Bruce Beal And Michele Kessler Named To Board Of Directors At Miami Cancer Institute

MIAMI, FL – August 9, 2018 – Miami Cancer Institute, a next generation cancer treatment destination and Florida’s only member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance, proudly announced that Bruce Beal, Chairman of Related Beal, and Michele Kessler, Director of Community Relations at The Kessler Group and Co-Founder and Director of The Kessler Family Foundation, have joined the Institute’s Board of Directors. Miami Cancer Institute is part of Baptist Health South Florida.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Bruce Beal and Michele Kessler to our board,” said S. Lawrence Kahn II, Founding Board Chair and President and Founder of Coral Gables-based Lowell Homes. “They both bring profound knowledge, a passion for philanthropy and the desire to elevate the future of Miami Cancer Institute as it continues to revolutionize the standard of cancer care in our community and neighboring regions.”

Bruce Beal is Chairman of Related Beal, an affiliate of the Related Companies in New York City. Mr. Beal has extensive experience in real estate and property development, having developed projects throughout the urban and suburban areas of Boston and Cambridge. He served as real estate advisor to the president and fellow of Harvard College for more than 25 years, in addition to his role as trustee and advocate for various cultural, educational and medical organizations throughout Massachusetts and Florida including the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, The Harvard School of Public Health, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Palm Beach Cultural Council, The Loggerhead Marine Center and Rollins College, among many others. A Palm Beach resident, Mr. Beal is also a fellow of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh’s World Fellowship.

Michele Kessler is the Director of Community Relations at The Kessler Group and Co-Founder and Director of The Kessler Family Foundation. Mrs. Kessler is an influential community leader and member of the Women’s Health Leadership Forum and President’s Advisory Council at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Additionally, she serves on the board of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she co-chaired the Visiting Committee for Gastrointestinal Cancers, in addition to co-chairing the Massachusetts General Hospital Leadership Council for Psychiatry and serving on the Massachusetts General Hospital President’s Council. As a Palm Beach resident, Mrs. Kessler is chairman of the board of the Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society and serves as chairman of South Florida PBS. She also holds positions on the executive committees of The American Ireland Fund, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Civic Association, and the Palm Beach Police Foundation. A board member of the Ayenda Foundation, the Global Health Advisory Council at Harvard Medical School, and the Town of Palm Beach’s United Way, Mrs. Kessler is a former honorary consulate of Monaco in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Among her many accolades, she received the 2017 United Way Distinguished Citizen Award and the Jack Connors, Jr. Award for Excellence in Philanthropy in 2013. In 2012, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the American Red Cross’ Lifetime Achievement Award and the Palm Tree Award from the Palm Beach Police Foundation for Community Service.

Mr. Beal and Mrs. Kessler join current board members S. Lawrence Kahn II, Chair; Phil Conway, Vice Chair; Ronald A. Shuffield, Treasurer; John Dasburg; John Haley; Albert Nahmad; Patrick P. Lee; Rudy Kranys; and Rev. Dr. William White.

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About Miami Cancer Institute
Miami Cancer Institute is a next generation cancer center known for its leading clinical care, compassionate patient experience, clinical research and state-of-the-art technology – including the first proton therapy center in South Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the only radiation oncology program in the world with each of the latest radiation therapies in one place. The Institute offers a robust roster of prominent physicians established in the community, in addition to renowned cancer experts, clinical researchers and genomic scientists recruited from the nation’s top cancer centers. As Florida’s only member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance, Miami Cancer Institute is part of a deep and functional collaboration that affords patients access to innovative treatments right here at home and ensures the standards of care developed by our multidisciplinary disease management teams match those at MSK. Heralded nationally as one of the new “hybrid” cancer centers of the future, Miami Cancer Institute represents the next generation of cancer centers in the country, combining well-established, high-quality community-based cancer care with the best of an academic cancer center – offering patients innovative clinical trials tied to research and genomics and the recruitment of disease-specific surgeons, medical oncologists and radiation oncologists who are experts in their fields. For more information, visit MiamiCancerInstitute.com.

Miami Cancer Institute is part of Baptist Health South Florida, the largest healthcare organization in the region, with 10 hospitals (Baptist Hospital, Baptist Children’s Hospital, Bethesda Hospital East, Bethesda Hospital West, Doctors Hospital, Fishermen’s Community Hospital, Homestead Hospital, Mariners Hospital, South Miami Hospital and West Kendall Baptist Hospital), more than 40 physician practices, 50 outpatient and urgent care facilities, Baptist Health Medical Group, Baptist Health Quality Network and internationally renowned centers of excellence spanning across Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. A not-for-profit organization supported by philanthropy and committed to our faith-based charitable mission of medical excellence, Baptist Health has more than 19,500 employees and more than 3,000 affiliated physicians. Baptist Health South Florida has been recognized by Fortune as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America and by Ethisphere as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. For more information, visit BaptistHealth.net/newsroom and connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/BaptistHealthSF and on Twitter and Instagram @BaptistHealthSF.