Board of Directors and Staff

Please view Oregon PSR's philosophy on issuing position statements here.

Our Board of Directors

Michele "MiMi" Bernal-Graves, MS, Treasurer

Spending my childhood 5 miles outside my home-town of Vernonia, OR (where some of my best friends were tree frogs, plants and farm animals) gave me an appreciation of the relationship between our environment and our health early in life. My connection to our shared biosphere inspired a desire to help humans and the natural world co-exist in harmony, which is why I chose to study the environment and education. I have my BS in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Biology from Pacific University and my MS in Leadership for Sustainability Education from PSU. I live in SW Portland with my husband, dog, bunny and birds. I enjoy most anything outdoors, especially if the time is spent with family and friends! I joined Oregon PSR’s Board of Directors in Fall of 2010.

Charles Grossman, MD, Board Member Emeritus

Charles M. Grossman has been on the Oregon PSR Board of Directors since 1981. He is a former faculty member at NYU, Yale and OHSU, and has practiced internal medicine in Portland since 1950. He has been an activist throughout his career, working on peace, poverty and justice issues. Dr. Grossman helped in establishing a lunch program for poor children during summer months when they participated in schoolyard play activities. He has been a recipient of the Citizen of the Year Award of the Oregon Chapter, National Association of Social Workers, the Albert Schweitzer Peace Achievement Award from IPPNW, and the Lifetime of Service Award from Oregon PSR.

Read Dr. Grossman's reflections on the first use of penicillin in the United States.

Jennifer James-Long

Susan Katz, MD, President Elect

I grew up in New Jersey, went to college at Brown University, and then moved west, first to Pasadena and then to Portland 40 years ago. I taught biology and chemistry, and worked as a research assistant before going to Medical School in 1977 at OHSU, so I have a significant identity before medicine. I have two grown children in Portland and Berkeley, and lost my second husband, the remarkable Jack Fellman, two years ago. Some of you may have known him, as he taught Biochemistry at the Medical School for many years.

After medical school, a Pediatrics residency, and a Child Psychiatry fellowship, I moved to McMinnville , where I had a private practice for 20 years. Jack and I built a house at Pacific City for weekends. Last year I moved to Portland for access to important activities, such as PSR and Powell's, but I still spend most weekends at the beach.

I joined PSR at the beginning, but was always too busy to participate. Now I am very happy to have the time and a great interest in the evolving research in the field of environmental health, especially toxins and neurodevelopment, so I am on the Environmental Health team. I expect to continue learning and communicating what I learn to fellow physicians and health practitioners, who may be too busy, as I was, to keep up with it all. And of course, peace and a non-nuclear world are on my mind, so I expect PSR to be a good fit for me, both to give to and to take from.

Chris Lowe, PhD

Patricia Murphy, ND, LAc, Dipl. Ac. (NCCAOM), Secretary

I am originally from New England, and have enjoyed living in Oregon since 1979. I received a BS in psychology from of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, an ND from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, OR, and am a graduate of the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Portland, OR. I also have postgraduate training in Environmental Medicine from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, Tempe, AZ.

For several years I was an instructor at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and currently present guest lectures about environmental medicine to acupuncture students at the masters and doctoral levels, to practitioners and to the public.

Since 1984 I have created a blended private practice of acupuncture and naturopathic medicine. A love of being outside in nature and a desire to help people led me to naturopathic medicine. Over the years I have become more and more concerned about effects of toxic chemicals on human health, and am dedicated to helping people learn about how to decrease toxic exposures. I take to heart the naturopathic tenet “prevention is the best cure.”

I have been a member of the PSR Environmental Health Committee since 2007, and am a new member of the Board.

Joan Nugent, RN, MN

I am new (2011) to both Oregon and the Oregon Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.  

My educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing and Master’s degree in Community Health Care Systems with specialty as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA.  In addition to work in a number of clinical areas (critical care, pediatrics, and emergency care) I was privileged to work for twenty years in Public Health with the State of Alaska.  Prior to relocating to Portland I served the Southeast Alaska region of PeaceHealth for twelve years as a member of the executive team, in business development, human resources and organizational development.

I am extraordinarily pleased to join the Oregon PSR board and to work with an amazing team of passionate, socially conscious professionals who are committed to making a difference through their education and advocacy efforts around environmental health and peace issues.  The fact that Oregon PSR is comprised of a professionally diverse group of individuals, led by physicians (using only evidence based, scientific data within a public health construct to support their positions and work) makes PSR a good fit for me.  I am currently serving as the Chairperson for the Peace workgroup.

John Pearson, MD, President

Dr. John Pearson is a retired Pediatrician specializing in Pediatric Neurology. He retired in 2000 after being chief of pediatrics for Kaiser Permanente in Portland for the previous ten years. He is currently an Investigator in Epidemiology at the Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente and adjunct professor at OHSU. Dr. Pearson has been active on the board of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility for over since 2003, was Board President in 2007-2008 and re-elected in 2010, and has contributed significantly in outreach and education about the Health Effects of War and solutions to the issue of terrorism.

Joy Spalding, PhD

Joy Spalding, PhD has degrees in anthropology, social work and social research. She has specialized in aging and mental health and is known for her advocacy work and long term care policy. She has been Family Medicine faculty at UVA and OHSU.

Our Advisory Board

John Bartels

Sonia Buist, MD

A. Sonia Buist, MD is currently Professor of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Buist obtained her medical degree at St. Andrews University in Scotland, did her residency at the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver, and completed fellowships in pulmonary medicine and pulmonary physiology at the University of Oregon Medical School. Her primary areas of research are the epidemiology and management of asthma and COPD and, in particular, the overlap between asthma and COPD in the older adult. She has been the Principal Investigator of the Portland Center of the U.S. Lung Health Studies I, II, and III. She is also presently engaged in health services and outcomes research as an investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland.

Dr. Buist has been a member of numerous federal advisory groups, including NIH Study Sections, FDA Pulmonary and Allergy Advisory Committee, NHLBI Pulmonary Disease Advisory Committee, NHLBI Advisory Council, NIH Task Force on Research and Education of Prevention and Lung Disease, and the National Asthma Education and Prevention Coordinating Committee. She is a past member of the New England Journal of Medicine Editorial Board and a current member of the editorial committee. She has held numerous positions within the American Thoracic Society, and was President in 1990-1991. She is presently Chair of the Executive Committee of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease.

Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP

Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health at Portland State University and senior physician at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Hospital. He serves on the Board of Advisors of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and was Chief Scientific Advisor to Oregon PSR’s Campaign for Safe Food from 2003-2011.

He received his BS and MD from UCLA, completed internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Stanford University. His career has included clinical practice in academic medical centers, community hospitals, and clinics for homeless and un/underinsured patients.

Martin has taught courses in public health, medical humanities, social justice ethics, women’s health, and the history of medicine at UCLA, UCSF, Stanford, OHSU, Clark College, and Portland State. He has published articles and frequently lectures on public health and social justice, activism, and the medical humanities.

His articles, course syllabi, and open-access PowerPoints are available at Public Health and Social Justice.

Ben Duncan

Ben Duncan is the Health Equity Manager for Multnomah County Health Department, and Board Chair of OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon. His work focuses on the relationships between health and social, economic, and environmental conditions though both public policy and community based empowerment work. Ben also works with the Diversity and Quality Team and is currently Chair of the Oregon Governor's Environmental Justice Task Force. Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Ben moved to Oregon in 1997 to pursue a degree in Environmental Science from University of Oregon and has lived in Portland since 2001. Ben lives in Southeast Portland with his wife Katherine, currently completing her dissertation in Education from Stanford, and their son Rudy who keeps both of them busy!  

Andy Harris, MD

Andy Harris, MD is the Founder and Director of Professionals’ Training in Global Health at Oregon Health & Science University’s Global Health Center. He is a board certified ophthalmologist, a Clinical Assistant Professor at Casey Eye Institute, and a Clinical Correspondent for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.  

Dr. Harris is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia Medical School, and completed a residency and fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Health Sciences Center. He has worked overseas on medical missions and teaching in Labrador, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Moldova, China, India, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. He served on the national Board of Directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) for 13 years, and as National President in 1998. In 1985 he co-founded the Salem/Simferopol (Ukraine) Sister City Relationship and in 1988 he co-founded the Salem Outreach Shelter (SOS) homeless shelter.

John Howieson, MD

Philip Newman, MD

Bonnie Reagan, MD, RN

Bonnie Reagan, MD, RN started her career as a high school teacher, became a nurse and nurse practitioner, and then attended what is now Oregon Health and Science University for medical school and residency in family medicine. She practiced for 22 years at Portland Family Practice, including obstetrics in her practice. She has always been involved in community activities as well as other professional activities.  She was a longtime member of the PSR Board of Directors, was the chair of the Ethics Committee at Adventist Medical Center for many years, and was on the Task Force to Improve the Care of Terminally-Ill Oregonians, a group convened by the OHSU Center for Ethics in Health Care in response to the passage of the Death with Dignity Act. She also was a member of the Choral Arts Ensemble for 20 years.

Now in retirement, she Is involved in many activities, including the Medical Advisory Committee of Komen for the Cure, the Health Matters Committee, the Outreach Committee of Baby Blues Connection (a group offering free services to women and their families with postpartum depression or anxiety), the Board of Directors of the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians, the Board of Directors of Pilgrims' Partner Foundation, the Steering Committee of Healthy Kids (the insurance program for low income children in Oregon). She will also be working with the START program of the Oregon Pediatric Society.  She has been on humanitarian trips to Ukraine, has been on health delegations to Nicaragua and Guatemala with Witness for Peace and to Sweden(with IPPNW).

Bonnie was selected as the Oregon Family Physician of the Year for 2010 and was a finalist for the American Family Physician of the Year this year. She Is married to Pete Reagan, also a family physician,  is the mother of two physicians, Josh Reagan and Anika Denali Luengo, and is very involved with her four grandchildren.

Peter Spencer, PhD

Peter Spencer, PhD received baccalaureate and doctoral degrees from the University of London and, beginning in 1971, carried out postdoctoral research in the neurosciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he later served as Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Pathology (Neuropathology), and founding director of the Institute of Neurotoxicology. In 1988, he moved to Portland to found the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET), a new research institute of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) that he directed for more than 20 years. He is presently Professor of Neurology, School of Medicine, CROET Senior Scientist, and founding director of the OHSU Center for Global Health. Dr. Spencer has published extensively on mechanisms underlying the adverse effects of natural and synthetic chemicals in food, fragrances, drugs, workplace and environment, and on the role of exogenous agents in the genesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Spencer holds a number of honorary international university appointments, and his research contributions have been recognized nationally and internationally in neuroscience, neurology, pathology, and toxicology. His pioneering role in establishing neurotoxicology as a scientific discipline is his major contribution and has enabled him to win individual, program and center research grant support from federal agencies, notably the U.S. National Institute of Health. His special expertise has been tapped by the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, the Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicological Research, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

Karen Steingart, MD, MPH

Frances Storrs, MD

I am a 70 year old OHSU academic dermatologist. I work 3 days a week. I have been very active in my national and local dermatology associations and chaired committees and held offices. I have a long standing interest in civil liberties and peace. I have sat on the ACLU board and been a VP for education. I remain active in ACLU committees. I chaired a committee for the City of Portland that resulted in a ballot measure and institution of an oversight committee for the Internal Affairs Division. I have been president and board member for the City Club of Portland. I have also sat on boards for Outside In, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. I am active in the Collegium of the Foundation for Medical Excellence, the Oregon Womens’ Forum, and a committee working on a history of medicine in Oregon for the Oregon Medical Association. I have lived in Portland since 1964. My husband, deceased, was a local architect. I have a son, 3 step-children, 5 grand children and 3 sons or daughters in law. Much of my family is in Portland or close by and I spend important time with them. My principal hobby is gardening. I grow flowers, vegetables, and plants that cause skin disease (not poison oak). I also have 7 chickens and 2 cats. Friends are very important to me as well. I am pleased to be serving as the chair of the Peace Working Group for Oregon PSR.

Maye Thompson, RN, PhD

Maye Thompson, RN, PhD is the former Environmental Health Program Director at Oregon PSR and a current member of our Environmental Health Working Group. Her PhD in nursing focused on women's health and policy. She has been an environmental health advocate for 12 years, first as a volunteer, then with Oregon PSR. Her interest in environmental health was piqued early in her nursing career, working with farm workers in California's Central Valley.

 Our Staff

Kelly Campbell, Executive Director

Kelly Campbell brings more than fifteen years of experience in peace and environmental health organizing to her role as the Executive Director of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. She served previously the Portland Area Peace Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and was a founding member of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization that was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has served on the steering committee of the national coalition, United for Peace and Justice and currently serves as a member of the AFSC Portland Area Program Committee. Kelly worked in the environmental health and justice field as Communications Director for Pesticide Action Network North America, and as Campaign Coordinator for the statewide coalition, Californians for Pesticide Reform.

Email: kelly@oregonpsr.org  Phone: 503-274-2720

Chuck Johnson, Oregon/Washington PSR Joint Nuclear Power Task Force Director

Chuck Johnson is an activist, writer, and development professional with roots in the anti-nuclear movement dating back to the 1970s. He was an active member of Trojan Decommissioning Alliance and was the co-author of a ballot measure which passed in 1980, placing a moratorium on nuclear power plant construction in Oregon until a permanent disposal site could be established for the high-level waste from that plant. Chuck served as a Regional Coordinator for the national office of PSR in the 1980s and as Executive Director of a national anti- nuclear clearinghouse, Nuclear Free America, based in Baltimore in the 1990s.  After a hiatus to work raising funds for Western Oregon University and Portland State University – and complete a book, “Standing at the Water’s Edge: Bob Straub’s Battle for the Soul of Oregon,” coming out from Oregon State University Press in November 2012 – Johnson is happy to be back working to end the nuclear power experiment in the Pacific Northwest.

Email: chuck@oregonpsr.org  Phone: 503-777-2794

Regna Merritt, Coal Campaign Director

Regna works with health professionals and the Power Past Coal Coalition to identify and prevent negative health impacts of proposed coal export projects in Oregon and the Columbia Gorge. The former executive director of Oregon Wild, Regna has worked for over 20 years to protect municipal drinking water. She was instrumental in efforts to secure federal legislation which protects the Bull Run, source of the largest municipal water supply in Oregon. She also helped secure protections for Opal Creek Wilderness, Mount Hood Wilderness and Wild & Scenic Rivers. Recently she helped secure a variance from federal requirements to additionally treat Bull Run source water. She has served on Oregon DEQ's Drinking Water Advisory Committee and Portland's Water Quality Advisory Committee. Ms. Merritt graduated from US Public Health Service’s Physician Assistant Training Program and received her BS from SUNY.

Email: regna@oregonpsr.org  Phone: 971-235-7643

Gretchen Miller, Healthy Food in Health Care Project Coordinator

Gretchen Miller is the Program Coordinator for the Oregon Healthy Food in Health Care Project. She has helped coordinate and assist in the execution of sustainable food education and procurement at Oregon hospitals since 2008. Prior to this, she worked for organizations promoting the proliferation of sustainable agriculture, healthy eating, and community food security. As a teaching assistant and project aid at the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project she co-taught classes to immigrants and refugees on creating viable farm businesses in New England. At the Oregon Food Bank she created a Farm to Pantry program, taught fresh vegetable based cooking classes, and supported the development of a farmers’ market in a low-income neighborhood. Ms. Miller has a Master of Science in Agriculture and Food Policy from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

Email: gretchen@oregonpsr.org  Phone: 503-274-2720

Emma Sirois, Health Care Without Harm Program Director

Emma Sirois directs Oregon PSR’s Health Care Without Harm Program. Health Care Without Harm is a international environmental health campaign working with hospitals to green their facilities and operations. Emma is currently working with Oregon hospitals on efforts to improve the ecological sustainability of their operations, with a particular focus on sustainable foodservice operations. Emma worked with HCWH supporting Oregon hospitals for 2 ½ years prior to joining PSR in January 2010. 

Before moving to Oregon in 2005, Emma worked in Arizona, building accessible and sustainable food resources and regional food systems through direct marketing opportunities for local farmers, urban agriculture projects, food and nutrition education, advocacy and public policy work. Emma holds a master’s degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from Arizona State University.

Email: emma@oregonpsr.org  Phone: 503-274-2720

Sean Tenney, Communications and Development Associate

I began my work as the Communications and Development Associate with Oregon PSR in March of 2010, and am very happy to be here! I am a longtime peace, environmental and social justice activist, having previously worked with such great organizations as American Friends Service Committee, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and the Sierra Club. Originally from Georgia, I moved to Oregon in 2006, and have spent my time since then engaging in my favorite hobbies: reading and learning, traveling the world, making art and writing, stargazing, hiking, biking, and camping, and community activism. In my current role with Oregon PSR, I very much look forward to working with our wonderful volunteers and staff to make the world a more just, healthy, and peaceful place for all of us. Peace!

Email: sean@oregonpsr.org  Phone: 503-274-2720