PHR has four leading experts on torture—physicians and psychologists who have investigated torture by US forces, studied the physical and psychological consequences, and advocated to hold health professionals accountable. To arrange an interview, please contact Jonathan Hutson, JHutson [at]phrusa[dot]org or 857-919-5130.
Scott Allen, MD
Medical Advisor
Scott Allen, MD, Medical Advisor
Scott Allen, MD, is a Medical Advisor for the Campaign Against Torture at Physicians for Human Rights member. He became acutely aware of the link between health and human rights at an early age. As a teenager, he traveled to Cambodia to work in refugee camps and after earning his medical degree back in the US, he focused on the health care needs of prisoners and other underserved populations. Dr. Allen served as Medical Director for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections and subsequently founded the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights with fellow PHR member, Dr. Jody Rich.
Dr. Allen was the lead researcher for PHR’s report, “Leave No Marks” and has testified at congressional hearings on the legal and ethical implications of so-called “enhanced” interrogation techniques. He worked with PHR to press the American Medical Association (AMA), the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare (NCCHC), and the American Psychological Association (APA) to prohibit health professionals’ complicity in such practices.
Dr. Allen believes passionately in the power of health professionals to change public policy, that with sustained advocacy, the US will reaffirm the legal and moral imperatives against torture. “Three years ago I was incensed-as were a lot of my colleagues-by what was going on in the name of our profession, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Teaming up with PHR was the answer.”
Scott Allen, MD, Medical Advisor (High Res) (1.0 MB)
Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD
Senior Medical Advisor
Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, Senior Medical Advisor
Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, is Senior Medical Advisor to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). He is also Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Iacopino has participated in health and human rights research, investigations and advocacy for more than sixteen years. He represented PHR and supervised medical fact-finding investigations to Thailand, Punjab, Kashmir, Turkey, South Africa, Afghanistan, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mexico, Botswana, Swaziland, Iraq, Sudan and the United States, and documented the health consequences of a wide range of human rights violations.
Dr. Iacopino is the former Medical Director of Survivors International of Northern California, a non-profit organization providing medical and psychological assistance to survivors of torture from around the world. He was the principal organizer of an international effort to develop UN guidelines on effective investigation and documentation of torture and ill treatment (”The Istanbul Protocol”) and has served as a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He was a pioneer in conceptualizing the relationship between health and human rights. Dr. Iacopino has taught health and human rights courses at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health since 1995, and is the author of more than sixty health and human rights publications.
In 2004, Dr. Iacopino received The Center for Victims of Torture’s Eclipse Award for extraordinary service on behalf of torture survivors. In 2005, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Medicine of the University of Minnesota.
Allen Keller, MD
Advisor
Allen Keller, MD, Advisor
Allen Keller, MD, is on the Advisory Council of Physicians for Human Rights. He co-authored PHR’s ground-breaking report, “Broken Laws, Broken Lives”. Dr. Keller is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, and the Director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture and the NYU School of Medicine Center for Health and Human Rights.
Dr. Keller is recognized internationally as an expert in the documentation, evaluation and treatment of torture victims. He has received several awards including the Barbara Chester Award from the Hopi Foundation in recognition of his work with torture victims. Dr. Keller was twice honored by the graduating medical school class at NYU with the Humanism in Medicine Award. He is the 2007 recipient of the NYU Distinguished Alumnus Award and the 2008 recipient of the Eclipse Award from the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis.
Allen Keller, MD, Advisor (High Res) (2.4 MB)
Steven Reisner, PhD
Psychological Ethics Advisor
Stephen Reisner, PhD, Psychological Ethics Advisor
Steven Reisner, PhD, is a Psychological Ethics Advisor to Physicians for Human Rights. He is a founding member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. Dr. Reisner has actively worked to change the policy of the American Psychological Association’s support of psychologists’ participation in coercive or abusive military or intelligence interrogations at places like Abu Ghraib, CIA ‘black sites’ and Guantánamo Bay.
Dr. Reisner is Adjunct Professor for the Program in Clinical Psychology and Senior Advisor at the International Trauma Studies Program at Columbia University, and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the New York University Medical School. His publications have appeared in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Studies in Gender and Psychoanalysis and the Web-Journal, the Scholar and Feminist Online.
Dr. Reisner is an international consultant on trauma and its treatment, facilitating trainings in the treatment of post-war trauma with groups in Kosovo, the Kurdish region of Iraq, and following natural disaster, India and Sri Lanka. He was consulted on the role of the arts in post-war recovery projects in Peru and in Sierra Leone. In addition, he is a consultant to the staff of stress counselors at the United Nations.
In an earlier career, Dr. Reisner was an Obie-award winning director and actor. He continues his theater work as director of Theater Arts Against Political Violence, which has helped create theater works with Tibetan, Chilean and Kosovar survivors of torture and exile in New York and in Kosovo.
Stephen Reisner, PhD, Psychological Ethics Advisor (High Res) (1,006.9 KB)