Steering Committee

Greater Boston PSR is governed by a Steering Committee.

The 2008-2010 Steering Committee Members

Clark C. Abt PhD - Distinguished Professor of Management, Cambridge College; Chairman Emeritus and past President of Abt Associates Inc. Dr. Abt has been involved in arms control and disarmament research for 45 years, most recently (since 9/11/01) in biodefense against both natural and man-made deadly epidemics, and port defense against nuclear terrorism. He is a member of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Smallpox Preparedness Advisory Committee, and Volunteer Senior Tutor, McKinley South End Academy High School, Boston. In the early nineties, Dr. Abt served as Director of Boston University's Defense Technology Conversion Center, and is a director of EPS and UNAGB. He remains devoted to the study of issues of public health, disease control, international development of health care, environmental security and arms control, nuclear disarmament and renewable energy.

Octo Barnett MD - Senior Scientific Director of the Laboratory of Computer Science, Department of Medicine, Mass. General Hospital where he was the Director from 1964-2004. He is also Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His main interests include the application of information technology to improve patient care and access to medical knowledge. Dr. Barnett is a founding member of PSR (part of Bernard Lown's kitchen cabinet). He graduated from Vanderbilt University and Harvard Medical School.

Ted Conna MD, Treasurer - Child Psychiatrist and faculty at University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Conna has been active in PSR since 1981, after the symposium "Medical Consequences of Nuclear War". He is particularly interested in developing a direct grassroots campaign to address the public's vulnerability to propaganda as an impediment to peace and social justice. Dr. Conna received his medical degree and psychiatric training from Duke University. Current Treasurer.

John Pastore MD - Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts University. Medical Staff President at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. A past President of Physicians for Social Responsibility. As a co-founder and past president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), he was present in Oslo, Norway in 1985 when IPPNW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

David Rush MD, Co-Chair - Professor of Nutrition, Community Health and Pediatrics (emeritus), Tufts University, and formerly head of the epidemiology program at the USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Center on Aging at Tufts. Dr. Rush is the editor of IPPNW's journal Medicine & Global Survival. He is one of three epidemiologists to sit on the US Dept. of Energy's Scientific Advisory Group to joint US-Russian studies on the health effects of radiation exposure at nuclear weapon's production sites in Russia, and has written extensively about the problem. Dr. Rush has been a PSR leader for over 35 years and has served at the local, regional and national levels in the organization. Current Co-Chair.

Jill Stein MD - Internist, public health advocate and founder of the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities (MCHC), instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School 1982-2005, and staff internist at Simmons College Health Center for 15 years.

Cornelia van der Ziel MD - Dr. van der Ziel is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist with the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She has been a member of PSR for many years, as well as APHA. She has written a manual dealing with complementary medical practices related to menopause and premenstrual syndrome and co-authored the book "Big, Beautiful and Pregnant." She is a long-time peace activist, most recently with the Brookline Peace group.