John Crosson, MD – Emeritus Board Chair

John (he/him) spent his entire medical career in hospitals devoted to delivering excellent medical care to the underserved first at Minneapolis General Hospital and then HCMC. He trained initially as an internist then decided to become a Pathologist. From the early 1970s to 2005 he worked at HCMC as a general Pathologist. During this time he saw many patients who suffered greatly because they had inadequate insurance and could not afford to be seen in the health care system in a timely way. For over 25 years he has worked on getting universal health care available for all in the US. Currently he spends his time at the U of Minnesota teaching medical students and residents. He mentions the need to have single payer health care to them every chance he gets. 

Kristen Helvig, MD

Kristen (she/her) is new to the board of PNHP as of October 2024, and new to the world of organizing. She completed residency training in family medicine at North Memorial in 2009, and practiced full spectrum family medicine in that system for the next 10 years. She then moved to New Zealand with her husband and kids where she spent 2 1/2 years practicing in the rural far north of the North Island. Upon returning to Minnesota in 2022, she joined Allina Health’s East Lake Street Clinic. Returning to the US system after practicing within New Zealand’s national health care program was such a shock that it moved her to get involved in PNHP’s work towards a more just system. She is passionate about working with underserved and marginalized communities and teaching patients and medical learners.

Sara Lara, APRN, CNP, PHN – Treasurer

Sara (she/her) is a Family Nurse Practitioner working in Family Medicine at HCMC. She has also lived and worked in Honduras and Ethiopia and these experiences give her a unique perspective of our current model of health care and the importance of an inclusive system. She joined the PNHP MN board in 2021. She wanted to do more to support a system that invited sick (and well) people to get the physical and mental medical help they need, when they need it, without the worry of financial burden. She is excited to work with other medical professionals that have similar dedication to improving health care for all through a single payer system.

Rose Roach

Rose (she/her) is the National Coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer and Chair of Healthcare for All Minnesota. She retired in 2023 as the Executive Director of the MN Nurses Association after working in the labor movement for 34 years. For more than two decades, Rose has been involved in the healthcare justice movement, both as a national speaker and trainer. She served on Governor Mark Dayton’s Healthcare Financing Task Force as well as Attorney General, Keith Ellison’s, Lowering Pharmaceutical Costs Task Force. In 2016 and 2020, Ms. Roach was recognized as one of the MN Physician’s Magazine quadrennials, “Top 100 Leaders in Healthcare”, was the first recipient of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Women’s Trailblazer award in February 2024, and received the 2019 DFL’s Paul Wellstone Lifetime Commitment to Organized Labor award.

Allison Leopold, MS4

Allison (she/her) is a fourth year medical student at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and is planning to pursue addiction medicine. She enjoys educating and organizing around single payer healthcare, and she is excited about rethinking our modalities of healthcare delivery. She is also an artist and performer, and she recently starred in a musical about universal healthcare written by a fellow PNHP member!

Brian Yablon, MD – Board Co-Chair

Brian (he/him) is an internal medicine and pediatric hospitalist at HCMC in Minneapolis, where he enjoys providing care for a diverse and largely underserved patient population as well as teaching residents and medical students. He never ceases to be shocked by the inequity and inhumanity of our health care system. As a medical resident, he served on the board of PNHP-MN from 2010-2012 before moving to Anchorage, AK as a CDC public health fellow and subsequently working for several years as a hospitalist at the Alaska Native Medical Center. On returning to Minnesota in 2017, he was excited to become reinvolved with PNHP-MN.