHP, and Chair of the western Massachusetts chapter. He is actively building coalitions for health care reform in Massachusetts.

GORDON SCHIFF, M.D. (Past PNHP President) Dr. Schiff is a senior attending physician and the Director of the General Medicine Clinic at Cook County Hospital. He is also the chair of medical staff quality assurance and drug review committee at Cook County. He is the Chair of the United States Pharmacopeia Consumer Interest Panel, and is active in the American Public Health Association, the Society for General Internal Medicine, and the Society for Medical Decisionmaking. Dr. Schiff was a member of the writing committee of PNHP's original proposal in the New England Journal of Medicine and authored PNHP's proposal on quality assurance.

VICTOR W. SIDEL, M.D. (Northeast) is a graduate of Princeton University with honors in physics and of Harvard Medical School with honors in biophysics. After training in internal medicine and in biophysics at Harvard Medical School and at the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, from 1964 to 1969 he headed the Community Medicine Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and studied epidemiology and biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

From 1969 to 1984 Dr. Sidel was chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Professor of Community Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and in 1984 he was appointed Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine at Montefiore and Einstein. In his work in the Bronx he has been concerned with service, teaching, and research in community health. He has served as President of the American Public Health Association and of the Public Health Association of New York City, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Physicians for a National Health Program. ĘDr. Sidel is also deeply involved in international health work. In 1971 he was a member of the first US Medical delegation invited to the People's Republic of China in 20 years, has studied health care in a dozen other countries, and has been a consultant for the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Dr. Sidel was one of the founders of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in 1961 and was its President in 1987-88. In 1980 he was one of the founders of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace, and was its President from 1993 to 1998. He has spoken and published widely on the economic, social, environmental and health consequences of the arms race, on the risks posed by the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and on the diversion of resources, Ęthe curtailment of human rights, and other risks entailed in the responses to the threat of bioterrorism.. Dr. Sidel is co-editor with Dr. Barry Levy of War and Public Health (updated paperbound edition published by the American Public Health Association in 2000) and of Terrorism and Public Health (published by Oxford University Press in 2003).

Among his honors are the Sedgwick Medal of the American Public Health Association for "outstanding accomplishments in public health" and the APHA Award for Excellence for "exceptionally meritorious contributions to the improvement of the health of the people." ĘThe citation for the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters awarded to Dr. Sidel by the State University of New York in 1994 began, "In your extraordinary career as an international leader in public health, you have always placed your pivotal focus on the betterment of the human condition..."

SUSAN STEIGERWALT, M.D. (Past PNHP President) Dr. Steigerwalt is a nephrologist and a Senior Staff physician at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. She is the Acting Section Chief of the Hyptertension Section in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. Dr. Steigerwalt is the Chair of the Detroit chapter of PNHP. She has been active in expanding the statewide coalition for health reform, participating in numerous forums and debates, and doing outreach to the media. She is a committed social activist who seeks to broaden outreach to labor, church, disability, and other community groups.

TIMOTHY B. SULLIVAN M.D. is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and Service Chief, Services for the Seriously Mentally Ill at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center of New York. He has worked in both academic medical centers and community mental health agencies, in order to better understand the needs of the seriously mentally ill, and to learn how to bring more effective treatments to them. He has published both research and educational texts pertaining to the care of individuals suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and lectures on these topics. His work in health care reform, through PNHP, grew naturally out of his abiding professional and moral concerns for fairness and excellence in the provision of health services to all persons in need.

BRUCE TRIGG, M.D. (West) is a pediatrician and a public health physician with the New Mexico Department of Health. He is a founding member and co-chair of the Network of Health Professionals for a National Health Program, New Mexico's PNHP affiliate. Dr. Trigg has given numerous presentations on single-payer reform to professional and lay audiences over the past five years, and is active in promoting a single-payer plan for New Mexico.

WALTER TSOU, M.D., M.P.H. (North Central) Dr. Tsou is the Health Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia . Prior to his current appointment, he was the Clinical Director, Ambulatory Health Services, Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Dr. Tsou has served as Co-Chair of PNHP's Philadelphia chapter for nine years and is a leading spokesperson on single-payer health care in Pennsylvania. He currently serves on several boards of non-profit organizations, including the Pennsylvania Public Health Association, the United Way, and the Asian American Health Care Network. He is also Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at MCP-Hahnemann School where he teaches the introductory course on health care policy.

STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, M.D., M.P.H. (Northeast, Co-Editor, PNHP Newsletter) Dr. Steffie Woolhandler is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard and co-director of the Harvard Medical School General Internal Medicine Fellowship program. She worked in 1990-91 as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health policy fellow at the Institute of Medicine and the U.S. Congress. Dr. Woolhandler is a frequent speaker and has written extensively on health policy. A co-founder of PNHP and current Board member, she co-edits PNHP's Newsletter and is a principal author of PNHP articles published in the JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Woolhandler is also co-author of the PNHP slide show and chartbook.

QUENTIN YOUNG, M.D. (National Coordinator) Dr. Young is a practicing internist in Hyde Park, a Clinical Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Illinois Medical Center and Senior Attending Physician at Michael Reese Hospital. He graduated Northwestern Medical School and did his residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he served as Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Cook County, where he helped establish the Department of Occupational Medicine. He has also been an American Medical Association member since 1952.

In addition to his distinguished career as a physician, Dr. Young has been a leader in public health policy and medical and social justice issues. In 1998, he had the special distinction of serving as President of the American Public Health Association and in 1997 was inducted as a Master of the American College of Physicians. In 1980, Dr.Young founded the Chicago based Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, of which he is currently Chairman. Dr. Young is also the National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a Chicago based organization of more than 10,000 physicians who support single payer national health insurance.

He has served as Chairman of the American College of Physicians' Subcommittee on Human Rights and Medical Practice and has been a member of both the Humana-Michael Reese Medical Board and the American College of Physicians Health and Public Policy Committee. He is featured as an expert guest on WBEZ, Chicago public radio. Dr. Young has chosen to limit his medical practice in order to spend more time fighting the corporate takeover of medicine in America.

Dr. Young lives in Hyde Park, with his wife, Ruth. He is the proud father of five grown children and the grandfather of an ever-growing number of beautiful grandchildren.