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, 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