Rob Davidson, MD

Executive Director & Board Member

Dr. Davidson is a board-certified Emergency Physician with nearly 20 years of experience in the Emergency Department in a rural West Michigan hospital. He completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Maine Medical Center after graduating from the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. In response to his experiences in the emergency department, Dr. Davidson is an outspoken advocate for universal healthcare and Medicare-for-All. As Executive Director of the Committee to Protect, Dr. Davidson advocates for the protection and expansion of health care coverage for his patients.

Miles Baker

Chief Operating Officer

Miles Baker previously worked for the AFLCIO, candidate campaigns, and is a veteran of issue campaigns and ballot initiatives across the country. He has been a universal healthcare advocate since the first time he raised his hand to volunteer for a Democdratic candidate. He currently resides in Chicago, IL.

Sara Cederberg

Director of Digital Strategy

Sara has extensive experience in digital strategy and fundraising for dozens of political candidates and nonprofits. In 2012, she helped secure President Obama’s win in the crucial battleground state of Michigan as Digital Director. Her work was recognized in the The Huffington Post as one of the “50 Women Who Made the 2012 Election.” Since then, Sara has gone on to design and execute world-class digital engagement and fundraising programs, most notably for former Minnesota Senator Al Franken’s re-election campaign in 2014 and John Fetterman in 2016.

Amy Libka

Director of Media Strategy

Amy has worked in many different facets of progressive politics: from candidate campaigns to ballot measures and issue advocacy. She is passionate about social and economic justice, and believes that achieving affordable and accessible healthcare for all is a hugely important goal towards achieving it. As Director of Media Strategy, Amy manages media planning, production, and buying for the Committee’s large campaigns and day-to-day operations.

Mariel Brown-Fallon

Digital Fundraising Director

Mariel is the Committee’s Digital Fundraising Director. With multiple cycles of political experience under their belt doing field, digital, and communications work, Mariel harnesses the power of the grassroots to help progressive candidates and organizations spread their messages, raise money online, and win.

Joel Bryson

Program Officer

Joel is the Committee’s Program Officer. A campaign staffer with specific experience in project management, volunteer organizing, and fundraising/development, Joel is passionate about applying these skills to advocate for universal healthcare . Since joining the CTP Team, he has gained experience in national organizing projects, non-profit administration, and communications. Joel earned a B.A. in Political Science from Kalamazoo College and currently resides in Chicago, IL.

Azlan Ibrahim

Communications Director

Azlan Ibrahim is the communications director for the Committee to Protect Medicare and Affordable Care, and has spent recent years focusing on healthcare and political messaging. He was the communications director for a 2018 congressional campaign in West Michigan. Prior to these two campaigns, he worked on communications and messaging on diverse issue advocacy initiatives and campaigns, including the Iran nuclear deal, the federal clean power plan, the federal farm bill and Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Az, as he’s commonly called, began working in issue advocacy and politics in 2005. Before that, he was an editor on the national and international desk at the Detroit Free Press, covering among other events one presidential campaign, and national security and terrorism in the post-9/11 world. In addition to working for Michigan’s largest newspaper, his other formal experiences include directing communications for a large healthcare entity and strategic communications for a multiclient agency. He lives with his family in Muskegon, MI, which The Hill identified as one of 10 counties nationwide that will decide the 2020 presidential election.

BOARD MEMBERS

Farhan Bhatti, MD

Board Member

Dr. Bhatti is a board-certified Family Physician and currently serves as CEO of Care Free Medical, a nonprofit clinic that provides medical, dental, and optometry care to underserved and uninsured individuals in the Metro Lansing area. He completed his residency training in Family Medicine at Sparrow Hospital. Prior to that, he graduated from the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University (MSU). Dr. Bhatti also holds two undergraduate degrees with Honors from MSU, Political Science and Physiology, with a specialization in Bioethics, Humanities, and Society. He is actively involved politically and is especially passionate about health care policy.

Richard Bruno, MD

Board Member

Dr Richard Bruno is a family & preventive medicine physician at Chase Brexton Health Care in Baltimore, MD. He has been active in local, state, and national organizations, serving on the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Physicians Alliance, the American Association of Public Health Physicians, MedChi (the Maryland state medical society), the Maryland Academy of Family Physicians, Sugar Free Kids Maryland, Friends of Hampden School #55, Hampden Family Center, Roland Park Civic League, Wyman Park Community Association, and Physicians for a National Health Program. He has been advocating for Medicare for All since his first year of medical school, organizing rallies and workshops for health justice. His main clinical focuses are the pair of pandemics: obesity and opioids, with involvement in community public health interventions and policies, including sugary drink interventions at local corner-stores and testimony on expansion of medication for opioid use disorder in the Maryland State House. He and his wife and their two children and love hiking, biking, and cooking together. He attained a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, doctorate of medicine from Oregon Health and Science University, and a master of public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He graduated from the combined Family & Preventive Medicine residency program at Johns Hopkins and MedStar Health.

Amanda Stitt

Board Member

Amanda Stitt is a political professional with a track record of progressive victories spanning her 20 year career. As the CEO of Change Media Group, she has worked with candidates and causes across the country to harness the power of data, digital and design to win. Change Media Group was recently recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America, and CMG received 10 2019 Pollie Awards – the most of any Democratic digital firm – for their 2018 campaign work. Amanda has played an integral role in many of the great successes in Michigan Democratic campaigns since 2000, including President Obama, Senator Stabenow, and Governor Granholm, where she served in various field, political, digital, GOTV, fundraising and strategy roles. A graduate of Kalamazoo College, Amanda lives in the Lansing area with her husband, Ryan, and their two children.

Vivek Palavali, MD

Board Member

Vivekanand (Vivek) Palavali, M.D. is an Indian-American neurosurgeon, author, and award-winning filmmaker. He specializes in cranial surgery, spinal surgery and neurosurgical trauma. He is board certified in neurosurgery. Dr. Palavali established his private practice in Flint, Michigan in 1995 after completing his residency in neurosurgery at the University of Chicago in July 1995. He received gold medals for standing first in his pre-med class as well as in his final year of medical school. He also received the Best Resident Teacher Award as the Chief Resident of Neurological Surgery at the University of Chicago Hospital.  Dr. Palavali has also pursued his interest in neurosurgery by participating in neuroscience research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and the North American Spine Society (NASS), as well as many other national and state medical associations. ​Dr. Palavali is influenced by the philosophy of Epicurus which inspires his passions: writing and filmmaking. He is also a desired speaker at seminars and conferences in the skeptic, secular humanist and atheist communities. He conveys his message of how to find and keep real happiness in his book, A Mindful Life: A Brain Surgeon’s Personal Experiences and Philosophical Reflections on Living Life Fully, published in 2006. Also, in that same year he published, Loving Life While Accepting Death, in The Humanist Magazine. His first film, Creator of God: A Brain Surgeon’s Story, has won several awards. Following the success of his first documentary, Palavali went on to film the award-winning documentary, Bitter Pill: America and Healthcare in America, in 2012. He has also authored a companion book for that film with the same title. Currently he is finalizing a new documentary titled, Screwed, which is set to release late 2019.

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