Mental Health
Shirley Harrison
Naval Hospital Jacksonville
With more than three decades in nursing, Shirley Harrison improves the lives of Jacksonville’s
military population.
Since 2008, Shirley has been the lead case manager for Naval Hospital Jacksonville’s Mental
Health Clinic where 10 percent meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Shirley sees patients and meets with different health care providers collaborating with them to
create discharge plans and ensure patients have a smooth transition so they can return to their
command.
Emergency Medical Providers
Marsha Morrell
Century Ambulance Service Inc.
As one of the first female registered paramedics in Florida, Marsha is using her years of
experience in the field to improve the area’s medical transport business.
Marsha is the executive vice president of Century Ambulance Service Inc., which serves most
of the major hospitals in Northeast Florida.
Her work has contributed to Century Ambulance Service becoming the largest private,
advanced medical transport company headquartered in Florida, transporting about 63,000 patients
in six counties each year. Marsha's latest endeavor created a partnership with Wolfson Children’s
Hospital to establish a pediatric neonatal critical care transport team.
Marsha also serves as president of the First Coast EMS Advisory Council and the First Coast
Disaster Council.
Scientist
Melissa Murray
Mayo Clinic
As a young girl, Melissa loved science, in high school she wrote her senior thesis about the
science behind acupuncture, and “fell in love with the brain.”
In college, she knew she was going to grad school — and a professor referred her to Mayo
Clinic. That advice paid off and today Melissa has her Ph.D. and is a neuroscientist as well as
lead investigator of a groundbreaking study at Mayo Clinic. Her study, funded by the National
Institute’s of Health, found the strongest predictor of a common form of elderly dementia.
Melissa's study was reported in more than 500 news stories across the globe, including “CBS
This Morning,” NPR, the U.K.’s Global Mail, as well as the Jacksonville Business Journal. She
has also co-authored 36 scientific articles published in several prestigious journals.
The study became a “super passion” of Melissa's after watching her grandmother succumb to
Alzheimer’s.
Brieanna Nation-Howard
Brieanna is the associate medical director with Community Palliative Consultants, a program of
Community Hospice of Northeast Florida which helps patients with complicated medical
conditions.
The program reaches out to families and patients, making sure they have all the information
they want or need to make medical decisions. Brieanna listens to their goals and helps them
access resources such as hospice or a nursing home. She makes sure to spend the time needed
with the families so they can navigate the best solutions and provide relief to the patients.
Lifetime Achievement
Dr. Edward Shahady (SHA-HAY-DEE)
Florida Academy of Family Physicians
Dr. Shahady’s medical career began when he was drafted to the Marines during the Vietnam
War. He received a bronze star for his service to wounded marines and dedicated health care to
the children of Vietnam. As a young physician, he built a children’s hospital in the war-torn
country and when he returned to the U.S., he worked in academia, served as chair of Family
Medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill for 10 years, contributed 5 books and
180 articles to medical literature and developed an interest in diabetic care, a disease he
personally suffers from.
In 2003, Dr. Shahady founded the Diabetes Master Clinician Program and serves as its medical
director. The program is an Internet-based registry that monitors diabetic patients to determine if
their disease will become uncontrolled. The registry has more than 22,000 patients and is used in
115 medical offices nationwide. He also created two websites for clinicians, staff and patients to
learn more about diabetes and the importance of DMCP. In 2013, Dr. Shahady on behalf of his
Master Clinician Program received the Stop Diabetes Award for excelling in the promotion of
health awareness and advocacy in line with the goals of the Stop Diabetes campaign.
In the community Dr. Shahady has served as president of the Florida Academy of Family
Physicians Foundation and chair of the Healthy Jacksonville Diabetes Coalition where he
tirelessly advocates for good diabetes care in the community. He joined the Community
Leadership Board of North Florida and South Georgia Chapter of the American Diabetes
Association in 2008 and acted as president until 2012.
Physicians
Dr. Scott Silliman
UF Health Jacksonville
Dr. Silliman is a clinician, educator and researcher. When he arrived in 1996, Jacksonville
didn’t have an acute care program for stroke patients. The one he established at University
Medical Center — later Shands, and now UF Health Jacksonville — has grown to the busiest in
the city.
The center Dr. Silliman started has grown to about 750 admissions a year. It was the 32nd in the
country certified by The Joint Commission in 2004 as a “primary stroke center.”
As a researcher, Dr. Silliman has published 35 refereed publications, 36 abstracts, and co-edited
a book on stroke. He has been a collaborator on 29 multicentered clinical trials and has received
close to $4 million in research funding.
As a teacher, he has earned 10 UF College of Medicine Exemplary Teacher awards, and the
Louis S. Russo Award for Outstanding Professionalism in Medicine. He is the founding director
of the neurology resident program, which now trains four residents a year.
Physicians
Dr. Keith Stein
Baptist Health
Dr. Stein, chief medical officer and senior vice president of medical affairs/clinical effectiveness
at Baptist Health, led the electronic medical records initiative to ensure patients receive the safest
and most effective care.
Ultimately, patients will benefit as EMR provides integrated information to facilitate their needs
across the continuum of care.
Dr. Stein is one of the core group of people Baptist Health CEO, Hugh Greene turns too to
provide input and advice. He is truly a transformational leader and is able to look ahead and
make decisions today that will affect tomorrow in a positive way.
Nursing
Vicki Truman
UF Cares — University of Florida Jacksonville Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education and
Service
Vicki, a registered nurse and nurse case manager with UF Cares, works specifically with adult
patients living with HIV. She is the lone nurse who cares for more than 800 adult patients
managing their primary care, their HIV and links them to community services.
During her time working with her patients Vicki tries to make them understand that they are
going to be OK and that their condition is manageable.
Vicki truly is an advocate for them and goes to the nth degree to make sure they get what they
need…be it food stamps, prescriptions or housing. If she tells you she's going to do something,
you better believe she will make it happen.
Scientist
Dr. Jay Van Gerpen
Mayo Clinic
Dr. Van Gerpen has a simple yet challenging goal involving people with Parkinson’s and other
neurological diseases -"Keep them Walking."
To that end, Dr. Van Gerpen, who sees about 1,500 patients a year at his Mayo Clinic neurology
practice, worked with a mechanical engineer from Georgia Tech to develop the Mobilaser, which
is essentially a walker-mounted device that uses visual cues to help keep patients walking.
Studies for decades have proven visual cueing greatly helps people with neurological diseases
like Parkinson’s make strides.
A study on Mobilaser’s efficacy at improving gait was published in The Neurologist in 2012
and Mayo Clinic conducted another study that supported the first one which will also soon be
published in The Neurologist. The device has been patented, and is selling in the U.S., Canada
and Japan.
Physicians
Dr. Martha Wasserman
UF Health Jacksonville
In addition to treating hundreds of women with breast cancer, Dr. Wasserman was personally
touched by the disease when her mother was diagnosed with it about 10 years ago. Her mother
survived, and the experience helped steer her future path as a physician toward radiology and
breast cancer.
Dr. Wasserman, chief of the division of women’s imaging and program director of the breast
imaging fellowship program at UF Health Jacksonville, has pioneered the use of 3-D digital
breast tomosynthesis at UF Health.
She authored an article published in Applied Radiology last year that was recognized by
Auntminnie.com as the top women’s imaging case of 2012.
In addition to her work with breast cancer, Dr. Wasserman created the first women’s imaging
fellowship program on the Jacksonville campus in July 2012. She also joined again with the
RITA Foundation to bring the newest technology in bone density screening to UF Health.
Surgeon
Dr. Horacio Asbun
Mayo Clinic
As one of the leading pancreatic cancer surgeons in the country, Dr. Asbun sees patients with
one of the deadliest cancers.
Even so, Dr. Asbun doesn’t get discouraged because he focuses on the fact that you may miss
saving people who can be saved if you focus on the negative.
He is the Director of hepato-biliary and pancreas surgery at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, and was
recently named chair of the department of surgery. He specializes in a complex surgical
procedure, known as Whipple surgery, that can help some pancreatic cancer patients, and people
come to him from around the world. He also does liver surgery, and specializes in laparoscopic
procedures. Dr. Asbun travels internationally to share his expertise.
Education
Dr. Kelly Gray-Eurom
University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville
When Dr. Gray-Eurom, who is an associate professor and associate chair of emergency
medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville, first started teaching
resident doctors she discovered residents needed more information about the business part of
medicine to succeed. Residents in training learn about medicine, patients and bedside manner but
the world of medicine is much bigger than that.
She created a statewide program that covers points from information on paying for licenses to
retirement planning.
She supervises and teaches 46 residents best practices, but she also makes it a priority to treat
patients in the emergency room.
Dr. Gray-Eurom is also the immediate past president of the Florida College of Emergency
Physicians.
Education
Cmdr. James Keck
Naval Hospital Jacksonville
Commander Keck is the director of family medicine residency program at Naval Hospital
Jacksonville and has spent more than six months in Kuwait, leading a medical clinic that cared
for up to 4,000 sailors and soldiers.
He uses experiences like that to teach future generations of medical professionals how to
properly care for military personnel, training them to be prepared to not only apply their art in a
clinic or hospital, but in some of the most austere conditions — be it in the desert, aboard a ship
or in a remote camp.
One of Commander Keck’s passions is preventing childhood obesity. He is working on a study
aimed at teaching children and their families how to make healthy choices.
He is also involved in the community by partnering with Darnell-Cookman Middle-High School
to encourage students with an interest in medicine to explore the field.
Surgeon
Capt. Terence McGee
Naval Hospital Jacksonville
While treating wounded people in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, Navy Captain McGee, an
ophthalmologist, saw injuries rarely seen in the United States.
But in spite of their horrific conditions, the Haitians were “stoic,” and the 41 staff members
aboard the relief ship were able to rescue many patients.
Since then, Captain McGee has continued to make important contributions as head of
ophthalmology at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. He and his team provide treatments to service
members ranging from routine eye exams to complex surgical procedures. In fact…Captain
McGee saw more patients than any other ophthalmologist in the Navy last year.
Community Service
Dr. David Moss
We Care Jacksonville
Every Tuesday evening, patients at Jacksonville’s Mission House Medical Clinic get the chance
to see Dr. Moss, a local psychiatrist.
It’s one of the few places in Northeast Florida where the area’s poorest residents can receive
psychiatric care for mental health disorders. Often, these patients also face other barriers to care,
including poverty and substance abuse.
Dr. Moss has volunteered for the clinic, which is a provider for the area’s nonprofit We Care
Jacksonville, for more than three years.
The impact of Dr. Moss's involvement in the community is remarkable…Having a patient go
through detoxification and rehabilitation to eventually rejoin his or her family and re-enter the
community drug-free is a testament to his work.
Surgeon
Dr. Mark Mostovych is with St. Vincent’s HealthCare/Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgical
Associates PA
Here’s a true “heroes” story…
St. Vincent’s HealthCare cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon Dr. Mostovych was attending his
12-year-old son’s soccer game when he received a cellphone call about a man who needed
emergency surgery for a perforated esophagus.
Dr. Mostovych was not on call, and he had never performed the complicated surgery the patient
needed. But realizing the man would not survive a life flight trip to another medical center, he
rushed to St. Vincent’s, where during a three-hour operation he and his team saved the man’s life.
Surgeon
Dr. Michael Nussbaum
University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville
Every time a patient requiring routine surgery is spared a large incision, they can thank pioneers
like Dr. Nussbaum, a professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville,
and chief of the division of general surgery.
Dr. Nussbaum helped establish minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery and nationally is a
recognized leader in evolving and new surgery technology.
Dr. Nussbaum is also passionate about the education of future surgeons and the advancement of
medical knowledge. He works with third- and fourth-year medical students and residents, and is
respected for his published books, which include “Master Techniques in Surgery: Gastric
Surgery.”
In his five years at the College of Medicine, his faculty and residents have published 233 papers
and book chapters, and delivered 268 presentations.
Physicians
Dr. Fernando Rivera
Mayo Clinic
Dr. Rivera is a consultant in the division of consultative and diagnostic medicine.
His patients come from around the world with a ton of patient and clinical information, but his
first consultation is designed to listen to the patient…after all, patients know their body better
than anyone else. He has found that often the patients are so in tune with their body that they can
often diagnose themselves but no has one listened to them. Dr. Rivera's approach allows for him
to establish communication so that he can clarify the condition.
Community Service
Dr. Floyd Willis
Mayo Clinic
Dr. Willis is a family physician and chair of the department of family medicine at Mayo Clinic
Jacksonville. His work focuses on improving the community’s health through outreach, education
and advocacy.
He leads Mayo Clinic’s Disparities in Healthcare Committee and also worked to secure grants
to provide care and education for Jacksonville’s disadvantaged population, including a procedure
clinic at the Sulzbacher Center at the Beaches and a facility at Edward Waters College.
Dr. Willis has also been chair of the University of North Florida’s Center for Global Health and
Medical Diplomacy Disparities Task Force and established the Community Research Advisory
Board.