Larry Kalb

President

 

Raised on a farm in Ohio, Larry pursued his keen interest in his German heritage by earning a Master’s Degree in German language and literature from Bowling Green State University. He studied for one year in Salzburg, Austria, before working six years as an English teacher in Paris, France. Larry was the director of administration for a fine arts school in southern France for four years before moving to Washington State in 1993. He worked as an independent translator of German and French to American English, primarily handling corporate and legal contracts, standard operating manuals, patents, and website materials. Larry currently lives in Bellingham, Washington, where he works in the finance department of the Whatcom Transportation Authority.

Larry served as a national delegate to the Democratic National Convention for Bill Bradley in 2000 and Dennis Kucinich in 2004. However, he has focused most of his efforts toward reforming health care in the US, after his extensive observations and experiences dealing with health care in European nations.

Larry has been Chair of the Progressive Caucus for the Washington State Democratic Party. By virtue of his acumen for organizing strong electoral and issue-based campaigns, Larry also served as the National Coordinator for the Health Care Working Group under the aegis of the Progressive Democrats of America.

He has been a board member of Health Care for All - Washington for six years and developed a popular presentation that encapsulates the players and issues in the current US system and provides alternative approaches and reforms that would support a health care system funded by the public. He has traveled throughout the state to present his ideas and participated in national discussions and conferences exploring national health care reform.

 

Sarah K. Weinberg, MD

Vice President

Dr. Weinberg is a retired pediatrician who has long been involved in advocacy for reform of the health care financing system in the U.S. She is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Medicine, and completed a residency in Pediatrics in the University of Washington system. She practiced first in the North End Community Health Care clinic in Wallingford, and then managed her own private pediatric practice in Woodinville for 18 years. That experience only reinforced Dr. Weinberg's conviction that the financing of the U.S. health care system is a disaster, severely undermining physicians' ability to deliver high quality care to their patients. Dr. Weinberg has been involved with Health Care for All - Washington since 1998 when she joined in the work of drafting the Washington Health Security Trust (WHST) legislation that was first introduced as Initiative 725 in February 2000. She has been involved ever since in numerous lobbying efforts on behalf of the WHST legislation. Dr. Weinberg is also a long-time member, nearly since it's founding, of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Treasurer

 

Dana is a Family Nurse Practitioner practicing primary care at Harborview Medical Center. He has been a member and Treasurer of HCFA-WA (originally WA-SPAN) since 1994) and has been involved in health care reform since the early 1970s. He is a firm believer that only government sponsored National Health Insurance (single payer) will rectify the inequities and crises in the current health care environment.

 

Directors At Large

David Ihnen, RN

Website Manager

 

David has been maintaining the HCFA-WA website since 2002. He works as a registered nurse in the surgical-oncology unit of a Seattle hospital. 

His interest in health care reform is influenced by his experience watching relatives go through periods of being uninsured, including the loss of one such relative.  His personal website is at www.davidihnen.com

 

Ruth Knagenhjelm

Chair: Outreach Committee

Ruth became involved with HCFA-WA during the initiative campaign in 2000. She works as a physical therapist at a private clinic in Burien and treats mostly orthopedic patients but also does vestibular therapy. 

She was born, raised and trained as a PT in Norway and has always known single-payer healthcare as a right until she moved to the United States in 1978 and married an American. She has since also worked another four years in private practice in Norway, so she knows the differences in health care systems well. While she knows there is not a perfect system for any country, she had no problem choosing HCFA-WA as the organization to work with for changing health care in Washington state. They had the fundamental changes that she was looking for in their proposal: the Washington State Health Security Trust. 

Ruth has served on the board since 2002.

Chuck Richards

  Chuck Richards is a recently retired school teacher, who has taught history and English as a Second Language in Seattle, Puerto Rico, Boston MA and in both Kent and Highline School Districts.  In his spare time, he enjoys researching his colorful/shady family history back in Wyoming Territory.  

He has been on the Board of Health Care for All-Washington since his retirement in 2006.  Chuck enjoys speaking with community groups on the comparative advantages of public, "single-payer" health care programs over those using private market insurance companies.  He is available to work with groups forming in neighborhoods around the state to work for a state plan, like the Washington Health Security Trust introduced by HCFA-WA in the 2007-08 state legislature.

William O. Robertson, MD

 

Dr. William O. Robertson, a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, former Coordinator of the Pediatric Clerkship Program till June 1999, recipient of four "Distinguished Teacher Awards" from graduating medical student classes over the years (the 1996 award also designates him as "Teacher Superior Perpetuity"), has served as the Medical Director of a Poison Center in Washington State since 1963. Over the years, he has held positions on numerous boards (a member of the Washington State Medical Disciplinary Board, an Examiner for the American Board of Pediatrics), societies (President of the King County Medical Society in 1972), associations (President of the Washington State Medical Association 1975-76, Chairman of the American Association of Poison Control Centers 1988-90) and specialty groups (Chairman of the American Board of Medical Toxicology 1980-85).

Additionally, Dr. Robertson has served as consultant or medical advisor to planning boards, technical task forces, and government officials on the local, state and national levels. Early in 1994 he accepted the Chairmanship of the AMA's Graduate Medical Education Advisory Committee till December 1995. Two prestigious awards in 1995 honored Dr. Robertson, the joint AMA/AAP Boards presentation of the 1995 Abraham Jacobi Memorial Award and from the AMA Board of Trustees as the recipient of the 1995 Doctor Benjamin Rush Award for Citizenship and Community Service. In October 1998 he received the highest award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award in Medical Education presented in San Francisco, CA.

As a Clinical Toxicologist, Dr. Robertson has prepared a bimonthly update column on the subject in Veterinary and Human Toxicology since 1979 till 1992 and then authored the commentaries for the same publication's new section "Robby's Roost” till 2005. He has also been the Medical Director for the Washington State Medical Association's Risk Management Program since 1980 and has authored the "Case of the Month" section of the 'WSMA Reports' (formerly a section in "The Western Journal of Medicine" but now a stand alone publication) consolidating them into a book "Medical Malpractice: A Preventive Approach" published by University of Washington Press in 1985. He is currently working on the next edition of this book. A contributor to the toxicology section of both Cecil's "Textbook of Medicine" and "The Merck Manual,” he served as co-author for Dreisbach's 12th Edition of "Handbook of Poisoning.” In addition, he has authored over 600 articles on a wide range of topics, including toxicology, medical communication, pediatric education and health care/cost issues.

Dr. Robertson has been credited for being responsible for the section of the 2006 Washington State Legislature’s Bill 2292, which mandates “legibility” of all medication prescriptions in the state of Washington, eliminating “scribbled prescriptions” and the errors that follow. Another one of his memorable achievements was to publish the initial research about the effectiveness of “solid medication form imprints,” as applied to tablets and capsules. He then lobbied in 1980 for Washington to be the first state to mandate that all prescription medications be so imprinted and then all over-the-counter medications in 1991. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) subsequently made this a national requirement.

Currently, Dr. Robertson is joining with other colleagues in an attempt to make it possible for all physicians across the state to be able to access online versions of commonly used medical journals as part of their professional licenses.