PNHP Officers:
President
Andrew D. Coates, MD
Internal Medicine, Albany, N.Y.
Dr. Andy Coates is president of Physicians for a National Health Program. Dr. Coates is assistant professor of medicine and psychiatry at Albany Medical College and practices hospital medicine at a community hospital in upstate New York. In addition, Dr. Coates serves as medical director of a publicly owned county nursing home. He also sees patients on home visits and helps out at two outpatient clinics.
Board certified in internal medicine as well as hospice and palliative care medicine, Dr. Coates graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Coates is chair of the Capital District chapter of PNHP and a national board member of PNHP. He previously served on the statewide executive board of the Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO, and founded Single Payer New York, a statewide grassroots coalition of single-payer organizations and activists. He provides commentary on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
Immediate Past President
Garrett Adams, MD, MPH
Pediatrics/infectious diseases, Louisville, KY
Dr. Garrett Adams is a pediatrician specializing in infectious disease and infectious disease epidemiology in Louisville, KY. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University and medical degree from Wake Forest University. He completed his residency at Vanderbilt University Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
Dr. Adams is retired from full-time faculty at 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. Since retiring, he has founded the Beersheba Springs Medical Clinic, a comprehensive ambulatory clinic in the underserved community of Beersheba Springs, Tennessee.
For forty years Dr. Adams attended the health care needs of sick children and their young families. During his career he witnessed deterioration in health care access and health care delivery in the United States. He is the immediate past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Secretary
Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, FACP
Internal medicine, New York/Boston
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler is professor in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College. She was previously professor of 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, Stanford, CA; a medical degree from Louisiana State University; and a 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 50 research articles on health care access and financing. 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.
Treasurer, National Coordinator
Quentin D. Young, MD, MACP
Internal medicine, Chicago
Dr. Quentin Young, an internist who recently retired from a decades-long practice in the Hyde Park community on Chicago's South Side, is national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of 17,000 doctors who advocate for single-payer national health insurance – an improved Medicare for All. He is clinical professor of preventive medicine and community health at the University of Illinois Medical Center. In 2009 he was appointed Health Advocate for the state of Illinois by Gov. Patrick Quinn.
Dr. Young graduated from Northwestern Medical School and did his residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he served as chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Cook County, where he established the Department of Occupational Medicine. He has been an American Medical Association member since 1952. In 1998, he had the distinction of serving as president of the American Public Health Association and in 1997 was inducted as a Master of the American College of Physicians.
In addition to his distinguished career as a physician, Dr. Young has been a leader in public health policy and medical and social justice issues. He was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal physician during the latter's stays in Chicago, and served for many years as chairman of the Medical Committee for Human Rights. He presently blogs at The Huffington Post.
Directors:
Pippa C. Abston, MD, PhD, FAAP
Henry L. Abrons, MD, MPH
Danielle Alexander, MSc
Richard Bruno
Philip Caper, MD, MS
Olveen Carrasquillo, MD, MPH
Elizabeth Frost, MD
Paul Gorman, MD, FACP, FACMI
Danny McCormick, MD, MPH
Mary E. O’Brien, MD
Ann Settgast, MD, DTM&H
Diljeet K. Singh, MD, DrPH
Robert C. Stone, MD, FACEP
Arthur J. Sutherland III, MD, FACC
Stephen F. Tarzynski, MD, MPH, FAAP
Robert L. Zarr, MD, MPH, FAAP
Past Presidents:
Carolyn Clancy, M.D.
Claudia Fegan, M.D.
Oliver Fein, M.D.
John Geyman, M.D.
Robert LeBow, M.D. (deceased)
Ana Malinow, M.D.
Don McCanne, M.D.
Glenn Pearson, M.D.
Deb Richter, M.D.
Cecile Rose, M.D., MPH
Jonathon Ross, M.D., MPH
Jeffrey Scavron, M.D.
Gordon Schiff, M.D.
Susan Steigerwalt, M.D.
Isaac Taylor, M.D. (deceased)
Quentin Young, M.D.
Board Advisors:
Jaya Agrawal, MD, MPH
Simon Ahtaridis, MD, MPH
John D. Bower, MD
Aaron Carroll, MD, MS
Margaret Flowers, MD
Gerald Frankel, MD, FACS
David Grande, MD, MPA
C. Bree Johnston, MD, MPH
David McLanahan, MD
Rachel Nardin, MD
Karen Palmer, MPH, MS
Salvador Sandoval, MD, MPH
Greg M. Silver, MD
Sindhu Srinivas, MD, MSCE
Walter Tsou, MD, MPH
National Office Staff:
Ida Hellander, M.D. - Director of Policy and Programs
Mark Almberg - Communications Director
Matthew Petty - Director of Operations
Angela Fegan - Membership Associate
Dustin Calliari - Technology Associate
Chapter Leaders:
For a list of chapters with contact information, please refer to our state page.
Newsletter Editors:
Ida Hellander, M.D.
David Himmelstein, M.D.
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., MPH