Physicians for Human Rights’ Board of Directors is comprised of some of the world’s leading medical, legal, and scientific minds, who steer our work and hold us accountable to the highest standards.
Kerry J. Sulkowicz, MD serves as a trusted leadership advisor to some of the world’s most well-known and respected corporate executives and boards. He is the founder and managing principal of the Boswell Group LLC, a consultancy based in New York. Trained as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, he counsels CEOs and boards on a range of issues including evolving leadership challenges for CEOs, CEO transitions and succession planning, management and boardroom dynamics, corporate culture change, and assessments of senior teams.
Adrian Arena is director of the Oak Foundation’s International Human Rights Programme, which focuses on civil and political rights and works at both the national and international levels. Arena also serves as chair of the foundation’s Joint Brazil Programme.
Deborah D. Ascheim, MD is chief medical officer of Capricor, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of first-in-class therapeutics. She is also professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine and Heart Institute at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA.
Marion J. Bergman, MD, is a board-certified pulmonologist who practiced pulmonary medicine and critical care in Patchogue, NY, for 33 years. As an advocate for rural health and development in the developing world, Dr. Bergman now directs health care projects for Miracle Corners of the World, Inc. She is also an adjunct assistant professor at New York University's College of Nursing.
Dr. David Dantzker is a general partner of Wheatley Partners, LP, a New York-based venture capital fund, where he manages the partnership's medical portfolio of companies. He previously served as the president of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System and is the former chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Kathleen Foley, MD is an attending neurologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where she has worked for more than four decades. In 1981, under Dr. Foley's leadership, Memorial Sloan Kettering opened the first designated pain service in a cancer setting in the United States. Dr. Foley is a professor of neurology, neuroscience, and clinical pharmacology at the Weill Cornell Medical College, and holds the Society of Sloan Kettering Chair in Pain Research. She is the former medical director of the International Palliative Care Initiative, a core project under the Open Society Public Health Program.
Richard J. Goldstone is a former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He previously served as judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal, as well as judge of the Transvaal High Court. Justice Goldstone has recently served as a visiting professor of law at Georgetown Law School and at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Raymond Happy is a principal at the strategic fundraising firm CCS. He has planned, directed, and supervised fundraising campaigns throughout the United States and provided strategic advice to leading organizations around the globe. In his 31 years at CCS, Happy’s projects have raised billions of dollars for some of the country’s preeminent artistic, cultural, and educational institutions, human and civil rights organizations, and other leading NGOs.
Dr. Michele Heisler received her MD degree from Harvard University and MPA degree from Princeton University. She completed residency training in Internal Medicine and health services research training as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar from 2000-2002 at the University of Michigan Health System.
Alan K. Jones is an investor with more than three decades of experience in building and leading organizations. Most recently, he served as a Managing Director and Head of Global Private Equity at Morgan Stanley. Jones held various positions at Morgan Stanley over 25 years and served on a number of leadership boards and committees for the firm. He served as chairman of Morgan Stanley’s Global Private Equity Investment Committee and as a member of the Investment Committees for Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, Morgan Stanley Energy Partners, and Morgan Stanley Credit Partners.
Stephen Rapp is the Sonia and Harry Blumenthal Distinguished Fellow for the Prevention of Genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, heading the Office of Global Criminal Justice at the U.S. State Department. In this position, Rapp was responsible for advising the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights on issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and formulating U.S. policy related to preventing, responding to, and securing accountability for mass atrocities.
Adam Richards, MD, PhD, MPH, is an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also a primary care provider for homeless veterans as part of the Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (HPACT) in Los Angeles.
Anthony D. Romero is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He took the helm of the organization just seven days before the September 11, 2001 attacks, and subsequently led the ACLU in its campaigns to protect basic freedoms during a time of crisis, as well as its joint project to assist the under-resourced military defense lawyers in the Guantánamo military commissions.
Gail Saltz, MD is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill-Cornell Medical College and a psychoanalyst with the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. In addition to her teaching and private practice, Dr. Saltz is a frequent media contributor, columnist, bestselling author, and podcast host, offering her expertise on a variety of psychological and mental health issues, especially those pertaining to women’s emotional well-being, relationships, and the mental health aspects of current news.
Donna Shelley, MD, MPH is an associate professor of medicine and population health, vice chair for research, and co-director of the Section on Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use in the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Shelley is also an associate faculty member in the New York University College of Global Public Health.
For over three decades, Gerson H. Smoger, JD, PhD, has worked both within the U.S. and internationally on behalf of people suffering from systemic, neurological, and cognitive injuries as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals, including various pesticides, herbicides, dioxin, lead, and tobacco. He has served as lead counsel for Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange, and more recently has become one of the leaders in the fight against the fraud of light cigarettes. Dr. Smoger joined PHR's board in 2010 and is the current board secretary.
Stone is a social worker and occupational therapist practicing psychotherapy in New York City. Her clinical practice focuses on psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), conflict resolution, crisis intervention, divorce, and family mediation.
Lois Whitman is the founder and former director (1994–2012) of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Division, which investigates and seeks to end human rights abuses against children, including the use of child soldiers, the worst forms of child labor, torture of children, attacks on students, teachers, and schools, and also addresses issues involving juvenile justice and migrant children.
Dr. Davidoff was a member of PHR’s Board for 12 years, completing his final term in early 2011, and is now a Member Emeritus. He also served as Interim CEO of PHR from April 2011 through January 2012.
Dr. Carola Eisenberg, a founding member of PHR, has dedicated more than five decades to advancing human rights across the globe. Into her 90s, she was still teaching a new generation of students at Harvard Medical School about the vital connection between medicine and human rights.
Dr. Jack Geiger is the Arthur C. Logan Professor of Community Medicine Emeritus at the City University of New York Medical School. He has previously served as professor and chairman of Community Medicine at SUNY-Stonybrook School of Medicine and Tufts University Medical School, as well as Visiting Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Founding Member of PHR, Board Member Emeritus, and Past Board Chair
Dr. Lawrence is a founding member of Physicians for Human Rights and served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1985-1991. He was reelected to the Board in 1997 and was elected its President in 1998, serving until 2003. He was reelected in 2007 and served as chair of the board until 2013.
