Press Release: 7/3/2025
The Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care (Mass-Care) announces Board and Officers.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kimberley Connors, Executive Director, Mass-Care, 617-297-8011, director@masscare.org
The Mass-Care Board of Directors for the next two years is
Co-Chair David Cohen, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution
Co-Chair Guy Qvistgaard, Retired Hospital Executive; Western Mass. Medicare for All
Secretary Katharine Nash, Democratic Socialists of America Massachusetts Chapters
Treasurer Lyn Newkirk, South Shore Medicare for All
Alan Meyers MD, Physicians for a National Health Program
Bruce Fleisher, 1199SEIU; J.P. Progressives
Christopher Spears, Our Revolution Massachusetts
David Foley, Service Employees International Union Local 509 (Alternate: Gianna Bacchetta, SEIU Local 509 Graduate Assistants, Tufts University)
Dean Robinson, Professor of Political Science, UMass Amherst
Elaine Correia, Massachusetts Senior Action Council
Ellen Church, League of Women Voters Massachusetts
Erin Leahy, Act on Mass. Organizer
Jeane Anastas, National Association of Social Workers Massachusetts Chapter
Jerry Fishbein, Greater Southeastern Mass. Labor Council
Jessica Tang, American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts (Alternate: Sarah Wilfred, Director of Policy)
Jon Weissman, Western Mass. Medicare for All
Judith Atkins, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution
Mallika Sabharwal MD, Physicians for a National Health Program
Patricia Healey RN, Massachusetts Nurses Association
Peter Knowlton, United Electrical Workers
Tami Gouveia, Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, Boston University; former Massachusetts Representative
Organizations are listed for identification purposes only, except for official organizational representatives, whose organizations are in bold.
About the new co-chairs:
David Cohen is a retired International Representative for the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE). He has over 40 years of experience in the labor movement. A former Mass-Care co-chair, Dave is a member of Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution, an organization that began with the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign in 2016. David, along with his wife Judy Atkins, also taught organizing and bargaining for ten years at the UMass Amherst Labor Center. They live in Greenfield.
Guy Qvistgaard is a retired Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer at Kaiser Permanente. He has over 25 years of experience in hospital and health plan operations and 40 years in the behavioral health arena, as a therapist and manager and having served on many association boards and advisory groups such as the California Hospital Association’s Center for Behavioral Health and as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)-California. He, Carolyn, and family live in Agawam.
Mass-Care’s mission is to establish a Single Payer health care system in Massachusetts so that all residents of the Commonwealth will have access to comprehensive, quality, and equitable health care, publicly financed and free of out-of-pocket cost at point-of-care, with free choice of practitioners, because it is basic to life and human dignity. The Mass-Care Coalition is now over 100 organizations advocating for An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts (H.1405 & S.860).