Board & Staff Bios
Sarah Pressman Lovinger
Executive Director
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.
Robin Bradley
Assistant Director
A graduate of the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan, Robin Bradley, MA, worked in infant,
maternal and mental health for years before joining the PSR team. A Colver-Rosenberger Scholar and trained
doula, her past work and research have focused on parenting and prenatal education, women's health and
supportive services for survivors of trauma. Ms. Bradley has worked as a sexual violence therapist and policy advocate,
a college instructor in the social and health sciences and possesses certification in bilingual family risk assessment
through Healthy Families of Illinois. She lives on Chicago's Northwest side and is excited to have transitioned into work
in the environmental justice movement.
Peter Orris
Board President
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.
Susan Buchanan
Board Member
Susan Buchanan, MD, MPH graduated from the Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed a Family
Medicine residency in Burlington, Vermont. After nine years of practice, she sought additional training and board
certification in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. She is Associate Professor of Environmental and
Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public. She is Director of the Great
Lakes Center for Children’s Environmental Health/Region 5 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. She
teaches and conducts research in the UIC residency program in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Lee Francis
Board Member
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 the 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.
Holly Rosencranz
Board Member
Holly Rosencranz, MD, FACP is a board-certified internist with a special interest in graduate medical education, health
care policy and climate change. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1978 and from
the College of Medicine in Chicago in 1982. She subsequently completed her residency in internal medicine at the
University of Illinois Medical center in 1985. She has over twenty five years of experience in clinical practice and
working with both residents and medical students in graduate medical education, and has been the recipient of several
teaching awards. She served as the Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Illinois in
Champaign Urbana (UIUC) from 2012-2016. In this role, she gave several presentations on community service, residency
wellness and most recently, on the impacts of climate change on population health. She remains actively involved with
teaching medical students and residents as a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine. She is on the Board of Directors
for the Champaign County Medical Center, a member of the Illinois State Medical Society, the American Medical
Association and has served as an instructor for a graduate course at UIUC in Climate Change, Community Needs, and
Public Health. She is proud to represent Physicians for Social Responsibility in Central Illinois.
Aditi Vyas
Board Member
Dr. Aditi Vyas is currently the Director of Population Health and an Occupational Medicine Physician at
Riverside Hospital in Kankakee, IL. During her medical residency training in Occupational and Environmental
Medicine at the University of Illinois she participated in the CDC response to investigate the health impacts
from the recent ammonia incident in Beach Park, IL, Dioxin spill in Michigan and was very active with
Ethylene Oxide exposure related to Sterigenics in Willowbrook. She has been very active with environmental
issues and has a true passion for environmental medicine. Dr. Vyas has her MD degree from Chicago Medical
School, as well as multiple Masters degrees in Public Health, Biotechnology, and Biomedical Sciences.
Robert Needleman
Board Member
Robert Needleman, MD, graduated from Boston University School of Medicine and completed an Emergency Medicine
residency at Cook County Hospital, in Chicago, where he stayed on as faculty. He is interested in addressing the social
determinants of health that contribute to his patients’ wellbeing, particularly environmental, nutrition/food insecurity,
and community violence factors. As faculty at Cook County Hospital, he is currently developing a social emergency
medicine curriculum to educate faculty, resident physicians, and medical students. He holds an assistant professor
position on the faculty of Rush Medical College.







![Robert Needleman MD[13875] 2 .jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/689aef_cfe224e5260f4def94ec6fcd9eeb7f45~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_98,h_135,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Robert%20Needleman%20MD%5B13875%5D%202%20.jpg)