Andrew McGuire

Board Member & Executive Director, California OneCare & HEAL California

Andrew founded the Trauma Foundation, an incubator organization for projects committed to the prevention of traumatic injuries. He is a trauma prevention specialist and public policy expert in the area of injury and violence prevention and has decades of experience conducting and winning campaigns to improve public health. His work includes the campaigns for fire-safe cigarettes and mandatory seat belts. He has worked with burn injury survivors, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and, in 2000, served as Executive Director of the Million Mom March for gun control. In addition, he conceived of and was Policy Director of the Violence Prevention Initiative funded by The California Wellness Foundation. He is a MacArthur Fellow, an Emmy award-winning filmmaker, and founded COC in 2010.

Don Schroeder, PhD

Chair, California OneCare - Entertainment Industry Task Force

Don Schroeder has been a writer, producer, and director for more than forty years and his films have won dozens of awards around the world including a national Emmy for writing and directing the PBS documentary, “No Greater Love,” about the miracle of organ donation. He was co-founder and Executive Producer of Mentor Media where he produced and directed award-winning documentaries and educational films. In all, Don has more than three hundred films to his credit. He has been working to get single payer, Medicare for All in California since 2014.

Don holds a PhD in Communication from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, an MFA in Cinema Production from USC’s School of Cinema-Television, and an MS degree in TV/Radio from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Don lives in North Hollywood, California, with his wife, Elisabeth, who is a retired elementary school teacher

Michael Rodriguez, MD, MPH

Treasurer, California OneCare

Michael A. Rodriguez, MD, MPH, is the Director of the California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity, Special Advisor for the California Academic Health Department Project, and Professor Emeritus at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

He was a Professor of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and founding Chair of the UCLA Global Health Minor. He has led multidisciplinary collaborative initiatives to promote health equity, including as founding Director of the Health Equity Network of the Americas, an international network with representatives from 26 countries, founding Director of the UCLA Blum Center on Poverty and Health in Latin America, and founding Director of the AltaMed Institute for Health Equity.

Dr. Rodríguez’s research includes ethnic/racial and immigrant health equity, access to healthcare, violence prevention, and health workforce for underserved populations. He received his BS in Nutrition at UC Berkeley; MD from UCLA; residency in family medicine from UCSF; MPH at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health; fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Stanford University and was previously a professor of family medicine at UCSF.

He enjoys teaching, mentoring, and working with communities.

George Savage

Secretary, California OneCare

A founding Director and Secretary of California OneCare, George has notched 20 years of single payer advocacy and action. He helped drive campaigns that passed legislation in both houses twice, only to be dashed by Governor vetoes. He co-chaired key organizing Summits and the LA City Hall Rally culminating California’s historic 365-day, 365-city campaign for Kuehl SB 840.

As a father of five, George was inspired to apply his 30+ year advertising career to help California’s cause by initially creating messaging, materials, ads, and on-line communication during back-to-back legislative campaigns’ He helped to develop the HEAL California project podcast Code:WACK!, America’s #1 single-payer informational podcast now in its fifth year of timely, weekly reports.

George began his advertising career as a copywriter with Leo Burnett Agency and held several corporate ad director posts before forming his own ad agency. For twenty years, his agencies launched and guided many new enterprises to success. In 1997, the Kalis & Savage Agency was named “LA’s Internet Hot Shop” as it launched some 13 new internet brands. He continues to focus on cracking the communications challenge and serves as Chair of the COC Development Committee

Kathy Lander, MA, MFT

Board Member - Entertainment Industry Task Force

Kathy Fields Lander began her career in 1965 as an actress in feature films, stage and television. She co-starred in Richard Brooks’ The Happy Ending, and DaltonTrumbo’sJohnny Got his Gun. She went on to become the second female member of Local 659, the cinematographer’s union, as a still photographer in 1973. She worked on more than 20 major motion pictures such as towering Inferno, and The Man Who Would Be King. She shot the opening credit montage for Looking for Mr. Goodbar, starring Diane Keaton and Richard Gere. She was a fellow at the American Film Institute as a director and cinematographer.

Kathy has a Master’s degree and is a licensed California Family Therapist since 2001. Kathy is a longtime activist and has worked on the California OneCare board for single payer health care for twenty years.

Alberto Saavedra, MBA

Board Member

Al Saavedra is a retired computer industry entrepreneur who became a single payer activist when he was told that the software he sold to a large insurance company was going to be used to deny claims. He focuses on social media participation with pro-single payer organizations everywhere and organizing political street action when it makes sense.

Saavedra received a BS in Engineering Management from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an MBA in Management Information Services from Colorado State University.

Joan Abrahamson, PhD, JD

Board Member

Joan Abrahamson is a lawyer, an artist, and a catalyst for community action. Abrahamson is the founder and president of the Jefferson Institute, a public policy institute that seeks to implement solutions to social concerns in the areas of the future of cities, international security, international economics, health, and creativity. Since 1995, she has served as president of the Jonas Salk Foundation. She is also the Founding Chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

From 1973-1976, Abrahamson was responsible for converting an abandoned army base in San Francisco to the Fort Mason Center, a community arts and learning center, for which she was named a MacArthur Prize Fellow by the MacArthur Foundation in 1985.

Prior to her work at the Jefferson Institute, she served as a White House Fellow and as special assistant and associate counsel for Vice Presidents Walter Mondale and George H. W. Bush, and then as the latter’s assistant chief of staff. She also previously worked at the United Nations Human Rights Commission and at UNESCO’s Division of Human Rights and Peace.

Abrahamson serves on the boards of the National Geographic Society, the American Architectural Foundation, the California Institute for the Arts, and UNICEF, among others. She has been a consultant to many organizations, including the Harvard University Center for Urban Affairs, the Rockefeller Commission on the Arts and Education in America, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Nations University, the Executive Office of the President and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Abrahamson received a B.A. (1972) from Yale University, an M.A. (1973) from Stanford University, a Doctorate (1977) from Harvard University, and J.D. (1980) from the University of California, Berkeley.

Angela Gardner

Board Member

Angela Gardner is a disability rights advocate and former special education teacher.

She currently is a member of Hand in Hand, an organization that focuses on access to in-home care for people with disabilities and the workers/caregivers who provide care.

She is also an affiliate and board member of Healthy California Now, a coalition of organizations that advocate for a universal, single-payer healthcare system for all.

Angela lives in Whittier, California, a city in Los Angeles County.

Hank Abrons, MD, MPH

Board Member

Henry L. Abrons, MD, MPH joined the board in 2016. He graduated from Harvard College and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, followed by residency and fellowship training in New York City, Chicago, and at West Virginia University where he was Associate Professor of Medicine specializing in pulmonary disease and critical care. In 2001, he moved to Highland Hospital in Oakland and retired from clinical practice in 2007 to work for health care reform. He is a past board member and current advisory board member of Physicians for a National Health Program and served four years as president of the California chapter. He represents PNHP on the board of the Healthy California Now coalition.

Georgia Brewer

Associate Director, California OneCare & HEAL California

Since 2014, Georgia Brewer has coordinated our communications strategy, championing our message on social and streaming media.  She is the Executive Producer of our podcast Code WACK! and content editor of our digital and social media project, HEAL California. She also oversees our day-to-day operations, managing the budget and keeping the lights on.

Georgia’s dedication to the fight for healthcare equity is deeply personal. After watching her father, who suffered from a lifelong seizure disorder, struggle to obtain comprehensive health insurance until he finally qualified for Medicare at age 65, she committed herself to winning Medicare for All.

A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA and a former Commercial Lines insurance broker, Georgia lives in Sherman Oaks, California with her husband, Alan Kilmartin.

Brenda Gazzar

Brenda Gazzar is host and co-producer of Code WACK! She has worked as a multimedia reporter in California and the Middle East for more than two decades. Her work has been published by Reuters, Ms. Magazine, USA Today, Los Angeles Daily News, the Orange County Register, The Wrap, The Jerusalem Post, Cairo Times, and numerous other publications.

Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew, and moderate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state, and regional awards. Brenda also enjoys being a life coach, helping people align with their purpose so they feel fulfilled while achieving their boldest dreams.

Chelsea Schreiber

Chelsea Schreiber is the founder of Hermosa Social and a dedicated social media specialist who has worked with HEAL California for over five years. A mother of two, Chelsea is deeply passionate about fixing our broken healthcare system and is committed to amplifying HEAL California’s message across the state and beyond.

Her work with HEAL California focuses on creating impactful social media strategies that engage and educate the public on the importance of healthcare reform. Chelsea believes that passing Medicare for All is not just for Californians but for every person in the United States. She is driven by the vision of a healthcare system that provides comprehensive, equitable care to everyone, regardless of their circumstances. Through her expertise and personal dedication, Chelsea continues to play a crucial role in advocating for a more just and humane healthcare system for all.