Memorial Regional Hospital

Dr. Weiss, a native of New York City, is a senior member of the group and has spent his entire professional career at Gastroenterology Consultants, P.A. Dr. Weiss has been extremely active in hospital medical staff leadership and has held numerous key positoins throughout his career including Chief of Medicine at Memorial Hospital West. Currently, he is Chief of Gastroenterology at Memorial Regional Hospital.

Dr. Block attended Yale University in New Haven, CT, where he received his bachelor's and medical degrees. Following medical school, he held a general surgery residency at the University of Chicago and was trained in surgical oncology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Block entered the thoracic track of the Cardiothoracic Residency program at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO, a highly selective and prestigious appointment that chooses only one physician each year. The track provided complete training in all aspects of cardiothoracic surgery with an emphasis on general thoracic surgery. After completing the residency, Dr. Block practiced general thoracic surgery at the University of San Francisco for four years before accepting the position as Director of the Thoracic Oncology Working Group at the renowned Medical University of South Carolina in 2001. Dr. Block currently serves as the Director of Thoracic Oncology at Memorial Regional Hospital, with privileges at Memorial West, Memorial Pembroke Pines and Memorial Hospital Miramar and Cleveland Clinic. He holds certifications from the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, possesses medical licenses for the states of Florida, South Carolina and California, and is a member of many prestigious organizations, including the American College of Surgeons (where he is a Fellow), Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Association for Cancer Research. In addition to lung cancer and pulmonary surgery, Dr. Block has clinical expertise in the full range of thoracic disorders, such as benign and malignant esophageal disease, mediastinal tumors, pleural and chest wall diseases, tracheal stenosis and tumors, and VATS sympathectomy for hyperhidrosis.

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Lily Guzman, Corporate Consultant at The Executive Health & Wealth Institute, Inc. Through a stable television career that started at the age of twelve in her native Dominican Republic, Lily Guzman has been an active member of the community for over twenty-five years, working as VP of Operations, Production Manager, Public and Community Affairs Director and other management positions in several television stations in the tri-county area. Currently, she is the International Business Development Manager for Memorial Regional Hospital. A Barry University graduate, she holds a Masters in Public Administration from University Carlos III and the Institute for Municipal Studies and International Cooperation (CEMCI), Granada, Spain. She also teaches Strategic and Business Planning at University of Miami. Lily has proven that success can be achieved even under unfavorable circumstances; in her teens, she founded "La escuela Nocturna Obrera San Juan Bosco" Night School for Laborers in Dominican Republic. Through this institute, Lily tapped into her teaching potential which eventually flourished when she started teaching about the art of flower arrangement on television, at the National Library and the YMCA in the Dominican Republic. She also published numerous writings, including several children stories, in Better Homes and Gardens and other widely circulated publications. Although she has had an outstanding career, Lily Guzman considers her volunteer work to be her crowning achievement. She has represented the Iberoamerican Union of Municipalists (UIM), an International Municipal Government Organization, in the US for over 12 years. She has created collaborative exchange programs between US Institutions and Latin America and Spain, including: Stetson University Faculty and Students exchange program, Stetson University Law exchange program with the Universities of Granada and Malaga, Latin American Studies Program Municipal Government Internship and the yearly Latin American Mayors and Municipal Workers Workshop in Central Florida. She has served as Latin America Coordinator for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Sister Cities organization creating many relationships with South Florida, including the coordination and hosting of visitors and exchanges in the areas of art, education, cultural issues, and political and professional development.

Melanie has been a nurse for the past 15 years. She graduated in1994 from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan with her BSN and obtained her MSN in 2003 from Florida International University. She currently works as an ARNP for the Cardio-Vascular Institute at Memorial Regional Hospital. Melanie worked with a Hospitalist program and during her tenure expanded her role in administration for the Medicaid Hospitalist Pilot Program in Miami-Dade and West Palm Beach. She collaborated and developed the pilot program, which included in-servicing, monitoring multidisciplinary teams and marketing the program to the hospital's administrative teams. Melanie has mentored many student Nurse Practitioners and is a big proponent of bedside teaching with patients and their families. She has been an active member of the SFCAPN, since being a student herself. Melanie is a strong advocate for both Nurse Practitioners and patients. She believes one of the best ways of demonstrating this is through the power of education.