Wednesday, January 22, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
Cardiovascular Health in Seniors

Presented by: Martha Cano, RN

Martha Cano is a Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse serving as Clinical Nurse Specialist and Program Director for a JCAHO-Accredited Medicare-Certified Home Health Agency. Martha is also a consultant and primary nurse for referring physicians and their rehab clients in the Dade, Broward and Palm Beach/Treasure Coast areas of South Florida. Her clinical expertise is in rehabilitation, orthopedics, pain management, spinal cord injury and neurological rehab. She also specializes in skin and wound care. 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
Being a Senior in South Florida

Presented by: Bruce Williams, Andrew Hartmann, George Bisbiko

Bruce Williams was the Executive Director of a 500-resident CCRC Retirement Community for 25 years, and now oversees senior activities as the Senor Services Coordinator at The Pride Center. The Senior Advisory Council, a program of the Pride Center, works in concert with other LGBT groups to promote visibility and awareness of the LGBT senior population through supportive, educational programs and activities. 

Andrew Hartmann grew up in a farming family in eastern Slovakia where, for as long as he can remember, his family was subjected to forms of harassment. Yet his family remained intact until March 1942, when 1,000 Jewish Slovak girls were shipped to concentration camps, including two of his sisters, who died in Auschwitz. The rest of his family were exempted from deportation to the camps because the government needed their crops for farming. When the exemptions were canceled in May 1944, he, his mother, father and two remaining sisters fled to western Slovakia to work in a tobacco field. A few months later, hundreds of Jews were rounded up and shipped to Auschwitz. Andy, then 10, and his older sister fled into the forest. They never saw their parents or sister Valerie again.

George Bisbikos is the Founder and Executive Director of The Learning Center for Vision Impaired Seniors, a Florida 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together blind and legally blind seniors and adults for education, support, and socialization. George, who is legally blind, previously led a health and finance class at the Lighthouse of Broward County for five years.  The LCVIS has activities such as bingo, trivia, checkers, cards and field trips that allow socialization to address the lack of interaction in the vision-impaired community.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
Erectile Dysfunction and STDs in the Elderly

Presented by: Claudia Marcelo, DO

Board certified in Family and Geriatric Medicine, Dr Marcelo has a heart for seniors. She is a clinical instructor in geriatrics at NSU, FSU and UCF. In August of 2012, she accepted a position working for Life Care Physician Services, LLC, a company that is dedicated to serving the medical needs of individuals living in nursing homes, including Life Care Center at Inverrary, and serves as Director of an ALF, The Bridges at Inverarry.  As part of the Life Care Physician Services team, Dr Marcelo works alongside the nurses, dieticians, therapists and the executive director to provide professional care to each of her patients. She is the only full-time on-site geriatrician at a SNF in Broward County. Previously, she worked as a concierge physician for The Medical Concierge and Florida Hospital Centra Care in Orlando.

After graduating from New York College of Osteopathic Medicine with a Doctorate of Osteopathy, she completed her Residency in Family Medicine at Florida Hospital East Orlando in June 2011 and her Geriatric Fellowship in June 2012.

Dr. Marcelo is an active member of AMDA, representing Florida as a delegate. She is also a member of several osteopathic organizations including AOA, FOMA and BCOMA. When she is not taking care of patients, Dr Marcelo enjoys traveling, exercising, movie-watching, and the theater. She also enjoys volunteering at events sponsored by Junior League Association of Greater Ft Lauderdale.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
The Latest Research on Dementia & Alzheimer's Disease

Presented by: Murray Todd, MD

Dr Murray Todd received his Medical Degree and Neurology Residency at University of Miami School of Medicine.  He is Board Certified with the National Board of Medical Examiners, The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and the American Society of Neuro Imaging, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

Currently Dr Todd is a Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at  University of Miami School of Medicine, and Chairman and Professor of Neurology at the Nova Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine.  In addition, he is the Medical Director of the Neurological Institute and Memory Disorder Center at Broward Health North in Deerfield Beach.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
ESRN Board of Directors Installation

Presented by: Broward County Commissioner Dr Barbara Sharief

Barbara Sharief is a native of South Florida who was raised within Broward and Dade Counties with her eight siblings.  She has seen first-hand, the changes that have taken place in this culturally diverse community and is in touch with the ever-changing needs of the people living in Broward.   Ms Sharief graduated from Jackson Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1992.  She then obtained an Associate of Science Degree in Nursing from Miami-Dade Community College and BS in Nursing from Florida International University.

Working for Jackson Memorial Health Care System, Ms. Sharief has over 18 years of experience in the specialized field of issues pertaining to medically complex children.  She later worked for several national home health agencies as an Administrator and Directory of Nursing before starting and running her own business in 2001.  South Florida Pediatric Homecare serves Broward and Miami-Dade Counties and employs approximately 600 professionals in South Florida.

In 2009, Ms Shariet was elected to the Miramar City Commission and the Broward County Commission District 8 seat in 2010 where she currently serves the diverse population of Hallandale Beach, Miramar, Pembroke Park, Pembroke Pines and West Park. In 2013, she was elected as the first African American Mayor of Broward County and is currently pursuing her Nurse Practitioner Doctorate Degree.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
Hip & Knee Joint Reconstruction

Presented by: S. Richard Zavoyski, MD

Dr Zavoyski is a fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
Team Building

Presented by: ESRN Member Sharon Cofar

Wednesday, August 27, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
Services Available to Low-Income Seniors

Presented by: Christina Levine

Christina Levine has over 30 years in the long-term care arena. In her current position as Executive Director at MonarchCare, she oversees the services to a very diverse client population from children and seniors to those with mental illness or a disability. Providing social services and direction for those in need has been her career focus.

Previously she served as Community Relations and Marketing Representative for Covenant Village in Plantation as well as in various positions including Regional Customer Service Director, Administrator and Marketing and Admissions Director for HCR Manor Care, Senior Care Coalition, Safe Harbor Alzheimer’s Assisted Living and Manor Care Health Services.

Ms Levine has a BS in Human Services and numerous professional affiliations including the Plantation Rotary, Impact Broward (Trustee and Past Board President), TRIAD, Broward Coalition on Aging (Past Board President), Elder Services Resource Network (Past Board President),  Association SE Florida Chapter (Board President), Broward County Guardianship Association, Florida Health Care Social Workers Association, Florida Assisted Living Coalition, and South Florida Discharge Planners Association.  She has taught CCD at her church for over 25 years to both elementary and high school age students.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
How to Overcome Your Biggest Obstacle to Success

Presented by: Marni Spencer-Devlin

Marni Spencer-Devlin is the founder and former President and CFO of OCDM Marketing, which she built from the ground up and turned into a multi-million-dollar company with 70 employees. For twenty years she was on top, then she got sick and in 2008 and was given only a year to live.

In her first book, Crawling Into The Light, Ms Devlin shared her personal secret – she had been a heroin addict, a prostitute, homeless and in prison before her rise to power.  While writing Marni made a mind-blowing realization. Throughout her entire life everything had always turned out for the best even, and especially when, she thought she had reached her end. What if this was not the end either? Would she be able to commute her own death sentence?  She began studying holistic healing methodologies, yoga and meditation and she did not die. Instead, she wrote another book, The Iceberg Principles, describing the truth about the universe and your place in it.  Today Ms Spencer-Devlin writes, mentors and speaks about the importance of authenticity in business and personal development.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
Colorectal Health and Screening

Presented by: Himabala Ghanta, MD

Born in India and immigrating to New Jersey at a young age, Dr Himabala Ghanta received her undergraduate degree in Biology at University of Pennsylvania in 1997 and her medical degree from St George’s University School of Medicine in 2002, followed by a general surgery residency at St Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ. 

Her interest in colon and rectal surgery led her to pursue further specialty training, spending an additional year completing a colon & rectal surgery fellowship at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL in 2008.  She moved to California and joined the Association of South Bay Surgeons in 2008.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014 (The Court at Palm Aire)
It Takes Vision

Presented by: Lawrence Lampert, OD, FCOVD

Dr Lawrence Lampert is a developmental optometrist and one of a select number of people in his field with a fellowship in developmental vision and vision training who sees patients from around the world for consultations and evaluations. He treats children who are experiencing problems in school due to visual learning disabilities as well as professional and amateur athletes who want to improve their overall level of performance through vision training. In his practice, Dr Lampert also helps brain-injury patients and people experiencing visual complications from excessive time in front of computers.

Using vision training techniques, Dr. Lampert has worked with players from the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Miami Dolphins, Japanese Baseball League, PGA and LPGA golfers, USTA tennis players and world-class international athletes during the 1996 Olympics.