AdventHealth Foundation Central Florida is honored to recognize our Volunteer of the Month for November, Dr. Patricia Guerrero. Dr. Guerrero is the AdventHealth Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute Medical Director for Cardiovascular Wellness and Prevention which includes, Cardiovascular Genetics and Genomics, Cardio-Oncology and Mother’s Heart Wise.
Over the last three years, Dr. Guerrero has played a key role in the development process that culminated in a three-million-dollar gift from the Ginsburg Family Foundation. In addition, she is the visionary behind the Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute Center for Living Genetics and Genomics Program which this transformational gift supports.
Dr. Guerrero was first introduced to AdventHealth Foundation Central Florida in a meeting with two Foundation Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute development officers. During this encounter, Dr. Guerrero learned that AdventHealth has an established organization (Foundation) that enables individuals who have a philanthropic heart to provide for people in need.
After that meeting, Dr. Guerrero’s relationship with AdventHealth Foundation Central Florida grew exponentially. She coordinated a successful grant request from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation to help build the pilot program for Cardio-Oncology. The now three -year-old program has helped over 400 women and men who have cancer and are at risk of developing heart disease.
More recently, Dr. Guerrero has participated in the development of the strategic plan for The Center for Living Cardiovascular Genetics and Genomics program. The goal of this program is to screen thousands of people in targeted communities with limited access to health care. AdventHealth will identify cardiovascular genetic and genomic diseases in underserved populations. In doing so, our hospital will increase access to cardiovascular clinical services by breaking down the socio-economic and literacy barriers to care. AdventHealth Foundation Central Florida and the Ginsburg Family Foundation are committed to ensuring that everyone has equal access to high-quality healthcare.
When asked why she supports the AdventHealth Foundation Central Florida, Dr. Guerrero responded, “We are aligned in the mission of service to the community by providing opportunities for better health and greater education. As a clinician, I serve the needs of individuals one at a time. However, through the Foundation, I am gifted with an incredible opportunity to serve the greater community, not just the individual who is directly in front of me. To be witness to a healthier, happier and more peaceful world is my personal ambition and to facilitate this through whatever talents I have been given, is a privilege.”
AdventHealth Foundation Central Florida offers our profound thanks to Dr. Guerrero for her ongoing service as an invaluable physician champion for Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute patients, Foundation, and our community. “There is spiritual growth in the experience of personal hardships, but it also occurs when we allow ourselves to be a part of the lives of others. It is my honor to be entrusted by my patients and their families with their greatest fears and joys. These unique experiences mobilize me to act and seek opportunities for our collective journey to success in overcoming illness.”
