Our Team
Marj has been a non-profit consultant and trainer for the past ten years specializing in public policy, community-based participatory research, and organizational and leadership development. Prior to starting her consulting practice she served for over twenty-five years in senior management positions with a variety of non-profit organizations working on health, economic development, environmental justice, violence prevention, and social justice/civil rights. Dr. Plumb is currently Director of the Women’s Policy Institute (a policy training program of the Women’s Foundation of California) and Reach the Decision Makers (a policy training program of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment). She also provides training in community-based participatory research through the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) and the Child Health and Development Studies. She is a co-investigator for CBCRP’s Special Research Initiatives planning innovative research on the environmental causes of breast cancer and the causes of breast cancer disparities. She has a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from the University of San Francisco and a doctorate in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. Marj is Co-Executive Director of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.. Lucia coordinates all aspects of SF Bay PSR's programs, including the Healthier Food in Health Care project, clinical education and advocacy, pediatric and environmental health work, and the Climate and Health Literacy Consortium. Lucia has worked in educational program management and community organizing for the past fifteen years, in the United States, Mexico and South America. Her work includes fieldwork and curriculum development for the Peace Corps program, the design of educational outreach programming for the Field Museum in Chicago, director of programs for the Tucson Audubon Society, and grass-roots organizing around issues of food security and access to educational programming on the U.S./Mexico border. Lena serves as the Northern California coordinator of Health Care Without Harm's Healthy Food in Health Care campaign, working to harness the power of the California health care sector to redefine the meaning of hospital food and accelerate the transition to a sustainable, community-based food system. Prior to joining SF Bay PSR in July 2006, Lena directed a variety of environmental health and justice projects in California. Most recently, she was the Associate Director of Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund's California office. In 2008, she served as a Fellow with the Roots of Change Fund. Lena is a passionate school food advocate and blogs about family cooking at A Happier Meal. She holds a Master's degree in Environmental Studies from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.STEERING COMMITTEE
President
Robert M. Gould, MD, graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and has worked as a Pathologist at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose since 1981. Since 1989, he has been President of the SF-Bay Area Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and in 2003 was President of National PSR. Since 1986, Dr. Gould has been a leading member of the Peace Caucus of the American Public Health Association, for which he is current Chairperson, and in 2009 APHA awarded Dr. Gould the prestigious Sidel-Levy Peace Award. Dr. Gould has been recognized as a leading expert on the environmental and public health impacts of nuclear weapons, and has been a contributing author to chapters on health impacts of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism in “War and Public Health” (2008) and “Terrorism and Public Health” (2002) published by Oxford University Press.
Since 1992 has been a leading member of the Environmental Committee of the Santa Clara County chapter of the California Medical Association (CMA), and through this work has authored and submitted numerous resolutions adopted by CMA as policy--including resolutions calling for preventing dioxin waste from medical facilities, preventing human exposure to mercury, reducing the use of pesticides, protecting farmworkers from toxic pesticide exposures, replacing medical devices containing phthalates (DEHP) from Neonatal Intensive Care Units, reducing air pollution, for binding reductions in global climate change-causing gases, for the abolition of all weapons of mass destruction, and for avoiding accidental nuclear war, etc. For his work within CMA, received the Santa Clara County Medical Association’s (SCCMA) "Outstanding Contribution in Community Service" award in 2001. Dr. Gould has also been listed as one of Santa Clara County's "Top 400 Physicians" in peer-review surveys published in San Jose Magazine in 2001 through 2007.
Vice President
Jeffrey Ritterman, MD, is chief of cardiology at Kaiser Richmond, where he has worked since 1981. He is on the steering committee of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, on the board of the Public and Environmental Health Advisory Board, which advises the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, and on the advisory board of the Center for Health in North Richmond. For the past 25 years, Dr. Ritterman has worked to put a human face on tragedies across the globe. He was a cofounder of The Committee for Health Rights in Central America, The Salvadoran Medical Relief Fund, and the Southern Africa Medical Aid Fund. He has personally delivered medical supplies to Salvadoran refugees living in camps in Honduras and Costa Rica during the war in El Salvador in the 1980s. He has also delivered medical supplies to the African National Congress's clinic in Lusak, Zambia, prior to the end of Apartheid. And after returning from a Peace Delegation to Amman, Jordan, in 2005, Dr. Ritterman prepared a presentation titled "Medical and Human Rights Consequences of the War in Iraq."
Dr. Ritterman reviews the medical literature on the effects of sanctions and the Gulf War on the health of Iraqis; reviews medical literature on the medical consequences of the war (Robert's cluster study), medical complicity in interrogation at Abu Ghraib, medical care for the US wounded, including types of wounds, status of the Iraqi health system, and the public health consequences of the war.
Secretary/Treasurer
Sarah Janssen, MD, PhD, MPH, has a broad background in reproductive physiology, clinical medicine, and public health. She currently works as a Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) where she is an expert in the area of endocrine disruption. In her capacity as a scientist with NRDC, Dr. Janssen provides scientific expertise for policy and regulatory decisions on a number of toxic chemicals, including hormone distrupting substances which interfere with fertility and reproduction. Her work has included research on flame retardants, cosmetics and soaps, plastics and plasticizers, breast cancer threats to adult reproductive health and child development.
Dr. Janssen is a graduate of the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where she received her MD and PhD in Reproductive Physiology. Dr. Janssen completed residency training at the University of California, San Francisco, obtained a MPH in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley and is board-certified in the specialty area of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Janssen is also an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco in the School of Medicine where she is the Center Director for the Infant Development and Environment Study (TIDES), a 5-year study investigating prenatal exposures to chemicals and their impacts on genito-urinary development. Dr. Janssen also has a part time clinical practice at Kaiser Permanente of Northern California in the Occupational Medicine Department. Dr. Janssen is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
Dr. Janssen has been involved with PSR since she was a medical student at UIUC. As co-president of the student chapter, she was involved in a number of environmental health issues such as health hazards from medical waste incineration and mercury thermometers. Her work in student PSR was recognized with the Broad Street Pump Award from National PSR in 1998. Dr. Janssen continues to be interested in a broad range of environmental health.
Members at Large
Ronald G. Bieselin, MD
Michael Geschwind, MD, PhD, received his MD and PhD in neuroscience through the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He finished his internship in internal medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, and completed his neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He completed his fellowship in behavioral neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Memory and Aging Center (MAC), where he is an Associate Professor of Neurology and holds the Michael J. Homer Chair in Neurology.
Dr. Geschwind has been active in PSR and International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) since his days as a medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1990, he was the US representative on the IPPNW Baltic Bicycle Tour, protesting the presence of nuclear weapons in the Baltic Sea. Participation in this work motivated him to become more active in national PSR, starting the medical student PSR listserv, helping place a student on the national PSR board, directing his medical school PSR chapter for several years. He served as a board member of New York City PSR from 1992–1996. From 1992–1995, Michael served as IPPNW’s Deputy Representative to the United Nations, working very closely with his PSR mentor Dr. Victor Sidel, past-PSR president. Together they put together a manual on arms control education for a joint working group of the UN and the International Association of University Presidents. He has been on the SF Bay ARea PSR Steering Committee since 2001, focusing on reducing milatirism and preventing the development and use of weapons of mass destruction.
Clinically, Dr. Geschwind evaluates patients in the UCSF MAC clinic and is also active in the training of medical students, residents and fellows at UCSF. His primary medical research interest is the assessment and treatment of rapidly progressive dementias, including prion diseases such as Jakob-Creutzfeldt-disease (CJD). Dr. Geschwind established an inpatient hospital program for the assessment of rapidly progressive dementias at UCSF, the first of its kind in the country. He also has an active research interest in cognitive dysfunction in movement disorders, such as Huntington’s Disease, Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and other parkinsonian dementias.
Thomas L. Hall, MD, DrPH, is a lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. He received a BA, MD and MPH from Harvard, and a DrPH in International Health from Johns Hopkins. During his early years he served as medical director of a small rural Puerto Rican hospital, earned his MPH degree, and then was director of Training and Research at the University of Puerto Rico's new teaching health center. He then spent eight years at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where he taught planning and international health, directed two national health workforce studies (Peru and Chile), earned a doctorate and rose to associate professor. From 1971 to 1979 he was professor at the University of NC (Chapel Hill) School of Public Health and director of the Carolina Population Center, dedicated to teaching, research and service activities related to population and family planning.
From 1979-1988 he directed a regional health planning agency in Seattle, taught health planning at the University of Washington, and served as Chief Medical Officer (Research) in the New Zealand Department of Health. During the early 1980s he was president of Washington State PSR and in the late 1990s was on the PSR National Board. In 1988 Tom joined UCSF where he directed a postdoctoral research training program on HIV prevention research and participated in several other HIV-related programs. In 1996 he "retired" but continues to work at UCSF during the academic year on global health teaching and mentoring. Since 2000 he has also served as the full-time volunteer Executive Director of the Global Health Education Consortium, an organization of more than 80 medical and other health profession schools involved in teaching and mentoring students and residents in global health.
Pearl Leonard, LCSW, (retired) is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Social Welfare. Her professional work was in child welfare, then as a psychiatric social worker, and lastly as a clinical social worker in a variety of family service agencies, until her retirement in 2000. Mrs. Leonard’s involvement in PSR started in 1980, when she and her husband, Dr. Alvin Leonard, attended the first conference of the San Francisco chapter of PSR. When they returned to their home in Sacramento, she co-founded a chapter of PSR there. Upon moving back to Berkeley in 1982, Mrs. Leonard became active in the SF Bay Area chapter. Since then, she has been a volunteer in the office, held a variety of committee positions, and eventually joined the Steering Committee, where she is now the elected Secretary/Treasurer.
Frank Lucido, MD, has practiced General and Family
Practice in Berkeley, Calif., since 1979. He is also a
medical-legal consultant, specializing in medical cannabis
consultations, and medical-legal defense of patients and doctors
who appropriately use or recommend medical cannabis. He is
the founder of MedicalBoardWatch.com
and AIMLegal.org
Tom Newman, MD, MPH, is Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology at the School of Medicine of the University of California at San Francisco. His research, on such diverse topics as the effect of the military draft on subsequent mortality, infant safety on airplanes, and jaundice and urinary tract infections in infants, has received international recognition; in 2004 he received the Career Research award from the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association, and in 2010 The Elizabeth Leisticow Award for the Promotion of Evidence-Based Pediatrics from the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is an author of many research papers and coauthor of two textbooks: Designing Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Diagnosis. He is donating 100% of his royalties for the latter to PSR. He serves on the SF Bay Area PSR Steering Committee and the National PSR Board of Directors and Security Committee. In the 1980s he co-taught a UCSF course on nuclear weapons and in 2004 resumed lecturing on that topic to diverse audiences. More recently he has worked on raising awareness of global climate change and sustainability; in 2011 he was awarded the First Annual Faculty Sustainability Award at UCSF.
Julia Quint, PhD, is a research scientist and retired Chief of the Hazard Evaluation System & Information Service (HESIS), an occupational health program in the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Julia has a doctorate in Biochemistry and was a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory before joining CDPH in 1981. During her tenure at CDPH she worked closely with environmental agencies and other organizations to develop integrated strategies to protect workers, communities, and the environment from the hazards of toxic chemicals. Julia is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Western Regional Pollution Prevention Network (2006), the Helen Rodriguez Trias "Lighting the Way" award from the California Public Health Association (2008), and the Health and Safety Activist award from the American Public Health Association (2008). Julia currently serves on Cal/EPA's Green Ribbon Science Panel, the Scientific Guidance Panel of the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program, the Tracking Implementation Advisory Group of the California Environmental Health Tracking Program, the From Advancing Science to Ensuring Prevention Alliance, Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, University of California San Francisco, and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Health Impact Assessment. She has authored numerous public health reports and scientific articles.
Gina M. Solomon, MD, MPH, is a specialist in internal medicine, preventive medicine, and occupational and environmental medicine. She is a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) where she is also the Director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program and the Associate Director of the UCSF Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. Her work has included over 40 scientific papers, book chapters, and reports on air pollution, pesticides, global warming, and other environmental and occupational threats to health. Dr. Solomon serves on the National Toxicology Program’s Board of Scientific Counselors, a National Academy of Sciences committee on Exposure Assessment in the 21st Century, the California Biomonitoring Scientific Guidance Panel, and the California Environmental Public Health Tracking Implementation Advisory Group. Dr. Solomon is co-author of the book, Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment, published by MIT Press in 1999 and recipient of an award from the American Medical Writers Association. Dr. Solomon received The Breast Cancer Fund’s Heroes Award, the Clean Air Award for Research from the American Lung Association of the Bay Area, and an award of recognition from California Safe Schools. Dr. Solomon attended college at Brown University, medical school at Yale and did her postgraduate training in internal medicine, public health, and occupational and environmental medicine at Harvard.
