PNHP

Monica Maalouf, MD

Monica Maalouf, MD

Internal Medicine

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Dr. Monica Maalouf is a physician, associate professor of medicine, and associate program director for the internal medicine residency program at a large Chicago-based institution. She practices primary care with a specific focus on marginalized communities and women’s health. Dr. Maalouf teaches medical students and residents about health inequities, social determinants of health, and health advocacy. She has spoken at multiple conferences and published essays regionally and nationally about health care policy.

Dr. Maalouf earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago; she completed medical school at the University of Minnesota and her residency training in internal medicine at New York University (NYU) and Bellevue Hospital. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Arabic.

Judith Albert, MD

Judith Albert, MD

OB/GYN and Reproductive Endocrinology

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Dr. Judy Albert is a reproductive endocrinologist. She served as a full-time faculty member of the Departments of OB-GYN at both the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh. For 30 years, Dr. Albert was a physician-owner of a women-owned and operated practice devoted to reproductive endocrinology, infertility, and IVF services in Pittsburgh. She retired in 2019, and currently devotes much of her time to health care justice advocacy. In 2016, Dr. Albert co-founded a local chapter of PNHP in Western Pennsylvania and is a member of the Western PA Coalition for Single Payer, the national board of PNHP, and the steering committee of National Single Payer. 

Dr. Albert received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Magee-Women’s Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, and completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ed Weisbart, MD, CPE, FAAFP

Ed Weisbart, MD, CPE, FAAFP

Family Medicine

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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.

Robert C. Stone, MD, FACEP

Robert C. Stone, MD, FACEP

Palliative Medicine

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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

Susan P. Steigerwalt, MD, FACP

Nephrology

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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

Johnathon Ross, MD, MPH

Internal Medicine

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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

Peter Orris, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM

Internal and Occupational Medicine

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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

James C. Mitchiner, MD, MPH, FACEP

Emergency Medicine

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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.

David Ansell, MD, MPH, FACP

David Ansell, MD, MPH, FACP

Internal Medicine

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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.

Claudia M. Fegan, MD, CHCQM, FACP

Claudia M. Fegan, MD, CHCQM, FACP

Internal Medicine

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Dr. Claudia Fegan is chief medical officer of Cook County Health, where she provides executive oversight for the health system’s medical practices and health policy initiatives. Dr. Fegan also serves as national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, where 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 the Canadian Experience” and a contributor to “10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care.”

Dr. Fegan is a past president and board member of the Chicago-based Health and Medicine Policy Research Group. In 2017, she received the Paul Cornely Award from the American Public Health Association, and in 2023 Becker’s Health Care named her one of 149 Black Health Leaders to Know. 

Dr. Fegan received her undergraduate degree from Fisk University and her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. She is a diplomate of both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians.

Susan Rogers, MD, FACP

Susan Rogers, MD, FACP

Internal Medicine

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Dr. Susan Rogers, immediate past president of PNHP, is recently retired from Stroger Hospital of Cook County, where she now serves as a volunteer attending hospitalist and internist. While at Stroger Hospital, she was co-director of medical student programs for the Department of Medicine and received numerous teaching awards. She is an assistant professor of medicine at Rush University, where she serves on the Committee of Admissions. 

Dr. Rogers received her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed her residency at Cook County Hospital, where she served an additional year as Chief Resident. She previously was medical director of the Near North Health Service Corp, a FQHC in Chicago. Dr. Rogers is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the National Medical Association. A longtime advocate of health care justice and racial equity, Dr. Rogers has testified before Congress and spoken to both medical and community audiences around the country.