Our Board

Dr. Krishnan Narasimhan is an academic family medicine physician and an Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Howard University. For over a decade, he has advocated for policy change to improve access to care and support primary care. He was a past regional director with Doctors for America and has been a member since 2009. He serves as family medicine residency faculty, clerkship director, and on the board of the District of Columbia academy of family physicians. He is a graduate of Jefferson Medical College and completed his family medicine residency at the University of Connecticut. He also completed a primary care health policy fellowship at the Georgetown University Department of Family Medicine and the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. He has experience in medical education, evidence based medicine, health disparities, economic impacts, population health, and clinical transformation.

Dr. Meghana Rao is an OBGYN working for an underserved clinic 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 as a former Board Member of DFA. She has also served in ACOG as the Maryland Section Junior Fellow Legislative Chair, the District IV Junior Fellow Legislative Chair, and a member of the Government Affairs Committee. She is excited to have rejoined the DFA Board of Directors. Meghana lives in Maryland with her husband, two young children, and dog.

Dr. Jeff Huebner is a practicing family physician and Medical Director for Population Health at UW Health in Madison. He takes care of a large panel of patients ranging from birth to geriatrics, and leads work within UW Health on care model development (case management, palliative care, behavioral health), social determinants of health, and their Medicare Accountable Care Organization. Dr. Huebner attended the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed his family medicine residency at the University of Washington. Next, he worked at a community health center in the Seattle area as a National Health Service Corps member before moving back to his home state of Wisconsin in 2009. Prior to UW Health, he worked as Medical Director for Quality on both the clinical delivery and insurance sides of a not-for-profit health care cooperative in Madison. Before joining the DFA Board, he was a founding member and Board Chair with the National Physicians Alliance. Throughout his medical training and years in practice, he has volunteered with local and national professional organizations and spent three stints of time in Washington, DC to learn about and advocate for improvements in our health care system related to access, disparities, pharmaceuticals, and primary care/patient-centered medical home. He values health policy and advocacy for their potential to improve the health of our communities and nation.

Dr. Christine Petrin is a resident in the Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program at Georgetown University. She joined DFA as a medical student and served as a medical student Board Member before joining the Executive Committee as Secretary. She also served as the Co-Chair of the Substance Use Disorder Work Group. Before medicine, she spent time in D.C. researching issues related to provider reimbursement, value based care, and health care quality. As a graduate student intern with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, she helped states establish and operate Health Insurance Exchanges, as well as other provisions of the Affordable Care Act. She attended Tulane University School of Medicine, Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, and Barnard College. She is passionate about primary care, improving our public health infrastructure, and demanding equity and justice throughout the health care system.

Dr. May Nguyen is a family physician who believes in helping all patients access all the high quality health care they need and none of the care they don’t. She is a faculty member and research director at a community-based family medicine residency program in the Greater Houston area. Dr. Nguyen completed the Copello Health Advocacy Fellowship with the National Physicians Alliance and has published several opinion pieces in Texas newspapers about the ACA, abortion, and gun violence. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in biology from the University of Houston, a M.D. in the Underserved Track from Baylor College of Medicine, and a M.P.H. with a concentration in health policy from the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Nguyen completed her residency training in family medicine at Boston University. In her free time, she enjoys trying new restaurants, reading, and traveling. One day she will learn how to play her ukulele.

Justin is an MD-PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, simultaneously pursuing clinical training and biomedical research in bioengineering and stem cell biology. He recently completed requirements for his PhD focused on cardiovascular developmental biology and tissue engineering. After graduating summa cum laude from Yale University, he completed a fellowship in bioethics and public health policy in the National Institutes of Health Department of Bioethics. Upon entering medical school, a desire to complement wonky health policy interests with grassroots health and social justice advocacy led him to become increasingly involved in DFA. He is one of two medical trainees on Doctors for America (DFA)'s national Board of Directors and currently serves as DFA's Director of Partnerships & Strategy. He previously co-chaired DFA's Drug Affordability Action Team, Gun Violence Prevention Working Group, and Maryland State Chapter, among other roles. He is thrilled to be part of the DFA family and to serve on the board. Justin enjoys living in Baltimore with his miniature schnauzer, Darby, exploring all of the hidden gems offered by Charm City. He can be followed on Twitter at @jilowenthal.

Dr. Meenakshi Bewtra is an Assistant 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.”

Dr. Farheen Quarashi is an Acute Care Surgeon practicing Trauma Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery in Baltimore, MD. She strongly believes in the power of organized medicine to make a difference in health care policy at the local, national, and global levels. She has particular interest in advancing access to quality, affordable health care for all and, particularly given her specialty, in gun violence reduction. She supports physicians using their power as advocates and experts in their field to help advance these policies in a meaningful way. She is excited to be a part of the DFA Board and engage and support other progressive physicians around the nation in mobilizing their power as advocates and voices of change in health care policy. She is the Medical Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Surgical Quality Champion at her institution. She completed her medical degree and surgical residency at the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Medicine, followed by a Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. She has previously been involved in the National Physicians Alliance and held multiple leadership roles in the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), including Jack Rutledge Legislative Director, leading AMSA’s national advocacy initiatives full-time and working on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). She lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband.

Dr. Cedric Dark is Founder and Executive Editor of Policy Prescriptions. A graduate of Morehouse College, Dr. Dark earned his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. He holds a master’s degree from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He completed his residency training at George Washington University where he served as Chief Resident. Currently, Dr. Dark is an Assistant Professor in the Henry J. N. Taub Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Dark is the 2017 recipient of the Texas Medical Association’s C. Frank Webber Award, a 2019 American College of Emergency Physicians Choosing Wisely Champion, and one of emergency medicine’s Top 45 Under 45. He currently participates on the editorial advisory board for the monthly publication ACEP Now. His policy experience includes work for the United States House of Representatives and the Kaiser Family Foundation. His policy interests include the study of health reform at the intersection with international health systems. He has spoken on this topic nationwide.

Dr. Julie Parsonnet is the George DeForest Barnett Professor in Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University. Dr. Parsonnet is a practicing Infectious Diseases specialist and has an active research enterprise in which she studies the way infections contribute to the development of chronic diseases including cancer, allergy and obesity. During the COVID pandemic, Dr.Parsonnet has led large surveillance studies of SARS-CoV2 immunity, clinical trials of outpatient treatments, and development of over-the-counter SARS-CoV2 diagnostics. Dr. Parsonnet also has a strong interest in medical education and served for five years as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education during which time she directed overhauls of Stanford’s curriculum, advising and admissions programs. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, Association of American Physicians, American Epidemiological Society, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Dr. Parsonnet is also on the Board of Directors of Doctors for America and is President of the Board of Directors of SAFE, an organization with chapters in over 50 medical schools dedicated to teaching physicians how to help reduce firearms injuries and deaths.

Dr. Dona Murphey is a neurologist, neuroscientist, historian of science, and community organizer. She serves on the Boards of Project Lifeline, Doctors for America, Brazoria County NAACP, and the Korean American Association and Community Center of Houston, and manages a popular virtual space on Facebook, Data Driven Community COVID-19 Response. She embraces progress as an intersectional, community-centered endeavor that begins with education and as such, in 2019, ran for the Pearland, Texas, Independent School District Board of Trustees.