PANELISTS BIOGRAPHIES

Dawn Ali: Serves on the Executive Board of Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professions (PASNAP).  She has also served on the Executive Board of Network 4, the liaison group between HCFA and dialysis patients and currently also serves as the Vice President of the local chapter of Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital where she is also a practicing RN.  She has been practicing nursing for 23 years specializing in acute burns, acute and chronic dialysis and psychiatric nursing of drug addicted patients.  She co-owned and operated the first African-American nurse-owned dialysis facility for ten years in Philadelphia, Pa.  While serving a population that was often underinsured or uninsured but in need of care to sustain life, she would admit these clients into her practice and seek insurance coverage while caring for them. 

Weston Scott Fisher:  is a third year medical student at the Penn State University Medical College, Hershey, and a Regional Director for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). He serves as both a representative and leader for the association in Pennsylvania and neighboring states. He recently organized a Capitol Lobby day for single-payer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and is working on another for this fall.

State Senator Jim Ferlo:  is a Democrat from the City of Pittsburgh who previously served as a City Councilman from 1988 to 2003 including two terms as Council President.   Senator Ferlo is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 300 which would create a Commonwealth Health Trust to replace the broken system of third party payers, deductibles, and caps with a single-payer system that retains Medicare and the private and patient choice model.  He is also an ardent supporter of HR 676, Congressman John Conyers’ proposal for a single-payer “Medicare for All” national healthcare plan.  Jim Ferlo has been at the forefront of the fight for healthcare reform since the early 1970’s.  He has been a member of the State Senate since 2003.

Sean Flaherty:  is a Professor of Economics at Franklin & Marshall College, where he has recently developed and taught a new course entitled “The Political Economy of Health Care.” His research interests center on labor economics and public policy. Flaherty holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Tom Gates, M.D.: is a family physician, Lancaster General Hospital, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine.*  Dr. Gates believes that the current healthcare system is characterized by serious problems with: access (increasing numbers of uninsured); cost (far higher per capita costs than any other country); quality (worse health statistics than most other developed countries); and complexity (substantial bureaucratic and administrative costs). Without addressing all four dimensions of the crisis, any proposal for reform will end up simply increasing the dysfunction of the system. (*Dr, Gates’s views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer).

Bill George: President, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO (which represents one million Pennsylvania workers and 20% of the Pennsylvania workforce) .since June 1, 1990.  He started his career as a union activist with Local 1211, United Steelworkers of America in 1960 in Aliquippa, Pa. and served in a number of offices before being appointed to the International Staff of USWA District 20 (serving 15 counties is Western Pa.) in 1971.  In 1986 he was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the United Steelworkers Legislative Committee of Pennsylvania, and directed that organization’s legislation and education program for five years.  As President of the AFL-CIO he serves on numerous government and voluntary agencies and is a vigorous spokesman for the causes of Organized Labor. (joining us via video tape)

Janice Horn: is the Health Care Specialist for the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. She has been a member of the League of Women Voters since 1967 and has served on the Board of the Clarion County League, currently serving as its President. She retired from her faculty position in the library at Clarion University in 2001.

Alan Jacobs:  President of Isaac’s Deli, Inc. since 2005.   1983 graduate of Millersville University with a BA in Anthropology/Sociology, he has been employed by Isaac’s ever since it opened that same year. Today Isaac’s has 20 restaurants in the South Central PA region with about 600 employees. He is married and lives in Landisville. He has four children, two still at home.

Mary Carol Jennings:  Third year medical student at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. She is taking a year off from medical school to work full time for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) National office on issues of healthcare for all as well as on their legislative agenda.

Kathy M. Manderino (D-194) has been a Pennsylvania State Representative for 16 years and represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties.  Rep. Manderino is the Prime sponsor of HB 1660, the Family and Business Health Care Security Act (single-payer legislation). She serves on the House Appropriations, Health and Human Services, Insurance, Judiciary and Urban Affairs Committees and is the Chair of the Appropriations Sub-Committee on Health & Human Services and the Judiciary Sub-Committee on Family Law.  She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northwest Victim Services, The Bridge Adolescent Treatment Center, and the Food Trust.  She is active in the Pennsylvania Bar Association where she serves as Chair of the House of Delegates, is a member of the Board of Governors, the Executive Committee of the Commission on Women in the Profession, and serves on numerous task forces and committees. Prior to her legislative service Manderino was a litigation attorney.  She is a graduate of Penn State University and Temple University Law School.

Morton Mintz:  a Senior Adviser to niemanwatchdog.org, was a reporter and editor at two St. Louis newspapers 1946-1958, and a Washington Post reporter 1958-1988 breaking several major national stories for that newspaper. He has received numerous journalism awards and is a former chair of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. He wrote By Prescription Only and three other books about the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries, and.co-authored three other books, including, America, Inc./Who Owns and Operates the United States. He and his wife Anita reside in Washington, D.C. They have three children.

Chuck Pennacchio:  Executive Director, Healthcare for All Pennsylvania, since October 2006. Chuck is also History Program Director at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, founder of Citizen Solutions for Pennsylvania, and a recent United States Senate candidate (2006). A longtime advocate of publicly-financed, privately-provided, universal healthcare, Chuck lead-negotiated comprehensive health benefits for thousands of working graduate students while at the University of Colorado in the early 1990s. He also holds a Ph.D from that institution.

Donna Smith:  is best known from her major role in Michael Moore’s 2007 movie, “SiCKO,” which included her return to Denver in 2006 where she and her husband Larry were forced to set up residence in the basement of their daughter’s home after they lost everything they had following major illnesses and surgeries—though they were fully insured. Donna is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colorado College with a degree in history. Her journalism career includes work as a stringer for NEWSWEEK magazine. She has been honored by the Associated Press Managing Editors – with 15 regional awards from 2004-2006 – and the Inland Press Association’s top honor in 2006 for community-based journalism. Since 2007 she has co-chaired the Progressive Democrats of America’s national “Healthcare Not Warfare” campaign, and she has so far spoken in 29 states and the District of Columbia about single-payer healthcare reform. Donna continues an active writing and speaking career, and now blogs and writes op ed pieces about the healthcare crisis. She also is the founder of American Patients United, a non-profit group educating citizens about healthcare reform on the national level. She also works as a community organizer for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

The Reverend Sandra L. Strauss:  Director of Public Advocacy for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. Sandy’s responsibilities are to inform, educate, and empower people of faith on significant public issues and to coordinate and articulate public policy positions that reflect the Council’s constituent church bodies’ commitment to peace, justice, equality and compassion for all people. She is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and also holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy Studies from Duke University.

Walter Tsou, MD, MPH:  is a nationally known consultant on public health and health care reform. Currently, he is on the visiting faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He was President of the American Public Health Association in 2005, served as Health Commissioner of Philadelphia from April 2000 to February 2002, and also served as founding Deputy Director for Personal Health Services and Medical Director of the Montgomery County (PA) Health Department and Clinical Director in the Division of Ambulatory Health Services for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Dr. Tsou has extensive experience in public health and has lectured widely on public health and health disparities. He is a founding member of the National Board of Public Health Examiners and serves on the national Board of Physicians for a National Health Program. He serves locally on the boards of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Philadelphia Area Committee to Defend Health Care, the Institute for Social Medicine and Community Health, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Asian American Health Care Network, Smokefree Philadelphia, the Edna Kynett Foundation and the Chestnut Hill Healthcare Foundation. In 2007, he received the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition’s Award. In 2006, he received the Public Health Recognition Award from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. His medical degree is from the University of Pennsylvania; his MPH is from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, and he has an honorary Doctorate in Medical Sciences from Drexel University.