Guru Block Team

Mark Leonard CAA, AA

Mark Leonard is one of only two mid-level anesthesia providers certified to work in the USA and UK.  He joined the faculty at Nova Southeastern University's (NSU) Anesthesiology Assistant program in Tampa, in July 2018 as an Assistant Professor. He is a graduate from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Physicians’ Assistant in Anaesthesia (PA(A)) program, now called Anaesthesia Associates (AA) class of 2008. After graduation, Professor Leonard practiced as a PA(A) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, a 44 OR university teaching hospital, alongside over 100 attending anaesthesiologists, and close to 100 resident anaesthesiologists. Mark Leonard has a long history of teaching physicians, PA(A)s, AA’s and many other OR related professions, and sharing the knowledge he has gained from his clinical experience.

After qualification he helped developed one of the busiest USGRA block rooms in the United Kingdom, as well as a fast response block service to attend areas such as ED and ICU. Mark Leonard is committed to education in the field of regional anaesthesia.  He has co-developed the Block GuRU App and posters which are distributed around the world. He has delivered teaching programs, lectures and other teaching materials all in the field of regional anaesthesia for parties across the globe. He has taught and lead many regional anaesthesia workshops around the world as well as publishing data from his hospital in the UK promoting the regional anaesthesia services delivered by his team.

Currently practicing as a Certified Anesthesiologist Assistant (CAA) in Trinity, Florida, alongside his academic role at NSU.

Mark Leonard lives in Odesa, Florida with his wife and two children, he has two older children living back in the UK. Outside of work he enjoys spending time with his family where they love to visit the beaches of Tampa and fishing the fantastic lakes, piers and coastlines around the wider Tampa area.

Laura Beard

Senior anaesthetic registrar

Laura is an anaesthetic doctor from the United Kingdom with a specialist interest in regional and obstetric anaesthesia. She has recently completed a two year regional anaesthetic research fellow post at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, a Major Trauma Centre in Birmingham, UK. A research MD with the University of Birmingham on the effectiveness of thoracic wall blocks in patients with traumatic rib fractures is in progress. Laura has been successful in obtaining regional anaesthetic research grants from the NIAA and NIHR. She also has a keen interest in medical education and is a member of the block GuRU team.

Dr Charles (Charlie) Edwards

Dr. Charles (Charlie) Edwards is a Consultant Anaesthetist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham where he has been working since 2010. He was formerly a consultant Anaesthetist in the Royal Navy. He has extensive military background working in deployed surgical teams in austere environments and was at the forefront of introducing deployed continuous regional anaesthesia in 2009. An experienced Pain Specialist, his work in Birmingham was to support the increase in casualty numbers and severity and he is now helping to translate the lessons learned to benefit civilian patients. He is a founding member of the Block GuRU team.

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