Oregon PSR would not be able to engage in our work so effectively without the efforts of our dedicated volunteers. In this section of our website, we would like to acknowledge just a few of our stand-out volunteers for their efforts, and we appreciate everyone who helps us make this critically important work for a healthier and more peaceful world possible.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities with Oregon PSR, call 503-274-2720 or email us today. Thank you!
Ned Rosch, Oregon PSR Leadership Circle Member [profiled May 2020]
Ned began his activism when the Vietnam War was raging, the women’s movement was taking off, institutional racism was being challenged everywhere, the LGBTQ-rights movement was rising, and ideas of a more just world were in the air. For years, Ned has been impressed by the intersectional work that Oregon PSR does of connecting political work with social activities and linking together people, organizations, and issues. Oregon PSR’s mission resonates with him, as he has a strong interest in and commitment to peace and justice work. Early in February of this year, Ned joined a Washington PSR delegation to Gaza, Palestine. During his trip, he guided mental health practitioners, school children, and refugee camp residents through trauma-informed stress reduction yoga workshops. Read about Ned’s reflections on his PSR trip to Gaza.
Janaira Ramirez, Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship Judge [profiled April 2020]
Janaira is the Climate Justice Organizer at OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon. She is originally from New York City, where she worked in community gardens and as a youth environmental educator. She is passionate about food justice, environmental justice, and urban planning. She earned a BA in Political Science from Wheaton College in Massachusetts. For the past two years, Janaira has been one of our volunteer judges for Oregon PSR’s Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship, reading entries by high school students from all over Oregon. Her time and dedication are instrumental to our work of encouraging Oregon’s youth leaders to promote a more healthy, just, and peaceful world. Thank you, Janaira!
Evelyn Whitlock, MD, MPH, Oregon PSR Member [profiled February 2020]
Evelyn is one of our newest members and volunteers, joining us as she retires from a career in evidence-based medicine. She's been interested in working on some of the social and environmental issues that Oregon PSR confronts and is exploring volunteering opportunities with both our Peace Work Group and our Healthy Climate Action Team. Evelyn believes in the value of preventive medicine and keeping people well rather than fixing them, and has joined Oregon PSR because it allows her to connect with like-minded people, organizations, and communities working together for positive change.
Melanie Plaut, MD, Healthy Climate Action Team Member [profiled January 2020]
Melanie started her organizing work after retiring from a career in OB/GYN practice. A PSR member for decades, she became more involved with our Healthy Climate Action Team because of the urgency of the climate crisis and personal connections with our staff. Most of Melanie’s work now centers around fossil fuel resistance, and she was the vision behind the recent 60-hour Vigil at Zenith, where people gathered outside of the facility to pressure the company to cease tar sands shipments. She sees our work as relevant because it engages a health professional view on critical issues, which often inspires people to take action. For Melanie, the most rewarding aspects of her work have been meeting people, taking action, and learning.
Diana Rempe, PhD, Oregon PSR Sustaining Member [profiled November 2019]
Diana is a community psychologist who views the world through a social justice advocacy lens. She first heard about PSR when the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1980s, and she’s been involved in social activism since then. For the last seven years, Diana has worked with Street Books, a bicycle-powered mobile library that brings books to people living outside. Houselessness, she says, is directly linked to issues of climate change and public health. Diana represents Oregon PSR at the Portland Harbor Community Coalition, which elevates the most impacted groups in the billion-dollar federal cleanup of the Portland Harbor Superfund site. She believes that our work is relevant because it translates scientific knowledge and makes it accessible to others in order to foster social justice and promote the health and safety of our planet.
Greg Fishwick, PhD, Oregon PSR Sustaining Member [profiled August 2019]
A teacher, counselor, administrator, and policymaker, Greg has spent his life committed to working for social responsibility and policies that help people and the planet. In one such role, he was a workforce development coordinator for the Oregon Economic Development Department, bringing socially responsible family wage jobs to our state. He is interested in many of the program areas Oregon PSR works on, including abolishing nuclear weapons and remediating nuclear waste, preventing gun violence, stopping fossil fuel projects, and promoting clean and green energy. One of the reasons Greg became a recurring donor was because he knows that his resources are being leveraged effectively through Oregon PSR action. He believes in the importance of connecting peace, climate, and human health.
Laureen Nussbaum, PhD, Oregon PSR Member [profiled September 2019]
Laureen first became involved with Oregon PSR decades ago through her advocacy for Hanford Downwinders, residents of eastern Oregon and Washington who suffered severe and lasting health effects resulting from exposure to radioactive contamination from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, WA. Laureen and her husband, Dr. Rudi Nussbaum, worked to collect the Downwinders’ stories and formalize their findings in a peer-reviewed article to more effectively advocate for official acknowledgment of the dangers posed by Hanford and for the health of those exposed to the low-level radiation that resulted from US nuclear weapons development. Now living in Seattle and also involved with Washington PSR, Laureen recently published a book, Shedding Our Stars: The Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine, which chronicles her experiences as a Jewish child who dodged persecution in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during WWII thanks to German official Hans Calmeyer.
Erin Lee, Oregon PSR 2019 Summer Intern [profiled August 2019]
Erin is a rising senior at Whitman College, where she is a Politics major and is heavily involved with student government. She has previously worked with the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club and a successful Washington State Senate campaign to flip the Senate to a democratic majority. Passionate about Planetary Health, she plans to pursue a JD-MPH to work in the field. Projects that Erin completed with Oregon PSR included assisting with the fracked gas report, assembling fact sheets on the health impacts of climate change and nuclear weapons, and supporting the Healthy Climate Program.
Kelly O’Hanley, MD, MPH, Healthy Climate Action Team Member
Kelly has devoted her career as an obstetrician gynecologist and public health professional to improving the lives of families both in the United States and in almost 40 other countries. A self-proclaimed “late bloomer” in political engagement, she embarked on her career with feminist motivations, later becoming inspired by documentaries and local activists to work on environmental issues. She sees her role as adding fun, lightheartedness, and mischievousness to the movement. She regularly canvasses, testifies in hearings, and performs in the Folly of Frack play. She believes in the importance of amplifying the voices of youth and indigenous people.
Bill Yang, Volunteer
Bill is a student at Carleton College in Minnesota, where he studies Biology and minors in History. He has a strong interest in public health and policy advocacy. He worked with Oregon PSR Peace Working Group Member Robert Goldman, MD to examine the issue of urban-rural disparities in colorectal cancer outcomes, including societal factors that impact different demographics. Bill has also volunteered and interned at local hospitals and clinics in Minnesota. Oregon PSR is one of his first forays into non-profit work, and he is excited to contribute to advance policies that promote peace and public health.
Shea Lott, PhD, Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship Volunteer Judge [profiled June 2019]
Shea Lott, PhD is a clinical psychologist at OHSU’s Avel Gordly Center for Healing, a clinic that meets the mental health needs of the African American community and the diverse populations of Oregon while taking away the shame associated with mental illness. He studies social and cultural factors that impact the development of various psychological and behavioral disorders in African descent populations. Like Oregon PSR, he defines peace broadly, and he is interested in studying and addressing the ways that historical and systematic inequalities can inhibit some marginalized people from accessing a peaceful existence. Dr. Lott served as a judge for Oregon PSR’s 2019 Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship and led an unconscious bias training for Oregon PSR members. He is on the board of the Oregon Psychological Association and teaches at George Fox University and the University of Naturopathic Medicine.
Ann Turner, MD, Healthy Climate Action Team Member, Leadership Circle Donor [profiled April 2019]
Ann Turner, MD served for over two decades as one of the Medical Directors of the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center in Oregon. As a Healthy Climate Action Team member, Ann has provided testimony against many of the dangerous fossil fuel projects proposed in our region. She was also involved with ballot measure campaigns during the November 2018 Oregon election, in which the Portland Clean Energy Initiative passed and many dangerous statewide measures were defeated, including the anti-immigrant Measure 105. Continuing one of her passions, Ann now volunteers at Virginia Garcia working to improve care for patients with diabetes. Ann recognizes that climate change is the most important issue we face. She supports Oregon PSR financially as a member of our Leadership Circle because she believes in our organization’s science-based approach to healthy climate projects that also focus on building partnerships with other local organizations. She is excited to have the opportunity to work with the great staff and other volunteers at Oregon PSR to prevent new fossil fuel projects in our communities and provide a just transition to clean energy.
Robert Goldman, MD, Peace Work Group Member [profiled January 2019]
Robert, a general surgeon at the Portland VA Medical Center, has been combining his interests in science and peace since his undergraduate college days. He became involved with Oregon PSR after giving lectures to medical students about how upstream societal structural factors like inequality relate to life expectancy and cancer outcomes. He put these theories into action by working with our Peace Work Group as a judge for the Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship. He participates in other PSR projects as well, including a work group on inequality with Washington PSR. Through Oregon PSR, Robert helps build community and works towards a better future for the next generations. He also makes a difference by working with his family on a business called James’ Neighborhood Recycling Service, which bring together young adults and kids on the autism spectrum and community members to provide meaningful activity while reducing landfill waste in creative ways.
Patricia Kullberg, MD, MPH, Healthy Climate Action Team Member
Patricia, a Portland native, spent the bulk of her career as the Medical Director for Multnomah County Health Department, where she practiced as a primary care clinician in a clinic for the medically indigent. Patricia has also written two novels, a memoir, and articles for various progressive publications. Her writing explores the history and politics of healthcare, disease, and race in Portland. She utilizes her medical background and writing skills as a member of our Healthy Climate Action Team, by providing testimony in opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure projects and in support of the Portland Clean Energy Initiative. Volunteering with Oregon PSR is important to Patricia because she sees climate change as an existential threat that she can do something about. In her spare time, she facilitates writing workshops at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility for women and operates the soundboard at KBOO Community Radio.
Marilee Dea, MS, RN, CPNP, Healthy Climate Action Team Member [profiled March 2018]
Marilee is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who has been involved with Oregon PSR since our founding. In the 1980’s she worked at Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center where, along with her roommate (and Oregon PSR founding member) Dr. Karen Steingart, she became concerned with the nuclear threat. After hearing Dr. Helen Caldicott speak, she was driven to raise awareness about toxins in the environment. Working with migrant workers at the time, she was concerned for their health and the health and safety of their communities. Marilee began her nursing career in a lead poisoning prevention program, and she supports Oregon PSR because we are science and research based, and people trust health professionals who speak their truth based on research. Marilee is currently involved in the renewable energy revolution, and she draws inspiration from making her activism fun and engaging through flash mobs and other theatrical events.
Margie Kircher, MS, OT, Environmental Health Work Group Member
Margie has spent over 25 years as an occupational therapist working with children in special education in Vancouver, WA. She has personally noticed a sharp increase in kids suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, ADHD, and learning impairments. Margie works tirelessly with Oregon PSR to document and speak about the connections between those disorders and prenatal exposure to environmental toxins such as endocrine disrupting chemicals, heavy metals, and particulate matter from fossil fuel combustion. Margie says that her driving motivation is a concern for the well-being of children and future generations. We applaud Margie for her steadfast hard work on protecting neurological health.
Isabelle Cetas, Environmental Health Work Group Member
Isabelle worked with Oregon PSR's Environmental Health Working Group recently to write a factsheet on the health effects of airborne diesel particulate matter. She also helped organize Oregon PSR's delegation to the Clean Air Lobby Day in Salem in February 2017. Isabelle graduated with distinction from Whitman College in May of 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Humanities. She believes that Oregon PSR is unceasing in their advocacy, and she values our organization's ability to collaborate with other organizations and community members to effect meaningful and lasting change in both urban and rural settings all over Oregon.
Piper Nash, Environmental Health Work Group Member
Piper, a third year medical student from Bend, OR, had this to say about her work with Oregon PSR: "I have been amazed by how active Oregon PSR members are and by how many projects are being run simultaneously. It seems like Oregon PSR is consistently up-to-date and working hard to protect the health of Oregon communities, the state’s natural environment, and the way of life so many Oregonians enjoy. I believe that climate change is the greatest threat to health that humans face, and volunteering with Oregon PSR helps me fulfill a need, beyond treating individual patients when they become sick, of improving the health of our community."
Akash Singh, Volunteer
Akash is a Student Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions, a scientist with PSU's STAR Research Lab, and the Environmental Justice Organizer at Neighbors for Clean Air. He represents the NAACP and the Environmental Justice Task Force for the Cleaner Air Oregon regulatory initiative. Through his work, Akash has realized that there is an unfortunate lack of highlighting how social issues such as immigration policy, the refugee crisis, and police brutality have public health consequences. He sees Oregon PSR as a community champion in bridging that gap by connecting critical social issues and the public health paradigm. He is ecstatic to bring his skills to organizations and coalitions, committed to social justice, that improve the lives of marginalized communities.
Bill Wiist, DHSc, MPH, MS, Oregon PSR Member
Bill is a PSR member living in Newport, Oregon. The central focus of his work over the past decade has been issues of injustice resulting from the influence and power of corporations on health and democracy. His new book, Preventing War and Promoting Health: A Guide for Health Professionals, a project that began among Dr. Wiist and his colleagues on the American Public Health Association's Public Health Working Group on Primary Prevention of War, will be coming out this September. Bill has been active in Oregon PSR's coalition work to pass the Clean Energy Jobs bill in the Oregon Legislature.