Board Members

Michael L. Ehren is a Partner at Lash & Goldberg LLP in Fort Lauderdale, a boutique commercial litigation law firm listed in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Law Firms and Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and one of five firms recognized nationally as Law360’s 2018 Health Care Practice Group of the Year. Michael is an experienced litigator who represents national and regional business clients, including Fortune 500 companies, hospitals and health care providers, telecommunications providers and professionals, in state and federal courts and arbitration proceedings throughout Florida. His diverse litigation experience includes a wide range of complex commercial disputes involving health care, telecommunications, consumer protection, class action, real estate/construction and employment issues.

Michael has served as DDF’s President and Legal and Governance Committee Chair since 2018 and has been a member of DDF’s Board of Directors since 2015. He has also been actively participating in various cancer research fundraising and other charitable activities in the South Florida community and nationally for numerous years. Michael is a member of the Florida Bar, Broward County Bar Association, American Health Lawyers Association and American Bar Association, and serves on the Board of Directors and as Professional Development Committee Chair for the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law Alumni Association. He has also authored articles for national and state publications and mentored students and young attorneys through several professional organizations.

Michael is a Broward County native and grew up in Davie. He received his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Florida, and his law degree from the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law. He can be reached at mehren@lashgoldberg.com.

Bob Mandel is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and serves as its Head of Client Fiduciary Services for its Graystone Consulting business. Bob also held various positions in the Firm’s legal department, including Deputy General Counsel of Citi Smith Barney. From 1991-2000, Bob was a partner of the Neal Gerber & Eisenberg law firm in Chicago. Bob earned a B.B.A from Hofstra University and is a graduate of Hofstra University School of Law.

Bob’s association with Debbies’ Dream Foundation began in 2014, shortly after his late wife Sally was diagnosed with stage 4 hereditary diffuse gastric cancer resulting from an inherited CDH1 gene mutation. Bob has been actively involved in organizing numerous stomach cancer research fundraising and charitable activities in the NYC area for many years and an enthusiastic participant of DDF’s annual Capital Hill Stomach Cancer Advocacy Day.

Melani Vincelli is a strong advocate and voice of the stomach cancer community. Following her stomach cancer diagnosis in 2009, she met Debbie’s Dream Foundation Founder Debbie Zelman on the set of the Dr. Oz Show as they both participated in a 2012 segment titled, “What’s Your Risk for Stomach Cancer?” Shortly after, Melani joined forces with DDF as a mentor in the Patient Resource Education Program (PREP) where she provides a point of contact for patients seeking care and comfort for their cancer experience. As a PREP mentor, she helps patients understand their diagnosis, staging, treatment options, clinical trials, side effect management, research, management of the disease, and more. She helps to guide the patient through their cancer journey by relying on her own experiences as a stage IV stomach cancer survivor and BRCA2 positive woman. For the past six years, Melani has traveled to Capitol Hill to ask Congress to invest more federal resources in gastric cancer research and to again include stomach cancer as one of the eligible cancer types under the PRCRP during DDF’s Annual Capitol Hill Advocacy Day. She also serves as a mentor and advocate for several initiatives including the 4th Angel Mentoring Network sponsored by Scott Hamilton and Cleveland Clinic, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, the GEC Esophageal and Stomach Cancer Project, and Imerman Angels Cancer Support Community.

Read more about Melani’s Survivor Story here.
Watch the full Dr. Oz “What’s Your Risk for Stomach Cancer?” episode here.

Steve Melen grew up in Saratoga, California and attended the University of San Diego, receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Following college, he worked at Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley for a combined 26 years as a financial advisor and Senior Bond Specialist working on the bond trading floor.

In January 2008, during his first year of working at Morgan Stanley, he was diagnosed with stage III B stomach cancer. He began the treatment process in February 2008, having his stomach and other organs removed at Stanford Hospital. Complications, along with chemo and radiation, challenged Steve for the next few years, taking away much of his energy needed to work and raise his daughter. Fortunately, he survived well past the significant five-year mark that most stomach patients diagnosed at late stages are often told is unlikely. This milestone gave him a new sense of hope and inspiration to push forward and help to support his family, clients, and others struggling with cancer.

Today, Steve serves as a DDF Board of Director and is a PREP mentor, helping newly diagnosed patients navigate the early stages of stomach cancer. He takes great pride in being able to provide hope to other patients and caregivers throughout their journey.
He is currently married to his high school sweetheart, Tanya, and has a daughter and stepson, both the same age.
Read more about Steve’s survivor story here.

Andrew Guttman, MD, MBA is a practicing anesthesiologist in South Florida. Andrew has always had a close connection to DDF because he was married to DDF’s founder, Debbie Zelman, for 25 years until she passed away in December 2017. After providing support behind the scenes for years, Andrew decided to join the DDF Board to help continue his late wife’s legacy.

While practicing as an anesthesiologist for over 25 years, including 14 years serving as Department Chief at Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, Florida, Dr. Guttman transitioned into leadership roles within Sheridan Healthcorp, which eventually merged with Envision Physician Services. While serving in various clinical and executive leadership positions during his 25+ years with Sheridan/Envision, Dr. Guttman had responsibility for clinical quality and operational, administrative, and financial oversight of anesthesia programs throughout the nation. He then served as Chief Medical Officer for Sound Anesthesia, a national provider of anesthesia services, until December 2022.

Andrew attended the 6-year Honors Program in Medical Education at the University of Miami and graduated from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1990. He earned his MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2019.

Monica Sher was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Despite living in the Sunshine State, she spent most of her childhood and adolescent years as a competitive figure skater and became a double Gold Medalist in Moves in the Field and Freestyle. She graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in Chemistry Education. While she always enjoyed teaching Science, she had a deeper passion for medicine. She completed her medical school training at the American University of Integrative Science and was frequently involved in events and opportunities to give back to the community. She was honored to serve as Chief Resident in her Internal Medicine Residency program. Monica is currently a Board Certified Internal Medicine physician working with Orlando Health as a Hospitalist. She looks forward to being part of Debbie’s Dream Foundation and helping with the expansion and meaning of this organization.

Rebecca is a civil litigation attorney at Rosing Davidson in Park City, Utah, a law firm founded in 2021 by herself, her husband, and a few of their colleagues. She became involved in DDF in 2013 when her father was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Rebecca has advocated with DDF on Capitol Hill and serves as a PREP Mentor for caregivers. She founded the Naples, Florida Chapter of DDF in honor of her father in 2014. Rebecca is a native of Northeast, Ohio, and graduated with her BA in political science from Youngstown State University and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Akron School of Law. She enjoys running, going on beach vacations, and cheering on the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Adrianys Beauchamp brings a wealth of experience and leadership to her role as a board member of Debbie’s Dream Foundation. Based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Adrianys is a seasoned Registered Nurse and Management Professional with a focus on Oncology, Nursing Management, Navigation Services, and Quality Management within hospital settings.

Adrianys is known for her dedication to excellence and her commitment to positively impacting patient outcomes. Fluent in both English and Spanish, with a proficiency in French, she is a compassionate and energetic professional who has excelled in developing and executing programs that enhance the continuity of patient care.

In her current role at Sarah Cannon, East Division, Adrianys serves as a Nurse Navigator, overseeing the coordination of all aspects of care for cancer patients. Her emphasis on eliminating barriers to care ensures accessibility and timely delivery of services. Adrianys actively supports providers in educating patients about their diagnosis, treatment options, and available resources, fostering a smooth transition between care modalities.

Adrianys’s leadership engagement is noteworthy, having been recognized as the Top Referring Navigator to Wellist in 2022 and selected to conduct onboarding for new Nurse Navigators. She also serves as the President and Co-Facilitator of the Nationwide Complex-GI Work Group from 2022 to 2023.

With an extensive background at Mercy Hospital in Miami, Adrianys held various roles, including Nurse Manager, R.N. Clinical Coordinator, and Relief Nursing Director. Her leadership contributions were instrumental in daily operations, performance evaluations, and the implementation of program and process improvements. Adrianys’s exceptional leadership was acknowledged through awards for Patient Care Advocacy, Interdepartmental Collaboration, Team Player, and Accountability.

Adrianys is a graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN) from Miami Regional University and an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Nursing from St. Clair Community College in Port Huron, MI.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Adrianys is actively involved in community service. As a Volunteer for the American Cancer Society and Lake Worth Food Bank, she extends her expertise and compassion beyond the hospital setting.

Adrianys Beauchamp’s dedication to patient care, leadership, and community service makes her a valuable asset to the Debbie’s Dream Foundation board. Her commitment to excellence aligns seamlessly with the foundation’s mission and vision, contributing to the ongoing success of initiatives supporting those affected by cancer.

In April of 2019, Colt Blunt arrived to a routine physical prepared with notes describing some gastrointestinal symptoms he had been experiencing, including heartburn, bloating, abdominal pain and general discomfort.

“My symptoms weren’t that bad, but they were new,” says Blunt, a forensic psychologist in Minnesota. “Luckily, I have a fantastic primary care doctor, so he took me seriously. He said it was probably just acid reflux, put me on some proton pump inhibitors and said if I wasn’t perfectly back to normal after 10 days, he would send me for an endoscopy.”

Although the medication helped, it didn’t eradicate Blunt’s symptoms, so the following week, he went in for an endoscopy. At 37 years old, Blunt was young and otherwise healthy. However, because his family has a history of cancer, when the endoscopy visualized an ulcerated area of his cardia, he was concerned about the risk.

“I asked my (gastrointestinal) doctor ‘What are the chances that this is cancer?’ and he said, ‘One in a million,’ “ Blunt says. “When I asked him why, he said that he had just diagnosed a 37-year-old with stomach cancer the week before, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to diagnose another one a week later.”

However, on June 20, 2019, that’s exactly what happened. After his endoscopy, Blunt received a diagnosis of stage 3 gastric adenocarcinoma of the upper cardia (just below the esophagus). Although gastric cancer at Blunt’s age is rare, his experience is representative of a growing trend — an increasing number of patients under the age of 50 are receiving a diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer.

Excerpt from CURE Magazine – Gastrointestinal Cancers – Special Issue – March 2021 – READ MORE

Aisha T. McDonald is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Trauma Expert who has worked with marginalized populations within South Florida specifically those with severe and persistent mental illness, forensic population, individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, youth in the welfare system, and individuals who are involuntarily hospitalized. She is currently the Director of Training Initiatives and primary facilitator for the Mental Health First Aid program in her community, where she facilitates an 8-hour course on mental illness and crisis de-escalation and intervention and has trained over 3000 individuals since January 2019 to present. Additionally, she oversees the Crisis Intervention Team training program for the local sheriff’s department and municipal police agencies as well as community wide behavioral health education trainings for service providers. Aisha is also a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging consultant and does DEI work that is focused on eliminating systemic barriers to equity in our society. She provides professional development training to community organizations and universities and has presented workshops and sat as an expert on panel discussions nationwide. In addition, she also serves on her agency’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti- Racism Committee as well as the council’s Creative Content Committee that aims at developing DEI materials and social media content to promote cultural awareness, education, and equity. Aisha was also selected as an expert to serve on a multi-agency cadre of race experts and organizational development consultants. Most importantly, the intersectionality of her identity as a Black Immigrant Caribbean woman who has lived with mental health concerns has been important for her to promote awareness of the reality of mental illness and how it is impacted by generational trauma, personal experiences, and societal factors. She has worked in promoting awareness of Black mental health through a documentary created by her agency called “Faded Conversations: Bringing Black Mental Health to the Forefront.” The documentary served as a great tool to guide honest conversations about the role of masculinity, culture, and race in mental health, and specifically how members of the Black community access treatment. The documentary afforded her the opportunity to organize and facilitate screenings and host discussions with Black barbershops in the community as well as at community agencies that serve the Black and Brown communities in order to reduce cultural stigma and spread awareness and education. She has organized and performed in Slam Poetry events throughout the community addressing issues of violence, trauma, and self-awareness within the Black and Caribbean community. In addition, she also served on the Broward County’s 2020 Census Committee where she served as the Chair for the Caribbean subcommittee and assisted in developing and dispersing Census materials focused on garnering participation from the Caribbean diaspora within the county.

DDF Mentor & Survivor

In late 2019, I began noticing extreme fatigue with even minimal exertion. At 60 years old and severely overweight, I initially thought I just needed to change my diet, exercise more, and get healthier. However, in 2020, things worsened. My husband and I love to dance, but I couldn’t even finish one dance without feeling exhausted. My fatigue became so severe that I struggled to catch my breath simply by bending down.

After several tests for heart problems came back negative, my doctor ordered lab work, which revealed my red blood cell count was dangerously low. I needed a blood transfusion, and after a four-day hospital stay and numerous tests, doctors still couldn’t identify the source of the low red blood count. A hematologist/oncologist then suspected a stomach-related issue and recommended I see a gastroenterologist.

Thankfully, the gastroenterologist was able to see me within a week, despite the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic. I shared that I had undergone extensive dental work in 2019 and had been taking over-the-counter aspirin and Tylenol, so the doctor suspected a bleeding ulcer and recommended an endoscopy. To my surprise, the endoscopy revealed not an ulcer, but a bleeding tumor in my stomach—a malignant stage 2 stomach cancer.

This diagnosis was a shock, as there was no cancer history in our immediate family, aside from my weight and high blood pressure. It was an unsettling new chapter, but I am incredibly grateful for the support I received from my family and friends. My husband, daughter, son, and sister stood by me every step of the way, attending every doctor’s visit with me.

I underwent chemotherapy and radiation in mid-2021 and had my stomach removed in December 2021. By the grace of a successful treatment plan, my scans show no evidence of disease to this day.

This version refines the flow and clarifies some of the details, making it more suitable for the website. Let me know if you’d like any further adjustments!

Bio to be posted soon