Dr. Steffie Woolhandler is a practicing primary care physician, distinguished professor of public health and health policy in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, adjunct clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and lecturer in medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she co-directed the general internal medicine fellowship program and practiced primary care internal medicine at Cambridge Hospital.

Dr. Woolhandler earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University; her medical degree from Louisiana State University; and her master’s degree from the University of California. She worked in 1990-1991 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, administrative overhead and the uninsured. She has authored more than 150 journal articles, reviews, chapters, and books on health policy. A sample of Dr. Woolhandler’s grand rounds at the University of Southern California Keek School of Medicine is available here.

A co-founder and board member of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Woolhandler co-edits PNHP’s newsletter and is a principal author of PNHP articles published in the JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine in conjunction with Dr. David Himmelstein.

Dr. David Himmelstein is a distinguished professor of public health and health policy in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, adjunct clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and lecturer in medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has served as chief of the division of social and community medicine at Cambridge Hospital.

Dr. Himmelstein has authored or co-authored more than 100 journal articles and three books, including widely cited studies of medical bankruptcy and the high administrative costs of the U.S. health care system. His 1984 study of patient dumping led to the enactment of EMTALA, the law that banned that practice.

A co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Himmelstein co-edits PNHP’s newsletter and is a principal author of PNHP articles published in the JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine in conjunction with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler. A sample of Dr. Himmelstein’s grand rounds at the University of Southern California Keek School of Medicine is available here.

Dr. Himmelstein received his medical degree from Columbia University and completed internal medicine training at Highland Hospital/University of California San Francisco and a fellowship in general internal medicine at Harvard.

Dr. Oliver Fein is a professor of clinical medicine and clinical public health at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he serves as associate dean responsible for the Office of Affiliations and the Office of Global Health Education. He is a general internist and active in clinical practice.

Dr. Fein is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program and chair of the New York Metro Chapter of PNHP. He is a past vice president of the American Public Health Association, where he served four years on the executive board.

Much of Dr. Fein’s work has focused on health system delivery reform and access to care for vulnerable populations. His recent writings include a chapter (with Joanne Landy) on the feasibility of fundamental health reform in the new book “10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care”; an article on ethical issues and global health in Academic Medicine; an editorial in Medical Care; and an article on U.S. health care reform and the presidential candidates in the Journal of Health Services Research and Policy. He has also published opinion pieces in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Dr. Fein received his medical degree from Western Reserve University in 1967 and completed his internship at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital and his residency at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. In 1977 he became director of general medicine outpatient services at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and subsequently acting-director of the division of general medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. He was a Robert Wood Johnson health policy fellow in 1993-1994, where he worked as a legislative assistant for the Senate Democratic Majority Leader, George Mitchell.

Dr. Fein received the Elnora M. Rhodes Service award from the Society of General Internal Medicine in 1999; the Haven Emerson Award from the Public Health Association of New York City in 2001; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowships Program in 2008.