PNHP

Ohio Information

Contact Information

PNHP Ohio
Dr. Johnathon Ross: drjohnross@ameritech.net

Single-Payer Action Network, Ohio
Website: http://www.spanohio.org
E-mail: span@spanohio.org

Media Contacts

Johnathon Ross, M.D., MPH
(419) 536-3879
drjohnross@ameritech.net

Dr. Johnathon Ross is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program, a national health reform group with over 17,000 members (PNHP). He is a graduate of Cornell University and received his medical degree in 1975 from the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo. In addition to his medical degree, he has a master’s degree in health policy and administration from the School of Public Health of the University of Michigan. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Toledo and currently practices and teaches general internal medicine at St Vincent Mercy Medical Center, a 500 bed center city teaching hospital in Toledo, Ohio. He has served as a family physician in a small rural community in upstate New York as a member of the National Health Service Corps. He has served as medical director for several organizations including: a local industrial medicine concern, the local visiting nurse service, a charitable HMO established by his Catholic hospital system and currently a center city adult medical clinic. He has served as chairman of the department of Internal Medicine at St. Vincent. He has been a member of the executive committee of medical staff of St Vincent, a board member of its PHO, and as chairman of several committees of the hospital, the HMO and the PHO focused on quality improvement. He has served as a member of the Ohio State Medical Board and helped to establish the educational requirements and scope of practice for licensed physician assistants in Ohio. His experience inside the health insurance industry convinced him of the logic and need for a national health insurance program.

Alice Faryna, M.D. | 614, 249-2667 | alicyna@yahoo.com
Dr. Faryna is certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. She has 40 years of experience including private practice, Neighborhood health centers, the VA. Associate professsor of Medicine at the Wright State University School of Medicine (now the Boonshoft School of Medicine) for 14 years, and 8 years as Medical Director for Medicare Part B, Ohio and West Virginia.

Andrei Vermont, M.D.
216.491.7004
vermonta@yahoo.com

Dr. Vermont is a Radiologist who completed his post graduate training at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution. He now practices in the Cleveland Clinic and has taught on the faculty of SUNY University Hospital, University of North Carolina, Michigan State University, and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Mary Jo Groves, M.D., FAAFP
937-215-6940
mjgroves1@gmail.com

Dr. Groves received her training at Ohio University, and Ohio State University, with clinical honors in internal medicine, OB/GYN, pediatrics and psychiatry. She is Board certified in family practice, and a Fellow, American Academy of Family Practice. She currently is the Director of Community Mercy Urgent Care in Springfield.

Thomas Pretlow, M.D.
216.368.8700
tgp3@cwcru.edu 

Dr. Pretlow is Professor in the Departments of Pathology, Oncology, Urology, and Environmental Health Sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Since becoming Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Biochemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Pretlow has spent a year or more on the faculties at Harvard, Stanford, and Case Western Reserve. He was Visiting Professor for a year at the Dana Farber Cancer Center at Harvard.

State Organizations Endorsing HR676

  • Lorain, OH
  • Oberlin, OH
  • Lorain County, OH
  • Single-Payer Action Network (SPAN), Ohio

Local Unions Endorsing HR676

  • USWA Local 1375, Warren, OH
  • Division 4, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), Rail Conference, IBT, Toledo, OH
  • Lorain County AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, Lorain, OH
  • Cleveland AFL-CIO Retiree Council, Cleveland, OH
  • Toledo Area Jobs with Justice, Toledo, OH
  • Ashtabula AFL-CIO Retiree Council, Ashtabula, OH
  • Ashtabula AFL-CIO Labor Council, Ashtabula, OH
  • Cleveland Painters District Council 6 Retiree Council, Cleveland, OH
  • AFSCME Retirees, Chapter 1184, Sub-Chapter 109, Northwest Ohio
  • Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, Cleveland, OH
  • Ohio State Legislative Board, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET), Rail Conference, IBT, Columbus, OH
  • Toledo Area AFL-CIO Council, Toledo, OH
  • Dayton, Springfield, Sidney, Miami Valley AFL-CIO Regional Labor Council, Dayton, OH
  • Local 50, Plumbers and Steamfitters, United Association (UA), Northwood, OH
  • Ohio AFL-CIO, July 19, 2006, at Convention in Cincinnati
  • Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA), State Convention, September 2006
  • Ohio Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR)
  • Local 546M, Graphic Communications Conference, GCC/IBT, Cleveland, OH
  • Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council
  • International Association of Machinists and Aerspace Workers (IAMAW) District Lodge 34

West Virginia Information

Contact Information

PNHP-WV Statewide Chapter
Email: pnhp.wv@gmail.com

PNHP-WV Chapter Contact
Dan Doyle, M.D., Senior Organizer
(304) 573-1798
doyledan348@gmail.com

PNPH-WV Chapter Website
pnhpwestvirginia.org

Chapter Leadership

  • Ken Wright, M.D., Chair
  • John Aldis, M.D., Treasurer
  • Agnes Franz, M.D., Secretary
  • Dan Doyle, M.D., Senior Organizer

Medicare Advantage Resolution (April 2025)

This resolution was adopted unanimously by the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians Board in April 2025, and was sent to the American Academy of Family Physicians for consideration at their October 2025 national conference.

Local Unions Endorsing Single Payer

  • Local 995, United Steelworkers (USW), Follansbee, WV
  • West Virginia AFL-CIO
  • West Virginia Brooke-Hancock Central Labor Council
  • Local 5668, United Steelworkers (USW)

Georgia Information

Contact Information

Email: pnhpgeorgia@gmail.com
Twitter: @PNHPGeorgia
Facebook: PNHP Georgia

Steering Committee

  • Chair: Stephen Gurley, M.D.
  • Vice Chair: Marshall Fleurant, M.D., M.P.H.
  • Communications Officer: Liz McCord, M.D.
  • Operations Officer: Mindy Guo, M.D., M.P.H.
  • Membership Working Group: Toby Terwilliger, M.D.
  • Communications / Media Working Group: Jack Bernard and Jay Bowman-Kirigin, M.D., Ph.D.
  • Legislative Working Group: Colleen Tope, D.M.Sc., P.A.C. and Alyssa Greenhouse, M.D., M.P.H.
  • Outreach Working Group: Brendan Pulsifer, M.D. Candidate and Mark Craig
  • Founding Member: Henry Kahn, M.D.

The Steering Committee of the Georgia Chapter of PNHP includes physicians and other health care advocates. Each has their own story of how their social justice advocacy efforts led them to see that expanded and improved Medicare for All is the most cost effective and just pathway to universal health insurance coverage in the U.S.

Jack Bernard 

Jack Bernard was the first Director of Health Planning for the State of Georgia. He then entered the private sector and served as a senior level executive with national health care firms including Humana, NME (now Tenet), Premier, and MedAssets. Jack has also been a local activist, serving on the Jasper (GA) County Board of Commissioners from 2005 through 2012. He has been on numerous other committees and boards, including the Jasper County Board of Health and the Fayette County Board of Health, where he is now Chair. He is also on various state and national health boards. He has been a mentor/counselor with SCORE (an SBA affiliate) since 2008, concentrating on the SCORE region for the Atlanta multi-county area south of I-20. He is an editorial writer having written over 1,250 columns specializing in health care, social, and political issues.

Jay Bowman-Kirigin, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Jay Bowman-Kirigin is a cardiology fellow with Emory University. Hailing from Salt Lake City, he completed MD/PhD training in St. Louis and, while there, helped found his medical school’s local SNaHP chapter. He later served on the Missouri PNHP Board. During his medical training, Dr. Bowman-Kirigin witnessed countless health care tragedies, and waste, which resulted from our broken health care system. These experiences reaffirmed his conviction that we can’t afford not to guarantee all Americans access to quality affordable health care.

Alyssa Greenhouse, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Alyssa Greenhouse is an Assistant Professor with the Emory University School of Medicine’s Division of Hospital Medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital. Originally from South Carolina, Dr. Greenhouse followed in the footsteps of her physician-alumni parents and moved to Atlanta to train at Emory School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health, where she received her MD and MPH degrees respectively. She was an active member of Health Students Taking Action Together (H-STAT) where she worked with and learned from many leaders in PNHP. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She returned to Atlanta and Grady in 2025 to combine her passions for adult general medicine, physician advocacy, and healthcare system improvement.

Mindy Guo, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Mindy Guo is a family medicine physician with Emory University and has lived in New Mexico, California, Missouri, and now Georgia. She completed residency training in 2021 as well as her Masters in Public Health in 2022. She is a fierce advocate for patients and for public health, and believes that access to health care is a right that must be established for all Americans.

Stephen Gurley, M.D.

Dr. Stephen Gurley is an Assistant Professor of Hospital Medicine at Emory University, where he cares for Atlanta’s underserved patients at Grady Memorial Hospital. Originally from Reston, VA, he moved to Atlanta to attend Emory for medical school and to obtain an MPH. While a student, he served on the national executive board of SNaHP, as well as president of the statewide advocacy nonprofit Health Students Taking Action Together (H-STAT) which advocates for statewide solutions to our broken health system, like Medicaid expansion. He stuck around at Emory for internal medicine residency, before joining faculty at Emory.

Henry Kahn, M.D.

Dr. Henry Kahn, an early chapter leader, is now a retired internal medicine physician, an Emeritus Professor at Emory University School of Medicine, and an adjunct faculty member at Morehouse School of Medicine and the Rollins School of Public Health. He moved to Atlanta to join the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (1972-1974), later returning to CDC as a full-time epidemiologist of chronic diseases (2001-2018). As a volunteer physician in 1973, he was Emory’s first faculty member appointed in primary care. He played a major role in developing the neighborhood health centers associated with Grady Hospital. He has been involved in social justice advocacy efforts since high school and was one of the founding members of PNHP national.

Chris Masi, M.D. Ph.D.

Dr. Christopher Masi is a general internist who practices at Emory University, where he is a Professor of Medicine and Vice Chair of Quality and Clinical Effectiveness in the Department of Medicine.  He has conducted research on social determinants of health and strategies to improve quality of care.  He is eager to improve access to care for all populations and views a national health plan as the best way to achieve this goal.

Belinda McIntosh, M.D.

Dr. Belinda McIntosh is originally from Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. as a child.  She has lived in New York, Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Georgia. She completed residency training in psychiatry in 2003 and has worked in a variety of clinical settings including private practice, the Veterans Administration, and Student Health Services at Georgia Tech and Emory University, where she held an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She is a staunch supporter of single-payer health care.

Elizabeth McCord, M.D.

Dr. Elizabeth McCord is originally from New Orleans, but has found her permanent home in Atlanta. She completed both her internal medicine / psychiatry residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship at Emory University. She is a proud advocate of U.S. health care reform through a single-payer system and supports other local advocacy groups that fight for human rights.

Toby Terwilliger, M.D.

Dr. Toby Terwilliger is an Assistant Professor in Emory University School of Medicine’s Division of Hospital Medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital. Originally from upstate New York, Dr. Terwilliger completed his medical school coursework in New York City before moving to Newark, N.J. for residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. After residency, he and his wife moved to Atlanta for her sports medicine fellowship and fell in love with the city. Dr. Terwilliger first became involved in PNHP while caring for underserved patients at our nation’s oldest public hospital, Bellevue, in NYC, and has since worked in safety net hospitals, where the patients he treats have been victimized by the U.S. healthcare non-system for most of their lives. Dr. Terwilliger is currently in the Society of General Internal Medicine Leadership in Health Policy (LEAHP) scholars program, where he hopes to gain the knowledge and skills to advocate more effectively for an equitable, universal health care system.

Rita Valenti, R.N.

Rita Valenti is a Registered Nurse, now retired from Grady Health Systems after 28 years of service. She worked in Trauma, Surgical Intensive Care, and the Grady Infectious Diseases Clinic. Rita was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1990 after door-to-door campaigning with nurses and community activists. As part of Georgians for a Common Sense Health Plan, she introduced legislation for a single-payer system in Georgia in 1992. She is a founder and member of Project South and on the Board of Healthcare-NOW. She is active with National Nurses United and the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective, and is a current advisor to Health Students Taking Action Together. She is a passionate fighter for health justice and Medicare for All.

Florida Information

Support student activists in Florida!

Medical and health professional students represent the future of our movement! PNHP Florida has launched a student fund to support local members of Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP).

We will underwrite Fla. student participation in PNHP’s Northern New England Summer Internship program; help fund scholarships for the PNHP Annual Meeting and SNaHP Summit; and generally support new and established SNaHP chapters throughout the state.

Donate to the PNHP Florida Student Fund HERE!

Chapter Contacts

Leonardo Alonso, D.O.
(904) 994-0857
rlalonso@comcast.net

I completed my medical school in 1989 at NOVA Southeastern and did a one-year osteopathic internship in Chicago upon graduation. I moved to Bakersfield, CA to complete my residency in Emergency Medicine at Kern Medical Center, then returned to Jacksonville, FL, my home state, with my new family, Alejandro and Gwendolyn. I was drawn to Emergency Medicine, partly for the immediacy of rapid results that impact people’s health but also by the legislated open door policy that we must treat everyone who enters our department regardless of their financial status. I began exploring health systems, became aware of PNHP, and have been a member for over 20 years. I was the director of the Emergency Department at Orange Park Medical Center and learnt much about how the for-profit hospital and physician contract groups operate.

My wife, Reagan, and I met in the Peace Corps in the early 1980’s (after college) where we served in Honduras. I am of Cuban descent and fluent in Spanish, which helps me better serve the Hispanic community locally. She is an RN and we both have volunteered for many years in medical missions on an annual basis to Honduras, plus at a local free clinic for the working uninsured called Volunteers in Medicine (Primary Care Clinic), where I was Chairman of the Board for several years. I am currently working with a team of Emergency Medicine physicians from UCLA trying to start our specialty in Honduras, where it is nonexistent. We are collaborating with the dean of the medical school in Tegucigalpa. I have also worked as a locums tenem physician in Vermont, West Virginia, Georgia, and Oregon, which has given me a better understanding of health care on a rural and national level.

I am excited about the formation of the Florida Chapter of PNHP and hope to be an active member.

Greg Silver, M.D.
(727) 712-3280
drsilver@drsilver.net

Dr. Silver is a solo, practicing family physician in Clearwater, Florida. He has been an active lecturer and consultant in the areas of healthcare reform, electronic medical records and the adoption of new medical technologies.

Howard A. Green, M.D., FACP, FAAD | 561-659-1510 | hag2@comcast.net
Dr Green received his education at George Washington University and The Boston University of Medicine. He did his post doctoral work at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and at Harvard Medical School.

Local Unions Endorsing Single Payer

  • United Association of Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 630, West Palm Beach, FL
  • North Central Florida Central Labor Council, Gainesville, FL
  • Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) Chapter 9-36 F 5, Cape Coral, FL
  • North Florida Central Labor Council, Jacksonville, FL
  • District Lodge 112, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers(IAM), Jacksonville, FL
  • Florida State Alliance for Retired Americans
  • Lodge 721, IAM, Jacksonville, FL
  • Local Union 295, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry (UA), Daytona Beach, FL
  • Florida AFL-CIO
  • West Central Florida Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Tampa, FL
  • Local 2779, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
  • Palm Beach-Treasure Coast AFL-CIO

Michigan Information

Contact Information

Email us for information on local activists

Media Contacts

Jim Mitchiner, M.D., M.P.H., FACEP

Dr. James Mitchiner is currently an attending emergency physician at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In addition, he has an academic appointment at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is Past President of the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians and has served in the American College of Emergency Physicians as the Chair of its State Legislative and Regulatory Committee, and as a member of the Task Force on Health Care and the Uninsured. A longtime single-payer advocate, he is active in Physicians for a National Health Program, which has 18,000 members nationwide. Dr. Mitchiner received his M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and received a master’s degree in health management and policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

John Cavacece, D.O. | cavacecj@trinity-health.org

John Cavacece has been a family physician, practicing full spectrum family medicine, for 18 years. He received his D.O. degree from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1986. He has been Associate Director of the Grand Rapids Family Medicine Residency since 1996. John spent ten years as an Air Force physician as both a staff physician and faculty at Air Force residencies before taking his present position in Grand Rapids. A Society for Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) member since 1993, John is currently the Chair of the Group on Family, a subgroup of STFM. His interests are primarily in behavioral medicine, teaching the concepts of Relationship-Centered Care to residents. He has been a member of Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) since 2002.

Tim Lambert, D.O.
(231) 935-8016
TLAMBERT@mhc.net

Dr. Lambert is a family physician and faculty member of the Munson Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program in Traverse City. He has worked in the community with the migrant health clinic, the Grand Traverse Band Native American health clinic and most recently with the Grand Traverse Regional Health Care Coalition Board (Vice-President 2004-2006)

Local Unions Endorsing HR676

  • UAW Local 6000, Region 1A Retiree Chapter, Michigan
  • Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO Central Labor Council
  • Local 829 United Steelworkers (USW), Owosso, MI
  • Local 2-591 United Steelworkers (USW), Riverview, MI
  • Local 6000, United Auto Workers (UAW), Michigan State Employees, Lansing, MI
  • Local 196, United Steelworkers (USW), Trenton, MI
  • Branch 3126, National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), Royal Oak, MI.
  • Local Lodge 141, International Association of Machinists (IAM), representing airline workers at Northwest, United, Southwest, and Alaska. Detroit, MI
  • American Postal Workers Union (APWU), Michigan State Convention, May, 2006
  • United Automobile Workers, International Union Convention, June 2006
  • Local 547, International Union of Operating Engineers, Detroit, MI
  • Jackson/Hillsdale Counties Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Jackson, MI
  • Michigan State AFL-CIO Women’s Council
  • Local Union 176, United Steelworkers (USW), Rochester, MI
  • Local Union 314, United Steelworkers, (USW), Detroit, MI
  • Local Union 389, United Steelworkers (USW), Detroit, MI
  • Local Union 2659, United Steelworkers (USW), Southgate, MI
  • Local Union 9491, United Steelworkers (USW), Hamburg, MI
  • Monroe/Lenawee County AFL-CIO Council
  • Detroit A. Phillip Randolph Institute
  • Greater Lansing Labor Council, Lansing, MI
  • UAW Local 909

Indiana Information

Contact Information

Medicare for All Indiana
(formerly Hoosiers for Commonsense Health Plan)
Website: MedicareForAllIndiana.org
E-mail: medicareforallindiana@gmail.com

Northwest Indiana Medicare for All
Website: nwimedicare4all.org
Email: nwimedicare4all@gmail.com

Media Contacts

Rob Stone, M.D., FAAHPM, Bloomington, Ind.
812.333.8085

Dr. Rob Stone is the director and founder of Medicare for All Indiana (formerly known as Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan) and the Indiana state coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program. He has been a member of PNHP’s board of directors and now is a Board Advisor. Dr. Stone practiced emergency medicine at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital from 1983 to 2011. He now serves as the medical director of outpatient palliative care at the hospital. He lectures to medical and lay audiences on health care reform throughout Indiana and beyond.

Born and raised in Evansville, Ind., he graduated from Dartmouth College Phi Beta Kappa, and obtained his medical degree from the University of Colorado Medical School.

Jonathan D. Walker, MD
260 436 2181
Jonwalker22@gmail.com

Dr. Walker attended medical school at the University of Cincinnati, and did his residency at Highland General Hospital, Oakland, CA and Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati, OH. He completed his residency in Ophthalmology at Ohio State University.

He is active in clinical practice in the above two specialties; also clinical professor at local medical school, and active with local free clinic projects using telemedicine to identify patients with diabetic retinopathy before severe damage develops. Dr Walker is also involved with projects in developing countries including Nicaragua, Honduras, and Fiji.

Alabama Information

Contact Information

Email us for information on local activists.

Media Contacts

Rob Kilpatrick
Exec. Dir., North Alabama Healthcare For All
Cell: 256-486-1277
E-mail: rob2020@mac.com

Rob Kilpatrick is the Executive Director of North Alabama Healthcare for All, a chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.  He is a retired United States Marine Corps officer who also had a “second career” in the aerospace industry.  His two careers took him to many countries around the world where he observed, first hand, a variety of healthcare systems.  His personal volunteer activities, over the years, have put him in contact with many americans who have suffered due to lack of access to the high quality healthcare available to only some of our citizens.  In comparing the United States healthcare system to those he observed in countries far less wealthy, he has become increasingly disenchanted with the United States system and convinced that our great nation can do better.  Now, in retirement, he is devoting his full attention to advocating for a more humane and cost effective system of healthcare for all persons in the United States.

J Walden Retan, M.D.
Phone: 205-266-4928
E-mail: HealthCareForEveryone@charter.net
 
Dr. Retan was educated at Hamilton College, MIT, and the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. His post graduate training was in the hospitals of the Harvard Medical system.  He came to Birmingham as faculty at University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB).  He entered private practice of internal medicine and, later, geriatrics in the 1960’s.

State Organizations Endorsing HR676

  • Tuskeegee, AL

Local Unions Endorsing HR676

  • Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) Chapter 36
  • Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) Chapter 36-2, Gardendale, AL
  • Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) Chapter 9-UR 1, Harvest, AL
  • Local 1155, UAW, Birmingham, AL

Mississippi Information

Contact Information

Email us for information on local activists

Media Contacts

John D. Bower, M.D.
601.829.2115
jbower564@aol.com

Dr. John Bower 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.

Tennessee Information

Contact Information

For information on the West Tennessee chapter of PNHP, or the University of Tennessee Health Science Center chapter of Students for a National Health Program, email Dr. Roger LaBonte at rlabonte02@gmail.com.

Chapter and Media Contacts

Roger S. LaBonte, MD, FACP – President, West Tennessee Chapter
rlabonte02@gmail.com
rlabonte@uthsc.edu

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.

Joe Blythe, MD, FCCP – West Tennessee Chapter
jablythe337@aol.com

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.

Peg Hartig, PhD, FNP, APN – West Tennessee Chapter
mhartig@uthsc.edu

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.

David Mirvis, MD – West Tennessee Chapter, TN Chapter Health Policy Advisor
mirvis@msn.com

Dr. David Mirvis will serve as the chapter’s 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 University’s 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. Mirvis’ 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.

Joseph A. Weinberg, MD – West Tennessee Chapter
jaweinberg@pol.net

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 parents’ station in life or the whims of their parents’ 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.

James S. Powers, MD, AGSF – Middle Tennessee Chapter
james.powers@vanderbilt.edu

Dr. Jim Powers is associate professor of medicine Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he is director of the Vanderbilt-Reynolds Geriatrics Education Center, director of the geriatric medicine residency program, and chief of geriatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Powers received his medical degree from the University of Rochester. He completed residencies at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve and a fellowship through the US Public Health System.

In Memoriam: J. I. Hudson Jr., MD – Middle Tennessee Chapter

Dr. Hudson was instrumental in starting the Middle Tennessee chapter of PNHP. His medical career included private practice in pediatrics, associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicine, Associate Dean for Academic Medicine at the Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine, and associate at the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management. He participated in efforts to establish nation-wide networks for quality assurance for acute hospital care in The Netherlands and Peninsular Malaysia, and consulted on matters of health care quality with the U.S. Health Care Financing Agency, the Select Committee on Aging of U.S. Congress, and USAID-supported primary health care programs in West Africa and the Middle East. Dr. Hudson passed away in 2012.

Raymond Feierabend, MD, FAAFP – East Tennessee, State of Franklin Chapter
feierabe@etsu.edu

Dr. Feierabend is professor and Director of Graduate Medical Education in the Department of Family Medicine at East Tennessee State University, Quillen College of Medicine. A native of Louisiana, he received his medical degree from Tulane University and completed his residency at Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina. He established a rural National Health Service Corps practice in Dungannon, Virginia, before moving to the Quillen College of Medicine in 1982.

Robert Funke, MD – East Tennessee, State of Franklin Chapter
r_funke@charter.net

Dr. Bob Funke is a family physician at Mountain Region Family Medicine in Kingsport, Tennessee, where he is a founding member and past president of the board of directors. He is also a member of the executive committee at Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center. Dr. Funke received his medical degree from Tulane University and completed his residency at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem.

In Memoriam: Arthur J. Sutherland III, MD, FACC – Tennessee Coordinator

Dr. Art Sutherland practiced cardiology in Memphis for 33 years and was the founder and director of the Methodist Healthcare Cardiac Laboratories, and the founder of Sutherland Cardiology Clinic. Dr. Sutherland served as state coordinator of the Tennessee chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program and as a member of the national board of directors. He received the Dr. Quentin Young Health Activist Award from PNHP in 2013.

Dr. Sutherland received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and medical degree from the University of Tennessee. He completed an internship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and residency at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. His cardiology fellowship was at the UTHSC in Memphis, and St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville. He was a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease, and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Sutherland passed away in 2021.

State Organizations Endorsing Single Payer

  • Warren County, TN

Local Unions Endorsing Single Payer

  • Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) Chapter 9-ABG 1, Kingsport, TN
  • Plumbers Local Union #17, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry (UA), Memphis, TN

Kentucky Information

Contact Information

Email us for information on local activists.

Media Contacts

Garrett Adams
502.895.8847
kyhealthcare@aol.com

Dr. Adams Received his training at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee and Wake Forest School of Medicine. He completed his Pediatric Residency at Vanderbilt University Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Fellowship, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado. He also has a Master of Public Health (Epidemiology), Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (Bloomberg School of Public Health).

Dr. Adams is a specialist in Infectious Diseases of Children and Infectious Disease Epidemiology. He is retired from the full-time faculty of the University of Louisville School of Medicine where he was Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Medical Director of Communicable Diseases at the Louisville Metro Health Department. He is immediate past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

State Organizations Endorsing HR676

  • Kentucky House of Representatives
  • Louisville, KY
  • Morehead, KY
  • Falls City Medical Society, Kentucky
  • Kentucky Psychiatric Medical Association

Local Unions Endorsing HR676

  • United Steelworkers, Local 1693, Louisville, KY
  • Laborers International Union of North America Local 576, Louisville, KY
  • Jefferson County Teachers’ Association (NEA), Louisville, KY
  • AFSCME Local 2629, Louisville, KY
  • PACE Local 5-2002, Louisville, KY
  • Laborers International Union of North America Local 576 Retirees’ Council, Louisville, KY
  • Nurses Professional Organization, Louisville, KY
  • CWA Local 3310, Louisville, KY
  • UAW CAP Council, 3rd & 4th Areas, Kentucky
  • GCU/IBT Local 619, Louisville, KY
  • Kentucky State AFL-CIO
  • Kentucky Jobs with Justice, Louisville, KY
  • Greater Louisville Building & Construction Trades Council, Louisville, KY
  • Tri-County Council of Labor, AFL-CIO, Henderson, KY
  • Greater Louisville Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Louisville, KY, April 2006.
  • Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) Chapter 9-UR 7, Hickman, KY
  • Northern Kentucky Central Labor Council, Covington, KY
  • Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council, Paducah, KY
  • Plumbers, Pipefitters and Service Technicians Local 502, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Louisville, KY
  • UAW Local 2164

Illinois Information

Contact Information

PNHP Illinois
Email: illinois@pnhp.org
Instagram: @ilpnhp

Illinois Single-Payer Coalition
Website: http://ilsinglepayer.org

PNHP Illinois is an organizational member of ISPC.

Speakers and Media Contacts

DAVID ANSELL, MD, MPH, FACP

Dr. David Ansell is the Senior Vice President for Community Health Equity at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

He is an internal medicine physician, trained at Cook County Hospital in the late 1970s, where he spent 17 years holding a number of positions including chief of general medicine/primary care. After leaving County, he spent 10 years as chair of the department of internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, located in one of the highest hardship communities in Chicago. He has been particularly involved in health equity work, bringing attention to higher rates of breast cancer mortality for African-American women in Chicago. In 2007 he co-founded the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Taskforce, a not-for-profit that focuses on eliminating the racial disparities in breast cancer mortality.

He is the author of numerous papers and book chapters on health disparities. In 2011 he published an acclaimed memoir based on his experiences as a doctor in Chicago, County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital. His most recent book, The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills, was released by the University of Chicago Press in 2017.

Dr. Ansell is a graduate of SUNY Upstate Medical University and received his Masters of Public Health from the University of Illinois School of Public Health.

SYDNEY DOE, MD

Dr. Sydney Doe serves as a Chair of the Illinois Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. She is faculty at the RUSH-Esperanza Family Medicine Residency in Chicago and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Rush University.

She provides primary and HIV care at Esperanza Health Centers and leads the health policy, scholarly activity, and HIV medicine curricula for the residency program. Her research interests include medical education and healthcare workforce issues.

Dr. Doe received her medical degree at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency at the Northwestern University McGaw Family Medicine Residency Program at Erie Family Health.

CLAUDIA FEGAN, MD, CHCQM FACP
773.753.5509
one4singlepayer@gmail.com

Dr. Claudia Fegan is national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program. In her current and past leadership roles in PNHP she has appeared on national television and radio programs on behalf of the organization, and has testified before congressional committees on a wide range of health care issues. She has lectured extensively to both medical and community audiences on health care reform in the U.S. and Canada, and is a co-author of the book “Universal Healthcare: What the United States Can Learn from Canada” and a contributor to “10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care.”

Dr. Fegan is Chief Medical Officer of Cook County Health. She is also president of the Chicago-based Health and Medicine Policy Research Group. In 2016, Modern Healthcare named Dr. Fegan one of “10 Minority Executives to Watch,” noting her achievements in the medical profession and her single-payer activism.

Dr. Fegan received her undergraduate degree from Fisk University and her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. She is also certified in health care quality and management and is a diplomate of the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians.

PETER GANN, MD, ScD

Dr. Peter Gann is currently semi-retired as Professor Emeritus in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He grew up within walking distance of the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD. He has been involved in campaigns for a just system of universal health care since serving as a summer intern at the Health Policy Advisory Center in New York in 1971.

His career experience includes primary care practice, investigation of environmental and occupational hazards in the New Jersey Department of Health, and a stint in the 1980’s as a Project Director at the National Academy of Sciences. This was followed by decades of work in academia, teaching and conducting research in cancer epidemiology and prevention. He is especially appreciative to have had the opportunity to work with so many dedicated research participants, clinicians, and community activists in collaborative studies to improve population health.

Dr. Gann attended the University of California at San Francisco and received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also received an MS in epidemiology and biostatistics. He later earned a doctoral degree (ScD) in epidemiology from Harvard. He has served on national advisory committees at the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, the American Urological Association, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

WINNIE LIN, MD

Dr. Winnie Lin is one of the co-chairs of the Illinois chapter of PNHP. She was born and raised in the Chicago area. She received her MD from the University of Pennsylvania and completed pediatric residency at the University of Chicago.

She is a primary care pediatrician at Mile Square Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center on the South Side of Chicago. She is also an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she teaches pediatric residents and medical students.

Dr. Lin is a board member and past board president of the Illinois Single-Payer Coalition. In addition to chairing the IL chapter of PNHP, she is also an active member of PNHP’s Pediatric Organizing Team.

Peter Orris

PETER ORRIS, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM, AOA

Dr. Peter Orris, a founding member of PNHP, is professor and chief of Occupational and Environmental Medicine for the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System. He has been an attending physician in the Division of Occupational Medicine at the Stroger Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital) for over three decades, where he practiced and taught internal and occupational medicine on the teaching services. He has been an active member of the Chicago Medical Society and Illinois State Medical Society, as well a member of the Illinois Board of Health for over a decade. He maintains an active clinical and teaching practice and holds professorships as well in internal and preventive medicine at Rush University Medical College and the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. His research and teaching have focused on the U.S. and international health care systems, occupational and community effects of toxic chemicals, and sustainable health care and climate change. He has lectured broadly and published numerous articles in these areas, as well as conducted a series of medical student and public health study groups for in depth study of the Cuban health care system.

Dr. Orris is in leadership of both housestaff and attending physician unions, and serves on the executive board of 1199 and as an advisor to the SEIU Health Care Division. He has a long history of advocacy for the elimination of profits and racism in health care and opposing corporate policies that poison the environment of the developing world. Dr. Orris graduated Harvard College in 1967, Yale School of Public Health in 1970, and the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University in 1975.

ZACH PELLIS, MD

Dr. Zach Pellis is a Board Director of the Illinois Chapter of PNHP. He is completing his Internal Medicine residency and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship at the University of Chicago. He received his medical degree from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. In addition to his work with the IL chapter of PNHP, Zach is involved at the national level in the Communications Committee and in early career physician recruitment and retention.

Chapter Leadership

Co-Chairs:
Sydney Doe, MD
Winnie Lin, MD

Board Directors:
Peter Gann, MD, ScD
Monica Maalouf, MD
Zachary Pellis, MD
Ameer Sharifzadeh, MD