Peter S. Arno

B.A., Queens College. Ph.D., New School Economist, professor and director, Division of Public Health and Policy Research, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NYC). Pew Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Institute for Health and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco (1984-86); a scholar of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (1989-92) and recipient of an Investigator Award in Health Policy from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (1998-2003); co-author of Against the Odds: The Story of AIDS Drug Development, Politics & Profits(HarperCollins), nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Recent work includes studies of regulation and pricing practices of the pharmaceutical industry; the economics of informal caregiving and long-term care; public health and legal implications of regulating tobacco as a drug; cost, access, quality, and outcome measures related to HIV disease; and the impact of income-support policies on health. Testified before numerous U.S. House and Senate committees. SLC, 2004-

Patricia Banta

B.S.N. (Nursing Research), College of Mount Saint Vincent. M.A. (Health Advocacy), Sarah Lawrence College. Currently director of Government Grants Development at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Formerly a senior program analyst with the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, specializing in Medicare long-term care and public health emergency response preparedness at the state and local levels; formerly practicing registered nurse specializing in critical care and emergency medicine for more than 27 years. Evaluation consultant and grant writer to health care organizations and foundations; author and co-author of scholarly articles related to health policy, health information technology, health disparities among special needs populations, disease and case management, advanced practice nursing models, geriatric health issues, Medicare, palliative care and hospice care, and health literacy. SLC, 2005-

Bruce Berg

Associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Fordham University. Author of published articles and book chapters on the delivery of health care to the elderly, interest group politics, bureaucratic politics, program evaluation, and New York City politics; teaches courses on health policy, intergovernmental relations, interest groups and group theory, social policy, and New York City politics and government; involved with several committees at Fordham University dealing with structuring health benefit packages and programs for full-time and retired faculty; has served as president of Fordham’s Faculty Senate. SLC, 1999-

Sayantani DasGupta

A.B., Brown University. M.D./M.P.H., Johns Hopkins University. Pediatric internship and residency, the Residency Program in Social Pediatrics at Montefiore Hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Assistant attending in Clinical Pediatrics at Columbia University and faculty member, Social Pediatrics Program, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. Author of The Demon Slayers and Other Stories: Bengali Folktales (1995), Her Own Medicine: A Woman’s Journey from Student to Doctor(1999), and numerous essays and articles on topics of health, gender, race, and sexuality. SLC, 2001-

Rachel Grob

B.A., Wesleyan University. M.A. (Health Advocacy), Sarah Lawrence College. Ph.D. (Sociology), City University of New York Graduate Center. Research focus on interface of genetics and advocacy and the social impact of technological innovation. Currently associate dean of graduate studies, Sarah Lawrence College. Investigator in health policy research, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2006-08. Formerly director of policy analysis and planning, Andrus Children’s Center (responsibilities included development of services for children and families and spearheading an Early Childhood Initiative in Yonkers, NY) and assistant to the Deputy Commissioner of Health, Westchester County Health Department. Author of “Parenting in the Genomic Age: The Cursed Blessing of Newborn Screening,” New Genetics and Society, forthcoming 2006; “Celebrating and Mobilizing: How We Started a Family Day in Yonkers,” America’s Family Support Magazine, spring 2000, v. 19, No. 1; co-author of “Parenting and Inequality,” published in The Blackwell Companion to Social Inequalities, 2005. SLC, 1998-

Catherine M. Handy

Ph.D., New York University. Oncology clinical nurse specialist, St. Vincent’s Cancer Center, New York City. Nationally certified as an Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse; 30 years’ experience in nursing in such areas as bone marrow transplantation, home care, AIDS care and education; special interests include pain management and ethical issues; frequent speaker on oncology and AIDS nursing issues; recipient of New York State Liberty Award, 2002. SLC, 2000-

Alice Herb

B.A., Syracuse University. J.D., LL.M., New York University School of Law. Assistant clinical professor of family practice and humanities in medicine, SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn. Formerly ethics consultant to the Brooklyn Hospital Center (1994-2003); formerly TV news and cultural affairs producer, director, and writer; special interest in clinical ethics, particularly in channels/barriers between health care professionals and patients/families, cultural diversity and its effect on physician/patient interaction, the role of palliative care in a high-tech environment, and the continuing dilemma in human subject research; currently involved in a palliative care initiative of changing institutional culture to accommodate an alternate treatment approach; assisting in development of research ethics certificate program and an analysis of a clinical ethics program at an acute care facility. Author: Autonomy, the Encyclopedia of Care of the Elderly, Springer Publishing Company, accepted for 2007 publication; co-author with Burke and Swidler, “Three Stubborn Misconceptions About the Authority of Health Care Agents,” NYSBA’s Health Law Journal, Fall 2005 and A. Berg and M. Hurst, “Cochlear Implants in Children: Ethics, Informed Consent, and Parental Decision-Making,” Journal of Clinical Ethics, Fall 2005; author, The Patient as Research Participant, a Guide to Hospitals and Inpatient Care, Springer Publishing Company (2003). SLC, 1996-

Margaret Keller

A.B., Trinity College. J.D., Columbia University School of Law. M.S. (administrative medicine), Columbia School of Public Health. Retired partner, DeForest & Duer; special interest in the interfaces of law, medicine, and health care administration; author, co-author, and co-editor of numerous articles on law and health care administration, especially developments in federal law and New York State law. SLC, 1981-

Laura Long

B.A., Kenyon College. M.S. (Human Genetics), Sarah Lawrence College. Specializes in behavioral science and counseling skills required to help people change health-related behaviors; involved in training and research on programs to help reduce risk of HIV/STDs in all at-risk populations in the New York City geographic area; has been involved in both primary and secondary prevention efforts and has provided training to social service and health care organizations on program development in these areas; teaches Issues in Genetic Counseling IV in the Human Genetics program. SLC, 1999-

Terry Mizrahi

B.A., New York University. M.S.W., Columbia University. Ph.D. (sociology), University of Virginia. Professor, Hunter College School of Social Work (HCSSW); director, Education Center for Community Organizing at HCSSW; expertise in medical sociology, organizational and community development, health care policy and patients’ rights; areas of research and training in professional socialization and physician behavior, social work in health care, interdisciplinary collaboration, interorganizational coalition-building and community organizing; author of several books, monographs, guides, and articles, including Getting Rid of Patients: Contradictions in the Socialization of Physicians (Rutgers, 1986), Community Organization and Social Administration: Trends and Issues (Haworth, 1993), and Creating Strategic Partnerships: The Theory and Practice of Coalitions and Collaboration. Past president of the National Association of Social Workers (the largest social work organization in the world) and one of the founders of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration, which awarded her a lifetime career achievement award in 2004. In 2006, Dr. Mizrahi received a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, which she is spending teaching and doing research in Israel. SLC, 1981-

Constance Peterson

B.S. (Sociology/Anthropology), Missouri State University. M.A. (Health Advocacy), Sarah Lawrence College. Patient Care Director in the Emergency Department of New York-Presbyterian Hospital Cornell Weill Medical Center. Faculty appointments: Weill Medical College, Cornell University, Department of Public Health and Division of Medical Ethics, and Sarah Lawrence College/Health Advocacy Program.

Michael J. Smith

B.A., Seton Hall University. M.S.W., University of Pennsylvania. D.S.W., Columbia University. Professor, Hunter College School of Social Work and Doctoral Program in Social Welfare, Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Research and evaluation consultant to social, health, and mental health agencies in New York City; author of numerous books and articles on family care of the aged and disabled children, single-parent families, and mental health services; author of an introductory text in evaluation research, Program Evaluation in the Human Services (Springer Press, 1990), and a forthcoming text, Program Evaluation: Trends and Methods(Oxford University Press). SLC, 1993-

Laura Weil

B.A., State University of New York. M.A. (Health Advocacy), Sarah Lawrence College. Interim Director of Sarah Lawrence Sarah Lawrence College’s Masters’ Program in Health Advocacy, Laura Weil also teaches the core course Models of Advocacy: Theory and Practice.

During a career in hospital-based patient advocacy, including NYU Medical Center and Saint Vincents Catholic Medical Centers, Ms. Weil served as Director of the Patient Representative Department of Beth Israel Medical Center, working to improve patients’ hospital experiences, safety, and serving as a resource for staff, patients, and family members in issues involving patients’ rights and surrogate medical decision-making. She continues to serve on Beth Israel’s Institutional Review Board, assuring that the rights of participants in clinical trials are adequately protected and explained.

Ms. Weil is a past president of New York State Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy, and a former board member of the national Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy of the American Hospital Association. She is also a member of the Metropolitan New York Ethics Network, and teaches a course in Clinical Ethics in the Physician Assistant program of Touro College of Health Sciences. SLC, 1999-