Peacock Foundation, Inc., recently awarded a one-year grant of $26,000 to Miami-Dade Area Health Education Center (AHEC) to support its PHASES Program (Preventive Health And Safety Education for Students) which is offered completely free of charge to all public and private schools in Miami-Dade County (Grades 2 through 12). Currently reaching up to 24,000 students a year, the goal of the Programs seven science-based and interactive lessons is to educate our youth on how good nutrition, increased physical activity, and good lifestyle choices (avoiding smoking and substance abuse), help decrease the occurrence of preventable diseases and health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and skin and breast cancer. The presentations are valued by teachers for their interactive and imaginative method of providing the information, with hands-on activities, music, story telling, and a variety of lifelike or imaginative educational props. Dr. Rudolph F. Crew, Superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public School System (MDCPS), supports and endorses the PHASES Program. In fact, Miami-Dade AHEC is one of only a few organizations allowed entry into the public schools.
This grant from Peacock Foundation, Inc., will be used to hire a presenter to increase the PHASES Programs capacity by offering the “Food for Thought” Lesson (Nutrition, Obesity, & Eating Disorders, and Bone Health Education) to middle school students (currently it is offered to high school students only) and to hire an expert for curriculum development and evaluation.
Florida based medical real estate developer Rendina Companies has been ranked among the top developers in the country for the past two years.
Rendina Companies has been ranked 2nd in the newly released annual survey by Modern Healthcare Magazine, “Top 20 Development Companies”. Rendina Companies completed over $600 million in healthcare real estate projects totaling more than 3 million square feet in 2005. The firms dollar volume increased 28 percent compared with 2004, and the square footage was up 23 percent. Over the past year Rendina Companies has developed buildings in various states including Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina and Florida. All of these completed projects by Rendina Companies in the last year were done under the unique Equity Participation Program.
Two nurses from West Boca Medical Center have been promoted to director. 
Louise Toby-Harris, RNC, MA, is the hospitals new director of maternity services. She has more than 30 years of nursing experience and has worked at West Boca Medical Center since 1989. She previously served as clinical manager of the maternity unit. Toby-Harris has a bachelors degree in health science and a masters degree in community health from Brooklyn College, as well as a bachelors degree in nursing from Lynn University. In 2002, West Boca Medical Center named her its Healthcare Hero of the Year. Toby-Harris is a member of the Association of Womens Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.
Abica Jagarnauth, RN, is the new director of pediatrics/NICU/PICU. She has nine years of nursing experience and has worked at West Boca Medical Center since 1997. Jagarnauth most recently served as charge nurse for the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Brenelly Lozada-Cruz, M.D., Hematology/Oncology, has joined the cancer care team at the Michael & Dianne Bienes Comprehensive Cancer Center at Holy Cross Hospital.
Prior to joining the Holy Cross Medical Group, Dr. Lozada was an attending physician in Hematology Oncology at San Juan City Hospital in Puerto Rico. At Dr. Rafael Nussa Hospital, she served as Director of the Hematology Oncology Inpatient Unit and as President of the Transfusion Committee. She was an Internal Medicine attending physician at the University of Puerto Rico where she did her training.
Dr. Lozada has participated in clinical research protocols in the San Juan Community Clinical Oncology Program, completed a hematology oncology fellowship at San Juan Hospital-Dr. Rafael Lopez Nussa Hospital and San Juan Veterans Administration Hospital.
Columbia Hospital has welcomed Richard Neubauer, Jr., as Controller of the 250-bed hospital in West Palm Beach. Prior to joining Columbia, he was the Chief Financial Officer for HCA-Mid America Supply Chain Services in Nashville, TN.