Our Board

Dr. Christine Petrin is a primary care physician at an FQHC in the East Harlem community of New York City, where she also serves as faculty at Mount Sinai Hospital. She joined DFA as a medical student, and after rising through various committees and Board roles, she now leads the organization as Board Chair. She attended Barnard College, the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, and Tulane University School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine & Pediatrics Residency at Georgetown University Hospital where she also served as Chief Resident. She is passionate about primary care, improving our public health infrastructure, and demanding equity and justice throughout the health care system.

Dr. Meenakshi Bewtra is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; and a Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, with a focus on inflammatory bowel disease including natural history; outcomes of disease and medication safety using observational data and statistical modeling; measures of risk and risk tolerance for therapies using discrete choice experiment; and clinical trials for educational interventions and novel therapies. Dr. Bewtra’s work has been funded by the NIH, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, AGA, PCORI, pharmaceutical industries, and private philanthropy. While in medical school, Dr. Bewtra experienced first-hand the discrimination and difficulties of healthcare before the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act and became dedicated to expanding healthcare. She is also dedicated to increasing both physicians and scientists voices in reducing gun violence; protecting women’s reproductive rights; and expanding and protecting healthcare services such as Medicaid, preventative care (vaccines), and CHIP. She speaks on-air and in-person about these issues and hopes to inspire more healthcare professionals to stand up and speak out because “facts are voiceless.”

Kate Kelley, MD, MPH is a board certified family and addiction medicine physician in Cleveland, Ohio and a clinical assistant professor of Family Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Prior to becoming a physician, she worked in health communications and public health policy at the American Psychological Association and the National Academy of Medicine. She began working in advocacy as a medical student with the National Physicians Alliance, and then as a resident and fellow with Doctors for America's Access to Affordable Care Impact Area. She previously served on the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians Foundation as an alternate student trustee. Dr. Kelley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history and international affairs from the University of Mary Washington, a Master of Public Health in global health policy from The George Washington University, and a Doctorate of Medicine from Northeast Ohio Medical University. She completed her family medicine residency and addiction medicine fellowship at MetroHealth Medical Center, the county safety-net hospital in Northeast Ohio. Dr. Kelley is passionate about strengthening systems to improve community health and well-being, and is proud to work alongside the amazing health care advocates at Doctors for America.

Bich-May Nguyen believes all patients should have affordable access to high quality health care they need and none of the care they don't. During the day, she is a clinical associate professor at the Tilman J. Ferttita Family College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Dr. Nguyen directs a preclinical course that teaches clinical skills and health systems science, works with community-based organizations to study Vietnamese Americans and COVID-19, and sees patients one day each week. By night, she serves on the board of Doctors for America where she co-directs the Gene Copello Health Advocacy Fellowship and is a board liaison to the Access for Affordable Care impact area. Dr. Nguyen graduated with a M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine and a M.P.H. from the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health. She completed her residency training in family medicine at Boston University/Boston Medical Center. In her free time, Dr. Nguyen promotes civic engagement and watches South Korean dramas.

Dr. Meghana Rao is an OBGYN working for an FQHC that serves Maryland and Washington, D.C. She completed medical school and residency at Johns Hopkins University. She has been involved with health policy advocacy for over 10 years serving Doctors for America as the Maryland State Director and the Regional State Director. She has also served in ACOG as the Maryland Section Junior Fellow Legislative Chair, the District IV Junior Fellow Legislative Chair, a member of the Government Affairs Committee, and a member of the Ob-Gyn PAC Governing Committee. Meghana lives in Maryland with her husband, three young children, and dog.

Dr. Halleh Akbarnia is an Emergency Medicine Physician who has worked at level-one trauma centers for almost 20 years. Working with gun violence victims and having been personally affected by gun violence herself, she has become a strong advocate for Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) at a national and local level. She has given many lectures on this topic, and has moderated and sat on panels, including this past year in Washington D.C. at the national GVP conference as well as speaking at the 10th Annual National Vigil honoring GVP and Sandy Hook victims. She is also involved at a grassroots level helping advocate and pass safer gun laws and is the co-lead for her local Moms Demand Action group, sits on the board of People for a Safer Society, and is a member of the Illinois Alliance for Prevention of Gun Violence. Dr. Akbarnia is active in GVP work through Doctors for America, and has now taken the role of Vice Chair of Community Health and Prevention. During the pandemic, she became involved with the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team (IMPACT) and led volunteer vaccination efforts in Chicago. Dr. Akbarnia is an active member of the Chicago Medical Society and the Illinois College of Emergency Physicians. With her interest in public health, she is back in school at the University of Illinois in Chicago getting her MPH, focusing on Community Health. She lives at her home in Glenview with her husband and two children.

Bijou is an MD-PhD candidate at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine, pursuing both clinical training and a PhD in genetics and genome sciences. She is currently researching new gene therapies targeting the hormone asprosin. Bijou pursued her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis where she double majored in Math and Biology. After graduation she spent one year working at the National Institutes of Health as a Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award recipient. Bijou joined DFA in the spring of 2020 to continue pursuing her passion for health equity and justice. She’s been particularly passionate about improving health equity and accessibility for marginalized groups of people, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ+ healthcare. She previously co-chair DFA’s Women’s Health Workgroup and was the 2022 Health Justice and Equity Impact Area chair before joining the board. Bijou also runs a nonprofit called No Longer Voiceless, where her team helps those with serious chronic illnesses and at the end of life create a written legacy for themselves and their families. Outside of her advocacy work, you can find Bijou thrifting rare books and hiking National Parks. She can be followed on Twitter @bijoubasu.

Hannah Brennan is a partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a plaintiff-side class action law firm that focuses on the healthcare industry. Hannah brings antitrust lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies when they unlawfully prevent more affordable generic and biosimilar drug competition. And she brings lawsuits under the Racketeer Influenced Corruption Organizations Act and state consumer protection law against pharmaceutical companies who unfairly price their drugs or fraudulently promote them. Currently, Hannah represents people living with diabetes in their lawsuit against the makers of analog insulin for their inflation of these drugs' prices. Prior to joining Hagens Berman, Hannah worked for Public Citizen in Washington D.C. in the Access to Medicines group, where she focused on access to essential medicines in Latin America. Hannah also clerked for the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Third Circuit. Hannah is passionate about improving access to affordable care both through policy change and litigation. She is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School. In her free time, Hannah enjoys hiking in Vermont with her husband, two kids, and dog or trying to force all of them to ski.

Dr. Stephanie Liou is a board-certified pediatrician and National Health Service Corps Scholar who is passionate about health equity and reproductive justice. Growing up in a low-income, single-parent immigrant family inspired Dr. Liou to pursue a career in healthcare and advocate for families like hers. She received her BS from Stanford University, her MD from the University of Washington, and completed residency through a leadership track at the University of Chicago. Currently, Dr. Liou is the Director of Pediatrics at Alivio Medical Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center serving predominately low-income immigrant families in southwest Chicago. She practices in Spanish, Mandarin, and occasionally English. Prior to joining the DFA board, Dr. Liou was a Copello Fellow from 2021-2022 and helped lead the Health Justice and Equity Impact Area from 2022-2024. She is also a community advisory board member for Illinois Contraceptive Access Now (ICAN!) and has held leadership positions with the AAMC and AAP. Outside of medicine, Dr. Liou enjoys sewing, bad reality TV, trying new boba places, and traveling with her partner Theo and their adorable rescue pup Tonks.

Reshma Ramachandran, MD, MPP, MHS is a board-certified family physician and health services researcher. Her research focuses on the realignment of incentives for healthcare stakeholders including pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and universities towards prioritizing equitable patient access to safe, effective health technologies. Prior to this role, Reshma worked as research faculty as part of the Innovation + Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she focused on policies to address the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance and unaffordable access to prescription drugs. Dr. Ramachandran trained in both medicine at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She completed her family medicine residency at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. Previously, she served as the first PharmFree Fellow with the American Medical Student Association focused on removing the undue influence of pharmaceutical companies on prescribing behavior and medical education. She is part of the National Steering Committee for the Doctors for America Drug Affordability Action Team. She also is a board member of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) North America and the American Medical Student Association Foundation.