Dr. Joe Weinberg, M.D. is a retired pediatric emergency medicine physician and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences. He was Director of Emergency Services at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, Memphis, Tennessee, and President of Pediatric Emergency Specialists, P.C. He has served on many local and state organizations related to emergency services and education. He believes that children should have access to appropriate health care regardless of their parentsā station in life or the whims of their parentsā employer. He is a long-time member of PNHP committed to the need to implement a universal, single payer health care system in the United States. Dr. Weinberg hopes that his experience in consulting on local political campaigns can help West Tennessee PNHP.
David Mirvis, MD
West Tennessee Chapter, TN Chapter Health Policy Adviser
Dr. David Mirvis will serve as the chapterās health policy advisor. Dr. Mirvis received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in 1970, and subsequently trained in internal medicine and cardiology at the National Institutes of Health and at the University of Tennessee. He joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in 1975, where he currently is professor emeritus. At UT, he was the founder and director of the Universityās Center for Health Services Research.
His other academic appointments include positions as adjunct professor in the Department of Public Health, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Senior Research Fellow in the Methodist LeBonheur Center for Health Economics at the University of Memphis.
Dr. Mirvisā research interests include health care delivery processes and health policy as well as electrocardiography. He has published over 200 manuscripts and books on these topics.
Peg Hartig, PhD, FNP, APN
West Tennessee Chapter
Dr. Peg Hartig is a professor and chair of the department of primary care and public health. She has been a College of Nursing faculty member since 1987.
Dr. Hartig has practiced as a family nurse practitioner since 1977 in a variety of primary care clinics, an endocrinology specialty clinic, a nursing home and a disease management service. She also provides health care services and monitors the quality of nurse practitioner services provided at the Bobbitt Health Station, the health clinic at Memphis International Airport.
In addition to conducting quality improvement research and teaching related content in the graduate program, Dr. Hartig has written and spoken to many groups about faculty evaluation activities and development of evidence-based practice. She is a member of the Academic Nursing Center Special Interest Group and faculty development committee of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties.
Joe Blythe, MD, FCCP
West Tennessee Chapter
Dr. Joe Blythe received his medical degree from the University of Mississippi and completed his postgraduate training at the University of Tennessee with a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary diseases. He practiced in that specialty in Memphis until 2007, then became board-certified in palliative medicine and is currently practicing in that speciality. He is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and remains certified in that field. Dr. Blythe became interested in the work of Physicians for a National Health Program by witnessing the inefficiencies and shortcomings of our health care system in his practice.
Roger S. LaBonte
LaBonte, MD, FACP - President, West Tennessee Chapter
Dr. Roger LaBonte practices part time as a hospitalist at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi. He holds a volunteer appointment as a clinical associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), where he actively participates in the education of medical students and integrated programs with other medical disciplines.
Dr. LaBonte served 20 years in the US Navy and retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer. While in the Navy, he attended the University of Nebraska, where he received a BS in medical science. He received his medical degree from UTHSC. He completed his internal medicine residency at UTHSC and Baptist Memorial Hospital. Board-certified in internal medicine with a certificate of added qualification in geriatric medicine, he is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a distinguished fellow of the American College of Medical Quality.
David Keely, MD
Dr. David Keely is president of Health Care for All-South Carolina. He is semi-retired as a public health policy educator and physician epidemiologist with Primary Care Medicine and Public Health Synergy, his part-time consulting business. He grew up in Philadelphia and obtained his bachelorās degree from Swarthmore College and his medical degree from Wake Forest University. He did his family medicine residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and later he did the MPH program at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health. He has practiced family medicine for more than 30 years in multiple settings: in private practice, at a community health center, and as part of a health department. David was the full-time, three-county, public health district director for South Carolinaās Department of Health and Environmental Control for eight years. He also served in the National Health Service Corps for two years along the way.
David Ball, RN
David Ball serves as the South Carolina chapterās liaison with the national office. He received his Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Florida. He did an internship at the Gainesville VA Medical Center (SICU) and an externship at Johns Hopkins (Leukemia). He holds a degree in management from Antioch University and a masterās in health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). During his 20-plus years in nursing, he has practiced in critical care, emergency medicine, med/surg and federal occupational health. He is currently completing Air War College as a Reserve officer in the Air Force where he holds the rank of lieutenant colonel. His most recent deployment (Jan-May 2012) was as director of operations for aeromedical evacuation at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
J. Mark Ryan
MD, FACP
Dr. Ryan is an internist in Providence, RI. He works for University Medicine Foundation providing primary care and is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brown University Alpert Medical School. His current hospital affiliations: Rhode Island Hospital and Miriam Hospital. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Brown University Medical School. He is current President of the Rhode Island Chapter of PNHP.
Thomas R. Comerci, MD
William R. Davidson, Jr., MD
Dr. Davidson is a board certified Cardiologist who has been practicing in central Pennsylvania for nearly 30 years. After 8 years of undergraduate and medical training at the University of Virginia, he completed an Internship and Medical Residency in Baltimore. Prior to his Fellowship in Cardiology at the Hershey Medical Center, Dr. Davidson spent 3 years doing āwhatever was neededā at a general hospital in rural Tanzania. The immediate past-president of the Good Samaritan Hospital, Dr. Davidson spends a lot of his spare time writing newspaper articles and giving lectures promoting Single-Payer healthcare reform.
Scott Tyson, MD
Dr. Scott Tyson, is theĀ CEOĀ of Pediatrics South. He received his training at Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Tyson completed his residency at Bellevue/Upstate and is board qualified.
Tim Lachman, MD
Dr. Lachman graduated from Antioch College with aĀ BAĀ in Philosophy in 1963. After attending the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine from 1963 to 1967, he interned at Pennsylvania Hospital. He was selected for theĀ USĀ Public Health Service and was stationed for two years on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. He was a neurology resident at the Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital from 1970 until 1973 and a fellow in clinical neurophysiology at the Mass General Hospital from 1973 until 1975.
In 1975, he joined a private practice in the Philadelphia area. He joined the neurology faculty at Hahnemann University from 1978 to 1982, when he returned to solo private practice at Lankenau Hospital. In December 2006 he became a full-time faculty member in the Department of Neurology at Temple University School of Medicine.