The Crossover with Dr. Rick Komotar

Dr. Sandberg is Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Neurosurgery and is the Dr. Marnie Rose Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School/UT Health. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed neurosurgery residency training at Weill Cornell Medical College at Cornell University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He was awarded the Resident Traveling Fellowship in Pediatric Neurosurgery by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He completed this fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. After residency, he completed fellowship training in pediatric neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. After 8 years on the faculty of the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami and Miami Children's Hospital, he moved to Houston to become the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the McGovern School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He holds a joint faculty appointment at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he is co-director of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Program. His major research interest involves novel delivery methods to treat malignant brain tumors in children.

Dr. Andrea J. Heuson has been on the Finance Faculty at the School of Business Administration at the University of Miami since 1982. She served as the Director of the International Finance and Marketing major from 1998 to 2008 and was appointed Academic Director of Real Estate Programs in 2009. Dr. Heuson has presented research at more than 100 academic conferences in her career and published articles on mortgage finance and other fixed-income markets in numerous academic journals while teaching valuation, international finance, management of financial institutions and real estate finance in undergraduate, graduate and executive level programs. Her research has appeared in Real Estate Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Research and the Journal of Housing Economics. In addition to her academic duties, Heuson serves as a consultant on all aspects of real estate brokerage and appraisal licensing for the State of Florida, including evaluation of licensing examinations and educational materials. In addition to her 2015 appointment as the Secretary of AREUEA, she is also the Treasurer of the Financial Management Association and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Research.

Paul A. Pavlou's research has been cited more than 90,000 times by Google Scholar, and Thomson Reuters recognized him among the “World's Most Influential Scientific Minds” based on an analysis of Highly Cited Researchers. Paul was ranked No. 1 globally in publications in top Information Systems journals from 2010 to 2016. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Systems and a master's in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor's in electrical engineering and managerial studies, magna cum laude, from Rice University. In his former position as Dean of the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, Paul helped raise over $150M in philanthropic gifts and commitments.  During his tenure, the Bauer College led all business schools by ascending 34 spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings to become a Top 50 MBA program; climbed 44 spots in the online master's programs rankings; joined the Top 15 public undergraduate programs by Poets&Quants; and ranked #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program by The Princeton Review for five consecutive years. He also prioritized experiential learning and job placement through initiatives like the Office of Experiential Learning and various research institutes, while also enhancing community inclusion with programs such as the Center for Economic Inclusion, securing over $10M in philanthropic support.

Feld arrived in Coral Gables after spending the previous four seasons working in the same capacity at the University of Oregon under Cristobal. In Feld's four years in Eugene, the Ducks compiled a 35-12 overall record, won two Pac-12 Championships and won the 2020 Rose Bowl. Feld arrived in Oregon from the University of Georgia, where he spent the previous three years as the assistant director of strength and conditioning while working with the Bulldogs' football program. Before working at Georgia, Feld was the head strength coach at the University of North Alabama and a volunteer strength coach at the University of Alabama, where he worked with Cristobal. Feld is a graduate of Mississippi State University and holds certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association. He began his career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he worked with both the football and women's basketball programs.

Joel Totoro is a registered dietitian and former director of sports science at Thorne where he oversaw human performance integration with Thorne's sports partners. Totoro became the first full-time sports dietitian in professional sports serving eight years as team dietitian for the New England Patriots directing all aspects of the team's nutritional needs. He was also University of Michigan's sports dietitian and served as the assistant chief dietitian at St. Luke's Hospital in Massachusetts, specializing in trauma nutrition. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Allied Health-Dietetics from the University of Connecticut.

Dr. Adrian L. Mesa is the founder and CEO of AMP Mental Health. Active within the healthcare field since 2006, he earned his doctorate degree from the University of Miami, and has board certifications by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as both a Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Aside from AMP, Dr. Mesa is an Army veteran, a father, a fitness enthusiast, and a photographer. Adrian traces the roots of his interest in mental health long before the start of his career. Being a first generation Cuban-American, he saw in real time the repercussions of the stigmas held by the Latino community, and even in his own family, toward those with mental illness. Dr. Mesa saw firsthand how mental illness impacted his uncle, who remains a role model and life mentor to this day and cites him as a frequent source of inspiration.

Gregory Shepard is a 20 year startup veteran and serial entrepreneur with 12 liquidity events under his belt, two of which were sold as part of a $925M transaction that won 4 Private Equity awards for transactions between $250M-$1B. He is a ForbesBooks author who has also written over 100 articles published in 25 national and international publications. A TEDX speaker and keynote speaker for universities, associations and conferences worldwide, his talks inspire the masses.He is the host of the Forbes Radio ‘Meet The BOSS‘ podcast and has been featured as a guest on over 25 popular podcasts as well as numerous network TV shows. Greg Co-Founded Boss Capital Partners, a global syndicate for investing in tech startups. He also Co-Founded Boss Startup Science with a learning center based on the University of San Diego campus. He developed the Business OperatingSupport System (BOSS) as an open source methodology to empower entrepreneurs while increasing startup success rate. Greg's massive success can also be linked to his 7 neurodivergent conditions which allow him to see business opportunities differently.

Luis Manuel Tumialán is a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute specializing in minimally invasive spinal surgery. He graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine, completed his internship at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. Dr. Tumialán completed additional training in undersea medicine in Groton Connecticut and Navy Dive School in Panama City, Florida. Upon completion of his operational training, he served as the Diving Medical Officer assigned to Naval Special Warfare Unit One in Guam during the Global War on Terror in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001. He received a Naval and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for service in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Southeast Asia and a Navy Humanitarian Medal for the search and maritime rescue of a foreign national.Once he returned to the mainland, Dr. Tumialán completed his neurosurgery training at Emory University School of Medicine and returned to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. He joined Barrow Brain and Spine in 2010 where he serves as the director of minimally invasive spine surgery. Dr. Tumialán's main interests are in minimally invasive spinal surgery and motion preservation surgery as well as developing techniques for the next generation of spinal surgery.

In his 15th year of service, Eric Renaghan is in his first year as Director of Sport Science for Football.  His role uses scientific principles to support the health, safety, and performance of their student-athletes through research, education, and innovation. Prior to the University of Miami, Renaghan was the Head of Sports Performance for the St. Louis Blues. He also held assistant strength and conditioning positions with the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks.  Additionally, in 2020-2022, Eric was the High-Performance Advisor to the Italian Ice Hockey Federation. In 2018, Renaghan received his M.S. in Human Performance from Lindenwood University and his B.S. in Kinesiology (2005) from San Jose State University. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Exercise Physiology. Renaghan is certified in strength and conditioning (CSCS)(RSCC*) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).  Additionally, he has presented at numerous national and international conferences on various topics in sport.

Dr. Krista Varady is a Professor of Nutrition at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her research focuses on the efficacy of intermittent fasting for weight loss and metabolic disease reduction in people with obesity. Her work is funded by the NIH, American Heart Association, International Life Sciences Institute, and the University of Illinois. She has published over 100 publications on intermittent fasting and co-authors the book “The Every Other Day Diet.”

Diane Hennacy Powell, M.D. is an author, researcher, public speaker and practicing psychiatrist who started as a neuroscientist before obtaining her medical degree and training in medicine, neurology, and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. She became a member of Harvard Medical School's faculty and later an original member of the La Jolla Group for Understanding the Origin of Humans, a think tank at the Salk Institute with several world-renowned neuroscientists and Nobel laureates. She has spoken at international conferences such as Towards a Science of Consciousness and the IONS annual conference. Her research findings and hypotheses about the brain and psi are published in her  book,The ESP Enigma: A Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena.  Her current research focuses on autistic savants. Their abilities are so similar to psychic phenomena that they defy the current paradigm about the brain and consciousness, but unlike psychic abilities, theirs are accepted because they are reproducible. Her current project investigates savants who also report psi.

Drew Rosenhaus negotiated over 10 billion dollars in contracts. Only Agent ever to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Appeared in national ESPN commercial. Published Autobiography with brother Jason titled ‘A Shark Never Sleeps”. Cameo appearance in and consultant to “Jerry MaGuire” and “Any Given Sunday” motion pictures. Regular contributor to the HBO Series “Arliss”. Ranked #1 Agent by the Sports Business Journal in 2006. Frequent national commentator on current sports issues. Has appeared on ABC Primetime Live, ABC Nightline, ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, ESPN's Outside the Lines, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and many others. Recently featured on HBO's Real Sports and Inside the NFL. Appeared in a national Burger King commercial with client “The King”

Dr. Anil Menon was selected by NASA to join the 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class. Menon was SpaceX's first flight surgeon, helping to launch its first humans to space during the Demo-2 mission and building a medical organization to support the human system during future missions. Prior, he served NASA as the crew flight surgeon for various expeditions on the International Space Station. Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician with fellowship training in wilderness and aerospace medicine. As a physician he was a first responder during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and the 2011 Reno Air Show accident. In the U.S. Air Force, Lt. Col. Menon supports the 45th Space Wing as a flight surgeon and supported the 173rd Fighter Wing where he logged over 100 sorties in the F-15 and transported over 100 patients as part of the critical care air transport team. 

Dr. Crane is a distinguished leader in cancer control and is passionate about her commitment to the science of better outcomes for patients and community. Her work sits at the intersection of lifestyle medicine and digital health with a goal of developing targeted interventions, utilizing digital biomarkers to deliver the right intervention, at the right time to the right person. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona and is an R25 Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) NCI Fellow.Dr. Crane was recruited to Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center to co-lead the Cancer Control Research Program and direct the Lifestyle Medicine, Prevention and Digital health initiative. She serves on the University of Miami IRB's consent to contact committee as the Sylvester representative for cancer-related studies and is an appointed cabinet member to the Executive Dean for Research of the Miller School of Medicine. As the population science representative, she serves on the Gynecologic Oncology and Lymphoma site disease groups and works with clinical and research faculty members. She was recently appointed the Vice-Chair for NRG Oncology NCORP Cancer Prevention and Control Committee.Dr. Crane joined Sylvester from the College of Nursing, Biobehavioral Health Sciences Division, at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she served as co-lead of the Behavioral Measurement and Interventions Shared Resource at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. She also held joint appointments in the Department of Nutrition Sciences, Data Science Institute, and Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Dr. Michael Fischer is an Assistant Scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) at the University of Miami. His research interests involve environmental and convective influences on tropical cyclone structure and intensity change, with an emphasis on processes associated with tropical cyclone rapid intensification. His research utilizes a combination of satellite and aircraft observations, reanalysis products, numerical modeling, and machine-learning techniques.

Sean Swarner is a living testament to resilience. Given 14 days to live, he emerged as the first cancer survivor atop Everest, scaling all seven continents' peaks, skiing to both Poles, and completing the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. Beyond milestones, he founded The Cancer Climber Association, wrote “BECOMING UNSTOPABLE: Conquering Your Everest” and is a sought-after speaker. From crawling in a hospital to Everest's summit, Sean's journey inspires globally.Achievements:* 2-Time Cancer Survivor* 1st Cancer Survivor to Summit Mount Everest* 1st Cancer Survivor to Complete the 7-Summits* Has Spoken In Front of Over 1 Million People* Taken Over 1000 People on Adventure Expeditions

Eric Mac Lain joined ACC Network in 2019 and is a studio analyst on The Huddle, ACCN's signature football show that airs Friday evenings and Saturday mornings throughout the fall. Mac Lain also appears on studio shows across ESPN networks throughout the college football season. He also contributes to ESPN's XFL game coverage as a field analyst.A Hope Mill, N.C., native, Mac Lain played at Clemson 2011-15, where the Tigers captured two conference championships and made a national championship appearance. He obtained the most wins (46) by a single player in Clemson history, while earning Strength and Conditioning All America honors. As a student, Mac Lain was an All-ACC Academic Football Team selection and was graduated with a bachelor's in health science (2015) and a master's in athletic leadership and administration (2017). He joined ACCN from JMI Sports where he worked on multimedia sponsorship rights for Clemson athletics.

Dr. Bob Hariri is an accomplished surgeon, biomedical scientist, and serial entrepreneur in two technology sectors, biomedicine and aerospace. He is the chairperson, founder, and chief executive officer of Celularity, Inc., one of the world's leading human cellular therapeutics companies.Dr. Hariri was the founder and CEO of Anthrogenesis Corporation, and after its acquisition by Celgene Corporation, served as CEO of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics. Dr. Hariri also co-founded the genomic-based health intelligence company, Human Longevity, Inc. Dr. Hariri has served on numerous public boards including Cryoport. Dr. Hariri pioneered the use of stem cells to treat a range of life-threatening human diseases and continues today to make transformative contributions in the fields of immuno-oncology and cell therapeutics along with tissue engineering and functional regeneration. He is widely acknowledged for his discovery of pluripotent stem cells derived from the human placenta, and as a member of the team that discovered the physiological activities of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Dr. Hariri and his team of scientists were the first to obtain FDA approval to use its cryopreserved allogeneic, off-the-shelf Natural Killer (NK) cell therapy to treat COVID-19 infected adults. He holds over 170 issued and pending patents for discoveries including placenta-derived stem cells, which Nature recognized as one of the ten most important patent estates in the field. He has authored over 150 published chapters, articles, and abstracts.

As President of the University of Miami and CEO of UHealth, Joe Echevarria leads more than 20,000 professionals whose focus is transforming lives through education, research, and patient care.A seasoned chief executive, Mr. Echevarria served as the CEO of Deloitte LLP, a global provider of professional services, from 2011 until his retirement in 2014. During his 36-year tenure with the firm, he served in various leadership roles, including Deputy Managing Partner, Southeast Region, Audit Managing Partner, and U.S. Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer. His leadership responsibilities extended to approximately 70,000 professionals in nearly 90 U.S. cities and India, as well as the firm's US-owned consulting businesses in Germany, Mexico, China, and Brazil.Mr. Echevarria has a long history of service to the University of Miami, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1978.  Following his retirement from Deloitte and seven years of service on its Board of Trustees from 2012 to 2019, Echevarria brought his expertise to the University of Miami Health System as a Senior Advisor to former President Julio Frenk, Interim Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, and Interim Chief Executive Officer. He became Chief Executive Officer of UHealth in 2020 and his responsibilities as CEO grew to include the entire University in 2022. On June 12, 2024, the University of Miami Board of Trustees appointed him Acting President of the University.

One of the nation's most prominent scholars, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., is a passionate educator, author, political commentator, and public intellectual who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul”, “In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America”, and his most recent, the New York Times bestseller, “Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own”, takes an exhaustive look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy. Of Baldwin, Glaude writes, “Baldwin's writing does not bear witness to the glory of America. It reveals the country's sins and the illusion of innocence that blinds us to the reality of others. Baldwin's vision requires a confrontation with our history (with slavery, Jim Crow segregation, with whiteness) to overcome its hold on us. Not to posit the greatness of America, but to establish the ground upon which to imagine the country anew.”A highly accomplished and respected scholar of religion, Glaude is a former president of the American Academy of Religion. His books on religion and philosophy include “An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion”, “African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction”, and “Exodus! Religion, Race and Nation in Early 19th Century Black America”, which was awarded the Modern Language Association's William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize.

Educated at the Universities of Keele and London, Professor Tipton joined the University of Surrey in 1986. After 12 years at the Robens Institute and European Institute of Health and Medical Science he moved to the University of Portsmouth in 1998. In addition to his University positions, Professor Tipton was based at the Institute of Naval Medicine (INM) from 1983 to 2004 and was Consultant Head of the Environmental Medicine Unit of the INM from 1996. He has spent over 30 years researching and advising in the areas of thermoregulation, environmental and occupational physiology and survival in the sea. He has published over 400 scientific papers, reports, chapters and books in these areas. Professor Tipton is a consultant in survival and thermal medicine to the Royal Air Force and UKSport; he sits on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's Medical & Survival Committee, Surf Lifesaving GB's medical and research advisory panel and the Ectodermal Dysplasia Society's medical advisory board. He Chairs UKSport's Research Advisory Group which oversees all medical and technological research undertaken with and for Team GB's athletes. Prof Tipton is Patron of the SARbot charity, a Trustee of Surf Lifesaving GB and section editor of the journal Extreme Physiology and Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. Prof Tipton provides advice to a range of universities, government departments, industries, medical, search and rescue and media organizations.

Renée DiResta is the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a cross-disciplinary program of research, teaching and policy engagement for the study of abuse in current information technologies. Renée investigates the spread of narratives across social and media networks, with an interest in understanding how platform algorithms and affordances intersect with user behavior and factional crowd dynamics. She studies how actors leverage the information ecosystem to exert influence, from domestic activists promoting health misinformation and conspiracy theories, to the full-spectrum information operations executed by state actors. She was a 2021 Emerson Fellow and 2018-2019 Mozilla Fellow, a 2017 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Council on Foreign Relations term member, and a Truman National Security Fellow. She is the author of The Hardware Startup: Building your Product, Business, and Brand and has degrees in Computer Science and Political Science from Stony Brook University.

Daniel Corbett III served as an elite Navy SEAL operator, part of SEAL Teams 5, 6, and 17. He's now an ex-military operator for hire. He joined the navy shortly after graduating high school in 2002 and was deployed to Iraq in the summer of 2005 with SEAL Team 5. He joined SEAL Team 6 in 2007, deploying to various locations around the world. In 2010, Daniel returned to the West Coast and began instructing at the Naval Special Warfare Basic Training Command (NSWBTC). Daniel ended his active-duty career after two years with NSWBTC and quickly fell into the world of private military contracting. Daniel joined the active reserves in 2014 and maintained his active reserve status until 2019. In 2017, Daniel made international news when he was thrown in jail in Belgrade, Serbia, for eighteen months after traveling there as a private contractor to track a terrorist financier. Daniel still monitors international news and continues to entertain phone calls and meetings with those who need unique solutions to unique problems.

Alex R. Piquero is Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar the University of Miami and previously served as the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one of the nation's thirteen federal statistical agencies (appointed by President Biden, June 2022). Dr. Piquero is a nationally and internationally recognized criminologist with more than 26 years of experience. Over the course of his career, Dr. Piquero has given congressional testimony on evidence-based crime prevention practices and has provided counsel and support to several local, state, national and international criminal justice agencies and elected leaders. His expertise ranges from criminal careers to criminal justice policy and crime prevention to the intersection of race/ethnicity and crime, with a focus on quantitative methodology. Dr. Piquero has published over 500 scholarly articles and several books and is among the most highly cited criminologists in the world. He also served as editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology and the Justice Evaluation Journal. He is a Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. In 2019, he received the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Bruce Smith Sr. Award for outstanding contributions to criminal justice, and in 2020, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology of the American Society of Criminology.

Rico Simonini is an Italian-American actor and cardiologist. Rico Simonini graduated New York University with a bachelor's degree and the John Parkes History Award. As an actor he has enjoyed the opportunity to play leading roles in dozens of plays on stages in New York, Los Angeles and a few places in between. However, Rico's journey in the dramatic arts has shadowed his primary vocational pursuit which propelled him from tree-lined Brooklyn roots, to New York's Bellevue Hospital, then to San Francisco, Boston, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Chicago and eventually Los Angeles; cardiovascular medicine. Eventually after being recruited by one of Los Angeles' most prestigious medical centers, it was an inevitability that his artistic pursuits would blossom as often times his clients would recruit him and indulge his fancy for film and theater. In 2014, playwright Willard Manus chose Rico to originate the role of Frank Sinatra in “Frank and Ava” a two-hander developed at the Actors' Studio, that portrayed the iconic romance between “extraordinary individuals” facing obstacles relatable to all: impossible love and lofty dreams, the yearnings for which push us to the brink. This story, based on true events, of Sinatra's redemption and resurrection despite improbable odds in an unfriendly world (the scrutiny of the 1950's) inspired Rico to undertake a screenplay adaptation and his first feature film production premiere in 2018, with global release in early 2019. The film, “Frank and Ava” is now available on major streaming platforms.

Management thought leader and award-winning organizational psychologist Wendy K. Smith is on a mission to help individuals and organizations turn our problems into possibilities.  Smith currently holds the prestigious title of Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management and serves as the faculty director of the Women's Leadership Initiative at the Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware. Wendy is also one of the youngest people named as an Academy of Management Fellow. As an organizational psychologist, she is a leading expert on the power of paradox - applying both/and thinking to help us innovate, change and generate more creative, sustainable solutions to our toughest challenges. In her talks, Wendy brings science-based research to life with real world stories to both captivate and motivate her audiences. Smith is the co-author of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, along with Marianne Lewis, named a Top 10 Management Book by Thinkers50, a finalist for the Next Big Idea Award, and a #1 Amazon New Release. Smith and Lewis were awarded the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award for these groundbreaking ideas. Wendy is also an award-winning scholar. She has been named the Web of Science Highly Cited Researchers for being among the top 1% most-cited researchers for 5 years in a row.

Dr Hernandez Rey specializes in treating patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), recurrent pregnancy loss (miscarriage), and severe endometriosis. He is especially interested in fertility preservation (egg freezing) for patients who must delay childbearing for personal or medical reasons, including cancer and systemic lupus erythematosus. As one of only two fertility specialists offering robotic surgery in Miami, Dr. Hernandez-Rey is able to offer minimally invasive surgeries with faster recovery times and minimal scarring, often as an alternative to advanced treatments such as IVF. He has performed numerous tubal reanastomosis procedures (tubal ligation reversal), myomectomies (removal of fibroids), and surgery for severe cases of endometriosis for the management of infertility.Dr. Hernandez-Rey has made dreams come true for hundreds of families from South Florida and across the world. He prides himself on being accessible to his patients to ensure they are calm and reassured, a key component to his success. Dr. Hernandez-Rey is an assistant clinical professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University and serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Fertility and Sterility.

EJ Manuel, a former first-round NFL Draft pick, joined ACC Network in 2019 and is a studio analyst on The Huddle, ACCN's signature football show that airs Saturday mornings throughout the fall. He also co-hosts ACCN's In Play with Kelsey Riggs and is a regular each week on ESPN's College Football Live. Along with is his ESPN duties, Manuel co-hosts College Sports Today on SiriusXM with Brock Huard.Myron was ranked the No. 1 high school football prospect in the country. With 83 scholarship offers from Division I institutions, Myron matriculated to FSU. At FSU, he earned his degree in just two and a half years and was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship upon graduation, enabling him to study at Oxford University in England. Rolle skipped his senior year of football to pursue a master's degree at Oxford and simultaneously train for the NFL Draft. In 2010, Dr. Rolle was selected in NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans and finished his career three years later with the Pittsburgh Steelers. After life in the NFL, Myron enrolled at the FSU College of Medicine followed by neurosurgery residency at Harvard.

Dr. Agarwal has been on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School prior to returning to the University of Miami in 2007, where she has been inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society, Alpha Omega Alpha and the Iron Arrow Honor Society. She has developed, directed, and taught numerous courses at the medical school including the Cardiovascular Course, Respiratory Course, Doctoring/Physicianship courses, the Internal Medicine Clerkship, the Medical Education Elective, and the Transitioning to Residency Course. She has an interest in the medical humanities and served as the pathway director in ethics and medical humanities. She founded Obliterants, the medical school's first humanities journal. She serves as the faculty advisor for the magazine and for UM's chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. She has won many school, regional, and national teaching awards including the American College of Physicians (ACP) Medical Educator Award.

Kendall Burman serves as PHC Global's President. Prior to joining PHC Global, Burman held leadership roles at Alloy, a data and technology start-up for the progressive political market. Burman previously served as the Deputy General Counsel for Strategic Initiatives at the Department of Commerce and as Associate White House Counsel and Special Assistant to the President in the Obama Administration. She was also a counsel in the cybersecurity and data privacy practice at Mayer Brown and served as Chief Staff Counsel for President Obama's 2008 campaign.Burman is a graduate of Bowdoin College and received her J.D. from the University of Chicago where she was an editor of the law review. She was also was a fellow at both the New America Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Daisy Sanchez is a Mexican-American surgeon, cosmetologist, and social media influencer. She attended medical school at The Medical University of South Carolina and completed her general surgery residency at Memorial Healthcare System. She is currently a plastic surgery fellow at The University of Texas, San Antonio.

EJ Manuel, a former first-round NFL Draft pick, joined ACC Network in 2019 and is a studio analyst on The Huddle, ACCN's signature football show that airs Saturday mornings throughout the fall. He also co-hosts ACCN's In Play with Kelsey Riggs and is a regular each week on ESPN's College Football Live. Along with is his ESPN duties, Manuel co-hosts College Sports Today on SiriusXM with Brock Huard.One of the most productive quarterbacks in Florida State history, Manuel led the Seminoles to a 25-6 record as a starter during the 2009-12 seasons, and the fourth-most wins in program history. The Virginia Beach, Virginia, native also helped Florida State to notable victories including the 2013 Discover Orange Bowl, 2012 Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game and 2009 Gator Bowl – the final game of legendary coach Bobby Bowden's career. He is the second quarterback in FBS history to win four straight bowl games, and also went 15-3 in his career against ACC opponents. Manuel is FSU's all-time leader in completion percentage (66.9), which is tied for third in ACC history, and ranks among the top five Seminole quarterbacks all-time for passing yards (7,736, 4th), total offense (8,563, 3rd), completions (600, 3rd) and attempts (897, 5th), despite only two seasons as the full-time starter. He earned second team All-ACC honors for the 2012 season and was named the 2013 Senior Bowl MVP.Following his career at FSU, Manuel was a first-round draft pick by the Buffalo Bills in 2013.

Dr. Schwartz received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. After completing his residency and chief residency in Neurosurgery at The Neurological Institute of NewYork at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Dr. Schwartz spent a year at Yale-New Haven Medical Center receiving advanced fellowship training. Dr. Schwartz specializes in the surgical treatment of brain tumors, pituitary tumors, and epilepsy using the latest techniques in computer-guided surgical navigation, minimally invasive endoscopy, and microsurgery. Dr. Schwartz was recently named David and Ursel Barnes Professor in Minimally Invasive Surgery, the first endowed professorship in the department.Dr. Schwartz has provided commentary for numerous television shows on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Larry King, in addition to national radio shows. His expertise has been sought through interviews, quoted and published, in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, and Crain's New York Business; he is asked to lecture throughout the country and world. Dr. Schwartz has published many scholarly articles for the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Epilepsia, Clinical Neurosurgery the Journal of Neuro-Oncology, Nature Medicine, NeuroImage and the Journal of Neuroscience.Dr. Schwartz has been named one of New York's Super Doctors, Best Doctors in New York Magazine, America's Top Surgeons, America's Best Doctors and America's Best Doctors for Cancer. He is the co-author of two books on endoscopic skull base surgery and endoscopic pituitary surgery.

Dr. LJ Maxfield is an Instagram star and dermatologist known for creating content about conditions that affect the skin, hair and nails. His posts include facts about acne, wrinkles and retinoids. He has published in various medical journals. He has amassed more than 170,000 followers on his dr.ljmaxfield Instagram account. Outside of social media, Dr. Maxfield is a North Carolina coastal-based dermatologist known for integrating medical dermatology and skincare into an active lifestyle. Dr. Maxfield has published extensively and worked for years in medical education teaching, building curriculum, and tutoring medical students and resident physicians. He believes that knowledge empowers and is passionate about sharing this through social media. 

Dr. Jeffrey A. Engel is founding director of the Center for Presidential History at SMU and Professor in the Department of History.  A Senior Fellow of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies, he graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University.  He additionally studied at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, before holding a John M. Olin Postdoctoral Fellow in International Security Studies at Yale University. In 2012 the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations named him their Bernath Prize lecturer, while at SMU the students voted him their Professor of the Year.Engel has authored or edited twelve books on American foreign policy. A frequent media contributor on international and political affairs on venues including MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, National Public Radio, and the BBC, his scholarly and popular articles have appeared in such journals as Diplomatic History; Diplomacy & Statecraft; American Interest; USAToday; The Los Angeles Times; International Journal; The Dallas Morning News; The Houston Chronicle; Air & Space Magazine; and The Washington Post.

Dr. Michael Collins is the Director and Chief Neuropsychologist at The Clinical Neuropsychology Center (CNC). Dr. Collins is a licensed psychologist in Florida and Rhode Island that has testified 100's times as an expert witness and court appointed or retained for over 2000 psychological evaluations (Civil and Criminal). Prior to founding CNC, Dr. Collins was the Director of Psychology at South University and has since that time developed the Broward County Post Arrest Diversion program. Dr. Collins earned his PHD in Clinical Neuropsychology from Nova Southeastern University and completed supervised training in forensic and neuropsychology. Dr. Collins is a medical vendor with the Justice Administration Commission in all 20 judicial circuits throughout the state of Florida.

Dr. Erin Kobetz is Vice Provost for Research and Tenured Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. Additionally, she is Associate Director of Population Science and Cancer Disparities at UM's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC), as well as, the Chief of Population Health and Cancer Disparities for UHealth Oncology Service line. Dr. Kobetz also serves as Program Director for the Community Engagement and Multidisciplinary Team Science Components of UM's Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSA). She earned a Master's in Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 1999, and joined the University of Miami in September of 2004, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Public Health. Soon after, Dr. Kobetz established Patnè en Aksyon (Partners in Action), Sylvester's first ever campus community partnership in Little Haiti, the largest enclave of Haitian settlement, and remains committed to integrating diverse stakeholders into the translational research continuum.

Dr. Erin Kobetz is Vice Provost for Research and Tenured Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. Additionally, she is Associate Director of Population Science and Cancer Disparities at UM's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC), as well as, the Chief of Population Health and Cancer Disparities for UHealth Oncology Service line. Dr. Kobetz also serves as Program Director for the Community Engagement and Multidisciplinary Team Science Components of UM's Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSA). She earned a Master's in Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 1999, and joined the University of Miami in September of 2004, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Public Health. Soon after, Dr. Kobetz established Patnè en Aksyon (Partners in Action), Sylvester's first ever campus community partnership in Little Haiti, the largest enclave of Haitian settlement, and remains committed to integrating diverse stakeholders into the translational research continuum.

Tricia Cullop is the eighth head coach in program history. Cullop comes to Coral Gables after spending the past 16 seasons as the head coach at the University of Toledo, where she compiled a record of 353-169. The six-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year led the Rockets to five MAC regular season championships and 11 postseason berths, including two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to Toledo, Cullop spent eight seasons as the head coach at the University of Evansville. A respected leader in college basketball coaching circles, Cullop served as the President of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 membership years. In 2022, she received the WBCA Carol Eckman Integrity in Coaching Award, which is awarded to the member coach who best reflects Eckman's character traits of courage, ethical behavior, honesty, sportsmanship and commitment to the student-athlete. Cullop earned MAC Coach of the Year honors in each of the past three seasons as her Rockets won a total of 85 games and captured three conference regular season crowns. In 2023-24, Toledo posted a 28-6 record, including a 15-1 mark at home, where the Rockets averaged 4,351 fans per game, good for first in the MAC and 33rd nationally. UT advanced to the quarterfinals of the WBIT.

Eric Schulze, PhD is a professional molecular biologist, genetic engineer, and former federal biotechnology regulator. He is currently Founder and CEO of GOODHUMANS STRATEGY & DESIGN AGENCY, a full-service food innovation consultancy for a climate-changing world. Previously, Dr. Schulze has served as Vice President of Global Regulatory and Public Policy at UPSIDE FOODS, the world's first cultivated meat company. At UPSIDE, he led the company's regulatory-, policy-, and government affairs. Dr. Schulze and his team developed the policy and processes that brought the first-ever cultivated meat product to market in the US in 2023. Dr. Schulze also served in a company spokesperson capacity and launched the first-ever cultivated meat FSQA program, first regulatory affairs program, food product development program, and cell line development program.  Before the private sector, he served as a U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulator, handling a portfolio of novel food and drug biotechnology products. As a civil servant, Dr. Schulze also served as a federal STEM education policy capacity within the National Science Foundation and currently works with the National Academy of Sciences on undergraduate STEM education transformation. He holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in genetic, cellular, and molecular biology with a specialty in embryonic stem cell engineering from the University of Southern California (2010), a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Loyola University New Orleans (2005), and is trained in broadcast communication, speechwriting, and risk assessment.

Rohan Marley is the founder of Marley Coffee and son of legendary musician and visionary Bob Marley. Rohan was born in Jamaica in 1972 and later moved to the United States, going on to study sociology at the University of Miami and starring as a linebacker for the U of M Hurricanes. He would later go on to play professionally for the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Rough Riders, but throughout his football career, Rohan knew deep in his heart that he would one day return to his family roots like his father, whose dream was to eventually become a farmer.  In 1999, Rohan's dream began taking shape when he found and bought 52 acres of land atop Jamaica's Blue Mountains, one of the world's most prized coffee-producing regions. In 2007, Rohan founded the Marley Coffee brand, finally fulfilling his ancestors' deep-rooted love for farming. Rohan is a passionate entrepreneur and visionary, like his father, combining his creativity and business acumen to create a self-sustainable and certified organic coffee farm which aims to help preserve Earth's natural balance. Marley Coffee has seen rapid growth in the gourmet marketplace, thanks to the rich, bold flavors of their coffee beans, and to Rohan's unwavering support of sustainable, organic, and Fair Trade farming practices. Rohan has also carried on Bob's legacy by establishing the Tuff Gong Clothing Company, named after his father's music label, Tuff Gong International. "The clothes are for everyone," says Rohan. "They're for the people - just like my father's music."

Join us this Friday as we welcome Owner/Publisher of Miami Community Newspapers and nationally recognized journalist, Grant Miller: Why American Media is Corrupt.

Board Certified Neurosurgeon, Author, West Point Speaker, and Life Coach

Wendy G. Lichtenthal, PhD, FT, is Faculty in The Department of Public Health at The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and University of Miami. Previously she was an associate attending psychologist and director of the bereavement clinic in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and assistant professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine.  Dr. Lichtenthal's research has focused on meaning-making, fear of recurrence, and intervention development in the cancer setting for patients and their family members, with a focus on breast cancer and loss. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the T.J. Martell Foundation, and Cycle for Survival. Dr. Lichtenthal was the recipient of the Kawano New Investigator Award from the International Psycho-Oncology Society in 2012 and the Research Recognition Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling in 2019. As a licensed clinical psychologist, her practice focuses on helping breast cancer patients and their families cope and find meaning in the face of adversity.

Dominic Chambrone is the humble self-taught cobbler who managed to turn his obsession for sneakers into a stellar career and is responsible for some of the most genius, in-demand customs of all time. The celebrated sneaker virtuoso deconstructs shoes, takes them apart and rebuilds them with premium materials (and sometimes even a better fit), along with building samples and prototypes from scratch.Chambrone started out in high school customizing a pair of all-white Air Force 1 Mids to camouflage. The props he got from his peers spurred him on to continue, moving him onto sewing machines and working with leathers, learning the ins and out of shoe repair trade.From pro-bono paint jobs, via a pair of all-white Vans chukkas that he customized with laser-etched Tandy leather for Charlotte's Niche Market, he was soon making shoes for the likes of Will.I.Am, Justin Bieber, NBA superstar LeBron James, DJ Khaled and Drake, with a certain python Air Jordan going viral. He also created the “Misplaced Checks,” a premium Nike Air Force 1 with multiple Swooshes in different material together with John Geiger, and lent his magic to a string of fire YEEZY Boost.Today he is responsible for a mind-boggling array of desirable drops and high-profile collaborations, with custom sneakers clocking in anything from $3000 – $30,000 and let's not forget the stunning Nike LeBron 15 sneakers dressed in 24 karat gold and diamonds. They were valued at $100,000, and was gifted to LeBron by The Shoe Surgeon in 2018 sending the sneakerati and fans across the globe into a frenzy.

Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent is a retired Major League Baseball player and manager widely remembered by fans for his tenure with the New York Yankees … and his famous tie-breaking home run versus the Boston Red Sox at the end of the 1978 season. The St. Louis Cardinals originally selected Dent in the 1st round of the 1970 amateur draft but he did not sign with the team, allowing the Chicago White Sox to take him the 1st round (6th overall) of the June Secondary later that year. The right-handed shortstop spent four seasons (1973-1976) in Chicago, finishing second in 1974 Rookie of the Year balloting (behind Mike Hargrove). Bucky also appeared on the first of what would be three All-Star Game rosters (1975, 1980, 1981) while with the team. However, Dent had trouble successfully succeeded Luis Aparicio at short, compiling a .239 batting average and 209 RBI, and eventually was traded to the Yankees (1977-1982), where he became part of Bronx Bomber history. Dent hit a three-run homer that gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the 1978 AL East division play-off game versus the BoSox … an unlikely event as Dent had hit only 40 home runs in a dozen seasons in the big leagues. Dent batted .417 in that year's World Series, earning MVP honors as New York topped the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the end of his professional career, Bucky spent time with the Texas Rangers (1982-1983) and the Kansas City Royals (1984) before retiring with a .246 batting average and 423 RBI. He compiled a 36-52 record managing the Yankees at the end of the 1989 and beginning of the 1990 seasons.

Miriam Kalamian is a nutrition consultant, educator, and author specializing in the implementation of ketogenic therapies. She earned her master of education (EdM) from Smith College and her master of human nutrition (MS) from Eastern Michigan University. She is board certified in nutrition (CNS) by the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists. Inspired by the work of Thomas N. Seyfried, PhD, Miriam draws on a decade of experience to provide comprehensive guidelines that specifically address the many diet and lifestyle challenges associated with a cancer diagnosis.Miriam is a leading voice in the keto movement. Her passion for helping others implement this diet comes directly from her personal experience. Her son Raffi was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December 2004. Standard of care therapies failed to stop the relentless progression of his disease, and it became painfully clear that she needed to switch gears quickly. That is what originally led her to Dr. Thomas Seyfried's research supporting the use of the ketogenic diet for cancer.Beyond cancer, Miriam integrates nutritional strategies with metabolic therapies and lifestyle modifications to develop personalized treatments that address a broad spectrum of conditions that are currently considered intractable, including age-related, neurodegenerative, and bariatric diseases.

Dr. Al Musella interest in brain tumors started when his sister-in-law, Lana, was diagnosed with a GBM in 1992, and was told it was hopeless. After surgery and radiation, the tumor was larger than before the surgery and she was told she only had a few weeks left to live and there was no treatment options for her other than a standard course of BCNU, which had no chance to help her for more than a few extra weeks. Al created and ran the Brain Tumor Forum on Compuserve in January 1993. He organized the members and had them help survey every major hospital in the USA to find what treatments were available. That list was posted on Compuserve and became the basis for the first internet database of clinical trials. At that time, the NCI only maintained lists of clinical trials that they funded, not the trials sponsored by the drug companies or the individual doctors or hospitals. The NCI invited Al to demonstrate his technology to them, and the clinicaltrials.gov website was created.Dr. Musella is currently focused on getting a new law passed called the promising pathway act. It will create a conditional approval pathway for brain tumor (and other serious diseases) treatments, as well as a learning system to track all patients who use the conditionally approved treatments. 

Brian Levine has a rich work experience spanning over several years. Brian started their career at Goldman Sachs in 1994 and worked their way up to become a Partner and co-head of Global Equities Trading and Execution Services. At Goldman Sachs, they served on various committees, including the Firmwide Risk Committee, Firmwide Technology Risk Committee, and Securities Division Executive Committee. Brian retired from Goldman Sachs in 2019. Afterwards, they co-founded The Public Health Company in 2020, where they held the position of Co-Founder and Senior Advisor. The Public Health Company specializes in biosecurity and offers a SaaS-enabled service for the management of bio-risks. Currently, Brian is serving as the Interim Chief Executive Officer at Major League Pickleball.Brian Levine completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at Emory University - Goizueta Business School from 1992 to 1994. Prior to that, they earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree from the University of Florida, where they studied from 1988 to 1992.

Lewis C. Cantley, PhD, is a Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. Prior to this appointment, he was the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor and Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College/Ronald P. Stanton Clinical Cancer Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital (2012-22). Dr. Cantley is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College, obtained a PhD in biophysical chemistry from Cornell University, completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University, and subsequently taught and conducted research in biochemistry, physiology and cancer biology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. His laboratory discovered the PI 3-Kinase pathway that plays a critical role in insulin signaling and in cancers.Dr. Cantley was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2020, the Institute of Medicine in 2014, the National Academy of Sciences in 2001, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. Among his other awards are the ASBMB Avanti Award for Lipid Research in 1998, the Heinrich Wieland Preis for Lipid Research in 2000, the Caledonian Prize from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002, the 2005 Pezcoller Foundation–AACR International Award for Cancer Research, the 2009 Rolf Luft Award for Diabetes and Endocrinology Research from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, the 2011 Pasrow Prize for Cancer Research, the 2013 Breakthrough in Life Sciences Prize and the 2013 Jacobaeus Prize for Diabetes Research from the Karolinska Institute and the 2015 AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship.

Fifteen-time Emmy Award-winning journalist Teresa Rodríguez was the spokesperson of Univision's corporate initiative “Univisionarios,” (2021-2023) which celebrated the positive contributions of Hispanics in the United States. For over 20 years, she was the co-anchor of the primetime award-winning weekly newsmagazine program, “Aquí y Ahora,” (Here and Now), in which she covered investigative and consumer stories as well as conducted interviews with leading newsmakers, politicians and celebrities.She is the recipient of a George Foster Peabody Award and a Silver Angel Award for Excellence in Media. She was named to the 2013 Power Women list by New York Moves Magazine and was recognized by The Hollywood Reporter for having one of the top 10 highest Q scores for Spanish-speaking U.S. Latinos. She was also honored with the Silver Circle Award from the Suncoast, Florida chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. In 2016, she received a GLAAD award for her special, “En Cuerpo Ajeno,” (“In a Foreign Body”), which examined the lives of four transgender individuals. In 2017 she won another GLAAD outstanding journalism award for her story on a well-known Venezuelan singer and her transgender son. Most recently, Teresa was recognized as “Journalist of the Year” at HPRA's National ¡Bravo! Awards.