PNHP

Howard Brody, MD, PhD

Howard Brody, MD, PhD

Bioethics

Dr. Howard Brody is director of the Institute for Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Previously, he was University Distinguished Professor of Family Practice, Philosophy, and the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University, East Lansing. He served as Director of MSU’s Center for Ethics and Humanities from 1985 to 2000.

Dr. Brody has written numerous books and articles on medical ethics, family medicine, and philosophy of medicine. Current research interests include the importance of an interdisciplinary humanities base for bioethics, ethical issues in primary care, community engagement in bioethics, and professional integrity in both medical practice and clinical research.

Dr. Brody was elected president of the Society for Health and Human Values (now part of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities) in 1988-89. In 1993-94, Dr. Brody served as Senior Scholar in Residency for the American Academy of Family Physicians at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research in Rockville, MD; he also chaired the Michigan Commission on Death and Dying. In 1995, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been invited to lecture in Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Argentina, Japan, and China. His work has been translated into six languages.

Ed Weisbart, MD, CPE, FAAFP

Family Medicine

Dr. Ed Weisbart is the national board secretary and MO chapter chair of Physicians for a National Health Program, a non-profit non-partisan organization of more than 25,000 physicians and other health care advocates in support of a publicly financed, nonprofit, single-payer national health insurance program that would fully cover medical care for all Americans.

After practicing family medicine for 20 years at Rush Medical Center in Chicago, he moved to St. Louis in 2003 to serve as chief medical officer of Express Scripts until retiring in 2010. He volunteered as an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Washington University in St. Louis from 2004 until retiring clinically in 2021.

He also serves as president of the Consumers Council of Missouri, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more inclusive and equitable community through advocacy, coalition building, collaboration, and community education.

Dr. Weisbart received his medical degree at the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1979 and completed his family medicine residency and a fellowship in family medicine education at Michigan State University in 1982.

Dr. Weisbart has an extensive history of success across a variety of health care environments with a strong focus on strategic planning, medical group leadership, quality and operational improvement, physician practice enhancement, innovative program development, clinical integrity, primary care, and political advocacy. He is a national speaker with dozens of articles published in both national medical journals and local media regarding the health care needs of the uninsured.

Philip A. Verhoef, MD, PhD, FAAP, FACP

Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Phil Verhoef is an adult and pediatric intensivist and clinical associate professor of medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. As president of PNHP, Dr. Verhoef’s commentary has appeared in numerous national news outlets. 

Dr. Verhoef completed medical and graduate training at Case Western Reserve University, followed by residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at UCLA and subspecialty ICU fellowship training at the University of Chicago. He has led an NIH-funded research lab studying the immunology of sepsis in the ICU; his scientific work has been published in Nature, PNAS, AJRCCM, AJRCMB, JCI-Insight, and the Journal of Immunology. Dr. Verhoef is interested in improving the care of septic patients through a precise understanding of their immune systems in response to infection, using a range of translational and “big data” methodologies.

Robert C. Stone, MD, FACEP

Palliative Medicine

Dr. Rob Stone serves as the medical director of outpatient palliative care at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital, where he previously practiced emergency medicine from 1983 to 2011. He also teaches at the Indiana University School of Medicine. 

Dr. Stone is a strong advocate for single-payer health care. He is the director and founder of Medicare for All Indiana and is the Indiana state coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program. Dr. Stone is also a member of PNHP’s advisory board and formerly served on the PNHP board of directors. He lectures to medical and lay audiences on health care reform at the local and national level, and has received several awards for his advocacy work. Dr. Stone has published many articles about the growth of for-profit hospices and the problems with for-profit health insurers, especially Indiana-based Elevance (previously known as Anthem Insurance).

Born and raised in Evansville, Indiana, Dr. Stone graduated from Dartmouth College and obtained his medical degree from the University of Colorado Medical School.

Susan P. Steigerwalt, MD, FACP

Nephrology

Dr. Susan Steigerwalt is a recently retired associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, and a nephrologist and clinical hypertension specialist with St. Clair Specialty Physicians in Detroit, where she served as director of research and the hypertension clinic.

Dr. Steigerwalt received her medical degree from University of Michigan Medical School and completed her residency at Detroit General Hospital, where she served as chief resident. She held fellowships at Wayne State University and Henry Ford Hospital.

A past president of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Steigerwalt has been active in the single-payer movement in Michigan, and nationally, since 1992. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Hypertension, and she has been named a “Best Doctor” by Hour Detroit magazine.

Johnathon Ross, MD, MPH

Internal Medicine

Dr. Johnathon Ross is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences and practices and teaches general internal medicine. He is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program. 

A graduate of Cornell University, Dr. Ross received his medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo and his master’s degree in health policy and administration from the School of Public Health of the University of Michigan.

Dr. Ross 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 been a member of the executive committee of medical staff at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, a board member of its PHO, and chairman of several committees of the hospital focused on quality improvement. 

Dr. Ross served as a member of the Ohio State Medical Board and helped establish the educational requirements and scope of practice for licensed physician assistants in Ohio. He also served as associate program director for the internal medicine residency, as medical director of the outpatient adult medicine teaching clinic, and as medical director of an HMO affiliated with Mercy Health Partners. His experience inside the health insurance industry convinced him of the need for a national health insurance program.

Peter Orris, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM

Internal and Occupational Medicine

Dr. Peter Orris, a founding member of PNHP, is a professor and senior physician (former 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 for over three decades, where he practiced and taught internal and occupational medicine. Dr. Orris maintains an active clinical and teaching practice and holds professorships 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 international health care systems, occupational and community effects of toxic chemicals, and sustainable health care and climate change.

Dr. Orris has served as an adviser to many organizations, including the World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization, World Medical Association, World Federation of Public Health Associations, and Health Care Without Harm.

Dr. Orris earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, his masters in public health at Yale, and his medical degree from the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University. He is a Fellow of the ACP and ACOEM as well as a member of AOA, and an active member of the American Public Health Association, while also serving on the Council of the Chicago Medical Society and as a delegate to the Illinois State Medical Society.

James C. Mitchiner, MD, MPH, FACEP

Emergency Medicine

Dr. James Mitchiner is an attending emergency physician at Chelsea Hospital in Chelsea, Michigan, in addition to a clinical appointment at the University of Michigan Medical School.

A past president of the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians, Dr. Mitchiner has served as chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians’ State Legislative and Regulatory Committee and as a member of the Task Force on Health Care and the Uninsured. In 2008, he served as president of the Washtenaw County Medical Society, and from 2010-2019 he was on the Board of Directors of the Michigan State Medical Society.

Dr. Mitchiner earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and master’s degree in health management and policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Ana Malinow, MD, MSHCPM, FAAP

Pediatrics

Before retiring as clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Francisco, Dr. Ana Malinow spent three decades working as a pediatrician with immigrant, refugee, and underserved children and adolescents in Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, and California. Prior to working at UCSF, she was associate residency program director at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, and before that, associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and attending physician in the pediatric emergency and ambulatory center at Ben Taub General Hospital. Dr. Malinow is the recipient of the 2007 Award for Excellence at Baylor Pediatric Grand Rounds on Health Care, the 2007 AAMC Nominee for Humanism in Medicine Award, and the recipient of the Seeds of Hope Results Award in 2009 given to individuals fighting to bring an end to poverty.

Born in Argentina, Dr. Malinow completed her medical degree at Case Western Reserve University, residency in pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, and master’s degree in health care policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Malinow is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program and co-founder of Health Care for All Texas, Doctors for Change, and the Movement to End Privatization of Medicare, and a lead organizer for National Single Payer.

Joshua Freeman, MD

Family Medicine

Dr. Josh Freeman is a retired family physician living in Tucson, AZ. He is professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he previously served as department chair, and is clinical professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona. Dr. Freeman recently stepped down as associate editor of the journal Family Medicine. He has served on the board of trustees of Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Dr. Freeman is author of the book, Health, Medicine and Justice: Designing a Fair and Equitable Healthcare System, and of the blog Medicine and Social Justice.

David Ansell, MD, MPH, FACP

Internal Medicine

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.

Peter Steinglass, MD, DLFAPA, FAAAP

Psychiatry

Dr. Peter Steinglass is president emeritus and director of the Ackerman Center for Substance Abuse and the Family. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is also a member of the Physicians for a National Health Program New York Metro chapter’s board of directors.

Dr. Steinglass has received many honors for his work in academic psychiatry as well as for his clinical and research collaborations with medical and mental health institutions, including the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy’s Cumulative Contribution to Family Therapy Research Award, and the Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy Research Award from the American Family Therapy Academy. He is also a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the American Academy for Addiction Psychiatry.

Most recently, Dr. Steinglass was the recipient of the 2009 Mona Mansell Award from New York’s Freedom Institute, signifying his contributions to the substance abuse treatment field. His research on alcoholism and on chronic medical illness as they affect family life has provided vital information for the clinical community. Dr. Steinglass has written more than 90 articles, book chapters, and books on these subjects.