Board Members and Staff
Susan Buchanan
Susan Buchanan, MD, MPH graduated from the Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed a Family Medicine residency at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont. After nine years of practice she sought additional training and board certification in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She is Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public. She is director the UIC residency program in Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Director of the Great Lakes Center for Children’s Environmental Health.
Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee holds an MPH, epidemiology, from the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health and and MBA, corporate finance and investments, from the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business. His more than 17 years of government service include positions as hazardous materials emergency planner, chief emergency planner, and executive officer-public health with the State of Iowa and division chief, pandemic influenza preparedness coordinator, and, currently, data and information system manager, EMS Division, for the Illinois Department of Public Health. He currently serves on the PSR national board.
Lee Francis
Lee Francis was appointed President and CEO by Erie Family Health Center's board of directors in September 2007. Erie is a community health center serving over 34,000 Chicago area patients at 11 sites, regardless of the ability to pay. Since starting this leadership role at Erie, he has led organization toward some notable accomplishments, including the implementation of electronic health record systems at all of Erie's sites; the expansion of oral health services; a strong financial bottom line; the development of Erie's 2010 Strategic Plan; and the expansion of Erie’s board of directors. Dr. Francis works with the Executive Leadership Team, the Quality Improvement Department and with Erie's Board of Directors to ensure that Erie is a leader in quality care. He is also charged with ensuring the strategic growth of the organization. In addition to his executive responsibilities, Dr. Francis is still a practicing Internist and sees adult patients on a regular basis at Erie.
Dr. Francis served as national president of the Physicians for Social Responsibility in 2001 and was a member of the board of directors for 15 years. He was selected as a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow in 2000. He is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, a volunteer position, at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
He joined Erie Family Health Center in 1991 as an Internist and served as its medical director from 2001-2007. Prior to becoming medical director, he spent ten years dividing his time between Erie and Cook County Hospital. Dr. Francis completed his medical training in Primary Care Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He is a graduate of Amherst College, the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.
Peter Orris
Peter Orris, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM, a former NIOSH Medical Officer, is the Chief of Service for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, and a Professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health. He holds Professorships on the faculties of the Northwestern and Rush Medical Schools in Preventive and Internal Medicine, has served as advisor to WHO, PAHO, as well as Federal, State and Local Governments, environmental organizations, labor unions and corporations. He is currently a member of the State of Illinois’ Board of Health, and the US/Canadian Health Professionals Task Force of the International Joint Commission and is an Expert Consultant to USEPA Region V. He chairs the Research Collaborative of Health Care Without Harm, and is President of the Westside Branch of the Chicago Medical Society. He has edited and authored numerous articles, book chapters and governmental reports in the field of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and maintains an active clinical and teaching practice.
Myrtis Sullivan
Myrtis Sullivan, MD, MPH, FAAP is a board-certified pediatrician and currently serves as a contract physician for Healthcare Services Corporation. Dr. Sullivan was the State of Illinois’ Title V/Maternal and Child Health Director from 2006-2010. Other clinical and professional experience include the following positions: Medical Director of Pediatric Emergency Services at Cook County Hospital (now John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County), Attending Physician/Great Lakes Children’s Environmental Health Center and faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health (Community Health Sciences and Maternal and Child Health).
Dr. Sullivan’s research experience and interests include the following: pediatric environmental health, breastfeeding, bronchial asthma and community-based participatory research.
Sarah Pressman Lovinger
Sarah Pressman Lovinger, MD, is an internist who has worked in community health centers providing care for uninsured adults for more than 15 years. Deeply concerned about the public health and humanitarian implications of climate change, Sarah is happy to work as director of Chicago PSR, so she can make a difference on this pressing issue. In addition to her clinic responsibilities and her non-profit management, Sarah is an adjunct lecturer in climate change and public health at Northwestern University. An avid writer and blogger, she completed the one-year Morris Fishbein Fellowship in Medical Editing at the Journal of the American Medical Association, and now blogs for Huffington Post. She will soon launch a new blog devoted to the links between climate change and health.
Sarah is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and Rush Medical College. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.