Leadership

Krishnan Narasimhan, MD – Chair

Krishnan 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. Contact Krishnan.

Meghana Rao, MD – Vice Chair

Meghana OBGYN working for an underserved clinic that serves Maryland and DC.  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. Contact Meghana.

Dr. 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. Contact Jeff.

Meenakshi 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. Contact Meenakshi.

Julie Parsonnet, MD

Dona Kim Murphey, MD, PhDDona is a neurologist, neuroscientist, historian of science, and community organizer. She sits 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. Contact Dona.

Massachusetts 
Priscilla Wang, MD (email)

Mississippi
Persharon Dixon, MD (email)

Washington
Lisa Plymate, MD (email)