Faculty Disclosures

Dr. Adler is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Anesthesiology at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Adler’s research focuses on a host of pediatric anesthesia topics including sleep apnea and the impact of opioids and emergence delirium. Dr. Adler is currently working with his team to test a device for pediatric difficulty airway management that they co-invented.

After 30 years as a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist, Laura Berenstain is now an International Coaching Federation certified Coach, coaching physicians for personal and professional development and well-being. She is an Advisory Board member and Coach for the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia's Women's Empowerment and Leadership Initiative. Laura has traveled worldwide on mission trips teaching physicians how to care for children with complex congenital heart disease and has recently edited and published Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia: A Case-Based Approach. She has three amazing daughters who inspire her daily.

Pediatric Pain Physician

I enjoy simulation and medical education and am passionate about advocating for the best, most up-to-date, evidence-based care for our patients. I serve on the ASA BOD and am part of the SPA Simulation SIG. Please don't hesitate to reach about working on projects and submissions together. I enjoy putting teams of people together who may or may not know each other.

Associate Professor of Anesthesiology who practices pediatric anesthesia at Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO). My interests clinically have centered around complex airway patients including the aerodigestive multidisciplinary program at CHCO, complex airway reconstruction, neonatal high-risk tracheostomy, efficiency & reliability of high volume routine pediatric ENT surgeries, and anesthesia for patients with Epidermolysis Bullosa for which CHCO is a center of excellence. At CHCO, I have served as the ENT Liaison, Director of Visitors Education, Co-director of Aerodigestive, and recently joined the Institute for Precision Medicine. I am also a researcher focused on airway management outcomes and medication administration for ENT patients. At the state level, I have been an active board member of the CSA for 11 years and have a keen interest in advocacy and policy making at the state and national level that supports physician-led and physician-driven Anesthesia care for all patients. Currently I am the secretary for the CSA and have an interest in improving our membership communications, member engagement and society visibility for all anesthesiologists in Colorado. Nationally, I serve as an officer in the Frontier Caucus (part of the ASA Governance structure), as a long-standing member of the House of Delegates representing Colorado, and on multiple committees at the ASA. I am also a proud board member of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA), am on the executive committee of the pediatric difficult airway registry, and on the executive committee for the newly formed Advocacy arm of the SPA. I have also served as the chairperson for the SPA’s annual meeting and am an active member of the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Initiative (WELI); in these roles I am interested in advancing membership engagement, the mission and values of the SPA, producing stellar educational experiences for our SPA members, and advancing our members practices as well as children’s health through advocacy, education, community, and engagement of all SPA members.

Dr. Brustowicz became interested in quality assurance processes just as the medical community was adopting these methodologies to improve the delivery of medical care. Attending a presentation by Dr. Don Berwick inspired him to become active in his hospital’s processes. Bob was instrumental in organizing many of Boston Children’s Hospital early QI Committees as the Chief Physician Advisor of their Quality Assurance Program. Familiar with both the Model for Improvement and Lean Six Sigma methodologies, he is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. He is also a diplomate of the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians and is certified in Health Care Quality and Management. Currently he serves as a Medical Consultant for the Quality Management and Performance Improvement Program for his department at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is the current President of Wake up Safe.

David Buck, MD, MBA, is a Professor of Clinical Anesthesia and Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He completed both his pediatric anesthesiology fellowship and advanced fellowship in quality improvement at Cincinnati Children’s. He currently serves as Vice Chief of Quality Improvement and Safety for the Department of Anesthesiology and has lectured nationally and internationally on quality improvement. Dr. Buck is also the Past President of Wake Up Safe, the pediatric anesthesia quality improvement initiative.

Is an accomplished Registered Nurse with over 29 years of experience in critical care and emergency transport. He holds a Master’s degree in Nursing and has dedicated his career to providing high-quality care in high-acuity and prehospital environments. His clinical background includes 12 years of hands-on experience as a Pediatric Emergency Room and Pediatric Transport Nurse, along with 14 years as a Flight Nurse, delivering expert care in both ground and air transport settings. For the past 3 years, he has also served as a Simulation Educator, leveraging his extensive field experience to train and mentor healthcare professionals through high-fidelity, scenario-based simulation.

Education and pain specialization.

Dr. Jerry Chao is a pediatric anesthesiologist and clinical researcher at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Franklyn Cladis is Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he serves as the Anesthesiologist-in-Chief and holds the Health Sciences Chair in Pediatric Anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He completed residency training in both Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology, and Pediatric Anesthesiology, and earned his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business in 2022. Clinically, Dr. Cladis provides anesthesia care for infants and children in the operating room, on the pediatric pain service (both acute and chronic), and as part of the pediatric liver transplant team. His areas of interest include anesthesia for craniofacial surgery, pediatric perioperative pain, point-of-care ultrasonography, and education. He is an editor of the 8th, 9th, and 10th editions of Smith’s Anesthesia for Infants and Children. From an educational perspective, Dr. Cladis served as Program Director for the Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship for 18 years. He has held leadership roles on the Boards of Directors for both the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia and the Society for Education in Anesthesia, where he currently serves as President-Elect. Additionally, he is a Full Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology Applied Exam and is the past Chair of its Pediatric Anesthesiology Exam Committee. He is a past president of the Pediatric Anesthesia Program Directors Association (PAPDA), where he has been an active member since 2010.

Dr. Ashley Colletti is a pediatric anesthesiologist and inpatient pain physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at University of Washington since 2018. She completed pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital following anesthesiology residency training at University of Washington. Ashley is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and earned her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Her interests within the field include clinical informatics, resident and fellow education, and anesthesia care for patients with mitochondrial/metabolic disease.

Jurgen is an anesthesiologist (2008) and epidemiologist (2004). He was trained at the St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, The Netherlads (2008) and became a staff (pediatric) anesthesiologist at the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center Utrecht (2008). He was a visiting researcher at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne (2012). He is anesthesiologists at Adrz-ErasmusMC Goes and adjunct assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York. His research focuses on the improvement of perioperative care in children using retrospective and prospective pre- and intraoperative (database) studies. He was involved in various international multicenter research projects (NECTARINE, MPOG, PeDi-Registry, NIRS and isoelectric EEG events in infants). Furthermore, he was president (2022 - 2023) and honorary secretary (2016-2021) of the European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology (ESPA) and is part of the scientific committee since 2015. He is author of over 115 papers in international peer reviewed journals. He also currently serves as editor of the European Journal of Anesthesiology, Pediatric Anesthesia, and the Journal of Medical Systems, in addition to conducting ad-hoc reviews for other international scientific journals. Websites: http://pediatric-anesthesia.eu/ & https://bloodpressure-neonate.com/

quality initiative of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA). He a pediatrician, pediatric intensivist and anesthesiologist. Jay has served in numerous leadership roles in the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia and the AAP Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Management. He is a former president of the SPA and was involved in the creation of Wake up Safe. Jay has held several institutional leadership roles, including chief medical officer and chief quality officer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (Little Rock), and anesthesiologist-in-chief and executive physician for quality and safety at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, Vanderbilt University. Jay retired as chief of quality, patient safety and clinical analytics at Nemours Children’s Health Florida. He serves as a member of the children’s surgery verification program committee of the American College of Surgeons, and professor of pediatrics (emeritus), Nemours Children’s Florida/University of Central Florida.

Dr. Christina Diaz is Chief of the General Division of Pediatric Anesthesia at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, a role she assumed in January 2026. Prior to this appointment, she served for 17.5 years as a Professor of Anesthesiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she dedicated her career to clinical excellence, trainee education, simulation, and faculty development. Dr. Diaz currently serves as President of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and is the Immediate Past President of the Wisconsin Society of Anesthesiologists. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia. Through these leadership roles, she advocates nationally for the unique needs of children and the vital role pediatric anesthesiologists play in their care. A passionate educator, Dr. Diaz has held multiple educational leadership roles, including Fellowship Simulation Director, Assistant Program Director, and Residency Site Director. Over the past five years, she has focused on faculty development and leadership mentoring. She holds International Coaching Federation accreditation and is committed to developing the next generation of academic leaders.

Jessica Dominic, MD is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Texas Children's Hospital. She completed her residency at the University of Michigan before pursuing her fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. Following her fellowship, she remained at Washington University for an additional year as faculty before joining the department at Texas Children’s Hospital. Since joining Texas Children’s, she has become an integral member of the department, serving as the Blood Bank liaison, the Anesthesia director of the Spine Team, and as an active member of both the liver transplant and cardiac catheterization lab teams.

Dr. Kevin Dysart joined Nemours Children’s Health Wilmington as the Division Chief of Neonatal & Perinatal Medicine in 2021. Previously he served as the Associate Medical Director of the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He received his medical degree from Hahnemann University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Villanova University. Dr. Dysart recently completed his master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been actively involved in the conduction of clinical research, both clinical trials and epidemiology. His interests include clinical research focusing on large physiology data sets and machine learning, prediction, and probability.

Dr. Lisa Einhorn is an Associate Professor and physician-scientist at Duke University, where she completed her residency in anesthesiology and fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology. Dr. Einhorn serves as the Director of the Pediatric Pain and Analgesic Trials Laboratory and the Clinical Director of Pediatric Pain in the Duke Department of Anesthesiology. Her research focuses on developing innovative strategies to reduce perioperative pain and opioid use in children and adolescents across a variety of surgical populations with the goal of improving functional outcomes after surgery. Dr. Einhorn serves as the principal investigator for multiple prospective interventional and observational trials and is supported by funding from NICHD/NIH, the Organization for Autism Research, the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia, the Gerber Foundation, and the Society of Thoracic Surgery.

I am the Anesthesiologist-in-Chief at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Professor in Stanford’s Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine. My clinical expertise is pediatric cardiac anesthesiology and pediatric cardiac inventive care. My scholarly work has focused on medical simulation, pediatric anesthesiology, pediatric critical care, mentoring, and leadership. Since 2014, I have been a member of the Board of Directors of the SPA, on the SPA Executive Committee and I am the current SPA Past President.

Dr. Fitzgerald is a pediatric critical care physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the Associate Chief of Research for the CHOP Division of Critical Care Medicine and Co-Director of the CHOP Pediatric Sepsis Program. She served on Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Immune Effector Cell-related Adverse Events Subcommittee.

Pediatric anesthesiologist

Dr. Manon Haché is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center. She completed her Anesthesiology residency at the University of Montreal and Pediatric Anesthesiology fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr Haché is the Director of Pediatric Anesthesia Quality and Safety and Pediatric Trauma Anesthesia at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York.

Dr. Houck is a Senior Associate in Perioperative Anesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School. She completed training in Pediatrics, Anesthesiology and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and currently serves as the Clinical Director of the Hospitalist program at Boston Children’s Hospital at Waltham. In 2017, she was awarded a Masters of Public Health degree from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health with an emphasis on Quality and Safety research. She represents the entire pediatric anesthesiology community as one of just 3 pediatric anesthesiologists on the American College of Surgeons Children’s Surgery Verification Committee and is actively involved in efforts to improve perioperative quality and safety at Boston Children’s Hospital and throughout the country. In 2020, she was elected to serve a 4-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) where she advocated for optimal pediatric perioperative care and represented all of the pediatric surgical specialists in the Academy.

Grace Hsu, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She has received advanced training through the Global Health Delivery Intensive Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Intermountain Delivery Institute Advanced Training Program in Clinical Quality Improvement. Dr. Hsu specializes in the data-driven, systematic delivery of safe and high-quality care within a learning health system. Her expertise in quality improvement science is complemented by her clinical and research interests in pediatric airway management and perioperative blood product utilization. By integrating evidence-based practices with innovative quality improvement methodologies, Dr. Hsu strives to advance care outcomes in pediatric anesthesiology.

- Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia - Chair, Research Committee, Society for Pediatric Anesthesia

Shawn Jackson is a staff physician at Boston Children’s Hospital who practices in both pediatric critical care medicine and pediatric anesthesiology. His research interests center on elucidating interactions between sedation, neurotoxicity, and long-term outcomes in critically ill children. His clinical time is divided between the ICU and OR, where his interests include transplant anesthesia, critical care transport, and anesthetics for high-risk ICU patients.

Megha Kanjia is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Texas Children’s Hospital and is the Director of Quality Improvement. She found her love for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety during training and completed an Advanced fellowship in QI and Safety at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the Anderson Center before moving to Houston. She is ecstatic to be the President-elect of Wake Up Safe and is looking forward to the national and international growth of the organization as there have been new collaborations with various groups such as the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and Open Anesthesia. She spends her “free time” watching her three kids play soccer and squash with her husband, working out, and cooking for her family and friends. Her greatest occupational joy is working with the perioperative team at TCH who remind her every day that she has chosen a job she loves, and hopes to improve the care of perioperative patients alongside an amazing team.

Rahul Koka, MD MPH, is the Surgical Director of Quality and Logistics and a Pediatric Anesthesiologist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore Maryland. At Hopkins he served as the Section Chief for Pediatric General Anesthesia as well as the Clinical Director for the Pediatric Operating Rooms for eight years. Currently, in addition to his role as SDQL, he teaches at the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and is an expert on “Risk-based thinking” and “Human and Operational Performance.”

Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, FCCM is the David E. Longnecker Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an implementation scientist, anesthesiologist, and intensive care physician. At Penn, she serves as the Executive Director of the Penn Implementation Science Center (PISCE), Penn's academic community for implementation research and capacity building. Her lab’s research focuses on the application of implementation science and systems engineering to improve patient safety and communication in perioperative and critical care settings. She co-leads an NIH-funded national implementation science hub focused on maternal health equity and collaborates on implementation research in maternal health, health equity, and HIV/AIDS. Her work is supported by grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NICHD, NHLBI, NIA, OD), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the American Heart Association. Dr. Lane-Fall is the faculty lead for Accelerate Health Equity, an equity-focused coalition of all the major health systems in metro Philadelphia. She directs or co-directs multiple health services research training programs, including three early career faculty development programs and Penn’s Implementation Science Certificate. She has more than 90 lifetime mentees from undergraduate students to early-stage faculty. Dr. Lane-Fall is also on the Boards of Directors of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. She lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with her spouse and two children.

Dr. Jeong-Rim Lee is currently a professor at the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine of Yonsei University College of Medicine. She graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine in 2001 and obtained her Ph.D. at the same university in 2006. Dr. Lee specializes in pediatric anesthesia and is the Division Chief of Pediatric Anesthesia at Severance Hospital. Her clinical and research interests include respiratory complications, airway management, and postoperative analgesia in pediatric patients undergoing abdominal, urologic, and endoscopic surgeries. Dr. Lee was the Program Chair of the 2023 annual conference of the Asian Society of Pediatric Anesthesiologists and worked as Director of Academic Affairs of the Korean Society of Pediatric Anesthesiologists (KSPA) from 2019 to 2024. Besides medicine and anesthesia, she loves to explore the world and play golf at distinctive local venues.

Dr. Lee is the Senior Associate Dean for Women in Science and Medicine as well as a professor of Anesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. She is also the founder of WELI and a professional development and leadership coach, certified by the International Coaching Federation. Her brain science as a principal investigator was independently funded by the NIH, and she now serves as a co-I and consultant in neonatal and pediatric brain research.

Dr. Christine Mai is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is an Assistant Professor in Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School. She is the Program Director of the Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship at MGH. A native of Boston, she completed her medical school education at Boston University School of Medicine and her anesthesia residency training at Boston Medical Center. She is fellowship trained in pediatric anesthesia at Johns Hopkins University and after a year on faculty at Hopkins, she joined the Pediatric Anesthesia Division at MGH. Dr. Mai has a Masters degree in Health Professions Education from the MGH Institute of Health Professions with a concentration in simulation education. Her scholarly interests are in simulation education, curriculum development, medical education research, history in anesthesia, and health and wellness initiatives.

Linda J. Mason, M.D., FASA, FCAI is Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics at Loma Linda University and was the Director of Pediatric Anesthesiology at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital from 1988-2024. Dr. Mason served the California Society of Anesthesiologists as President of the Society from May 2004 thru May 2005. She is currently an ASA Past President (2019 ASA President). Dr. Mason is Past President, Association of Anesthesiology Subspecialty Program Directors (AASPD) (2008-2009) and was a Member, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Review Committee for Anesthesiology (2010-2016). She was Board Certified in Pediatric Anesthesiology (2013) and was an Editor for the American Board of Anesthesiologist – Pediatric Anesthesiology Exam (1/1/2015-12/31/17). She has presented over 675 outside lectures and Visiting Professorships during her career. Dr. Mason is currently the Board Chair for the National Society Pediatric Anesthesia Leadership Council (PALC).

Clinical Anesthesia Manager, St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Peggy P. McNaull, MD, is the Chief Medical and Quality Officer for UNC Health, a role she assumed in December of 2024. Prior to assuming this new role, Dr McNaull was the Frederic A. Berry Professor and Chair of the University of Virginia (UVA) Department of Anesthesiology and Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. McNaull embraced the department’s history of excellence to provide anesthesiology services across multiple sites, train the next generation of anesthesiologists, and develop anesthesiology research programs, while exploring new opportunities to innovate and advance the department in response to the ever-changing healthcare environment. In this role, Dr. McNaull recruited and retained a group of preeminent faculty. The department and its faculty, under her leadership, reached new heights in clinical care, education, research and community endeavors. Dr. McNaull started her career in healthcare as a nurse. After completing her BS at Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in Atlanta, she practiced as an RN in Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. She continued to serve as an RN while earning her MD at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. She completed her Anesthesiology residency at the University of North Carolina where she was Chief Resident. Subsequently, she did her Pediatric Anesthesiology fellowship at UNC before completing a Pediatric Cardiovascular Anesthesiology fellowship program at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. From 2009 until 2018, Dr. McNaull served as UNC Department of Anesthesiology’s Division Chief for Pediatric Anesthesiology. She fostered the development of preeminent programs in pediatric anesthesia care including the only anesthesia-managed Pediatric Pain and Sedation Service in the state of North Carolina. In 2014, Dr. McNaull was appointed as her department’s first Vice Chair for Patient Safety and Quality Improvement. In this role, Dr. McNaull advanced the efficiency and quality of care across the department and UNC’s operating rooms in many ways, including opioid stewardship, and enhanced recovery after surgery programs. In 2018, Dr. McNaull was appointed the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Quality and Safety for UNC Hospitals’ main campus in Chapel Hill where she was also integral in spreading some of the flagship programs she led, across the state through UNC Health’s system-wide care redesign effort. Dr. McNaull has a national reputation in pediatric anesthesiology. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Society for Pediatric Anesthesiology and currently serves as the society’s President-elect. She recently co-chaired a task force charged with re-envisioning the future of the Pediatric Anesthesiology ACGME program. Additionally, Dr. McNaull is very involved in the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) where she serves as an Applied Examiner. She has participated in written exam development since 2009 as a question writer and editor. Dr. McNaull was recently selected by the board of directors to serve as the Vice Chair of the Advanced Exam Committee. Dr. McNaull finds the greatest joy in being with her husband, Stewart, and their five amazing children Ben, Eli, Addie, Anderson and Molly.

Dr. Rebecca Nause-Osthoff is a Clinical Associate Professor, pediatric anesthesiologist, and Director of Medical Student Education at the University of Michigan. She is also the Vice Chair of SPAERS for SPA and the Chair Designee for the Medical Student Education Committee for SEA. In these roles, she is passionate about exposing early trainees, such as medical students, to the field of pediatric anesthesiology, creating robust educational experiences for medical students within anesthesiology, and advocating for effective and equitable advising for medical students interested in applying to anesthesiology residency across the nation.

Dr. Nelson graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her anesthesiology residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After working as a general anesthesiologist at Tufts Medical Center, she completed a pediatric anesthesia fellowship and became staff at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she is the Director of Fetal Anesthesia and a member of the Craniofacial team. She is an Assistant Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on fetal and neonatal anesthesia, infant patient blood management, and applying informatics and analytics to health care data to study and improve perioperative outcomes in neonates and infants.

Dolores B. Njoku, MD is the Wise Professor and Vice Chair of Anesthesiology, and Chief of Pediatric Anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University in St. Louis. She is an adjunct Professor in Pathology and Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis and Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Njoku received her medical degree from the University of Mississippi and completed a residency in Pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland Ohio, where she served as Chief resident. She completed a residency in Anesthesiology and fellowships in Pediatric Anesthesiology and Pediatric Critical Care at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and was full-time faculty from 1997 – 2021 where she served as Program Director for the Fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology from 2007 – 2018. In July 2021, Dr. Njoku joined the faculty at Washington University in St Louis. Dr. Njoku is an internationally respected educator and translational researcher in immune-mediated liver injury and focuses on mechanisms that initiate immune-mediated liver injury and the role of sex and gender in the severity of this process. She is a nationally-recognized educator and lecturer. She is the Pediatric Anesthesiologist-in-Chief of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, a member of the Department of Anesthesiology Promotions Committee, Chair of the Children’s Hospital Medical Executive Committee and a Faculty-at-large Representative for the Washington University in St. Louis Faculty Practice Plan. She is a member of the Board of the United Way of Central Maryland. She serves as a member of the ACGME Review Committee for Anesthesiology and a Full Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology, where she serves as Chair of the Standard Oral Exam. She is also a Chair of the NIH Board of Scientific Councilors, the recent past Chair of the Board for the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research and the President of the Association of University Anesthesiologists.

Dr. Olbrecht was born and raised in New Jersey but spent part of her childhood in Switzerland. She attended Cornell University where she studied Biology and Spanish. She graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2007 and completed her residency in Anesthesiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. She joined the faculty at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 2012 after finishing her pediatric anesthesia fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She received her MBA from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2015. At Cincinnati Children’s, she was an Associate Professor in Anesthesiology and Pediatrics and the Director of Quality Improvement and Accreditation for Procedural Sedation for the institution. She was also the Associate Director of Research and the Clinical Director of the Procedure Center. She joined Nationwide Children’s Hospital in 2021 and spent two years as the Vice Chair of Quality Improvement and Development and the Director of Fetal Anesthesiology. She is currently the Chair for the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware Valley and a Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Pediatric Sedation (SPS) as well as on the Executive Committee and is the Chair of the Quality and Safety Committee. Dr. Olbrecht’s research interest lies in improving pediatric pain with innovative, non-pharmacologic therapies. She began her current research in the use of biofeedback-based virtual reality for pain management in 2018. Since 2018, she has received over $1.5 million in funding both for her research and device development and she currently has an R34 and Blueprint MedTech grant from the NIH to develop a clinical trial protocol for the integration of biofeedback-based virtual reality in perioperative pain management and to further develop the technology. She looks forward to the day when VR becomes part of everyday pain management. Outside of work, Dr. Olbrecht enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband and 6-year-old daughter, Marcella. She is an avid equestrian and enjoys English riding and jumping. She also loves to travel and explore new parts of the world.

Dr. Patrick Olomu, MD, FRCA, FMCA (Honoris Causa) is a Professor of Anesthesiology and the Division Chief of Pediatric Anesthesia at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He also serves as Interim Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Anesthesiology. Dr. Olomu is board certified in General Anesthesiology with sub-specialty certification in Pediatric Anesthesiology. He is actively involved in building multidisciplinary pediatric anesthesia programs, mentoring trainees, and junior faculty, and advancing evidence-based practice through institutional and multi-center collaborations. He is recognized as key opinion leader in pediatric difficult airway management and currently serves as the Chair of the Global Pediatric Difficult Intubation Collaborative.

Neha Patel, M.D., is a board-certified pediatric anesthesiologist at Shriners Children’s Southern California. She was born and raised in the Midwest. She graduated with distinction from University of Wisconsin in Madison with a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacology and toxicology. She then received her medical doctorate at Rush University. Afterwards, she completed residency at Baylor College of Medicine, where she was honored as an outstanding resident in pediatric anesthesiology. She completed fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She has 10 years of clinical experience in the perioperative management of complex pediatric patients. She believes that all patients deserve the best care, and has dedicated her career to quality improvement. She has Advanced Training in Quality Improvement from Intermountain Heath, and is the educational director of Wake-Up Safe, a national patient safety organization dedicated to improving pediatric anesthesia outcomes. Dr. Patel also believes in improving the patient experience, and including patients and families in their perioperative care plan. She practices acute pain management. Dr. Patel loves learning about different cultures and values her experiences in medical missions. She has done medical service in Mexico, Dominican Republic, China, Vietnam and Bangladesh. In her free time, Dr. Patel enjoys hiking, traveling, food, and spending time with her husband and doggie. Dr. Patel’s interests include pediatric anesthesia, quality improvement, patient experience and acute pain management.

Simulation Operations Technician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), focusing on operations and integrating new technologies to education and research. Prior to this, he dedicated his career to emergency response as CHOP’s inaugural Bioresponse Trainer and as an Emergency Medical Technician. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership and Management from Peirce College. He is currently pursuing an MBA in Healthcare Management

I have been a pediatric otolaryngologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center since 2001, affiliated with the University of Cincinnati, and hold an academic rank of Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology. I have a little expertise in the area of pediatric and adult airway surgery and management, and a fairly robust tertiary referral practice as a result. My reputation as an airway surgeon has been enhanced by the perception that I am an innovator. While not all of the ideas I have promoted are necessarily novel, I have certainly popularized operations such as airway balloon dilation and slide tracheoplasty. I have also developed several operations (eg, epiglottic petiole repositioning, endoscopic anterior and posterior cricoid split for neonatal vocal cord paralysis), and have significantly modified several others (eg, cricotracheal resection, slide tracheoplasty). I currently have 4 patents. One of these is for a balloon dilator, for which I receive Royalties. I also have a stent marketed with my name on it, but have declined Royalties on this. Academically, I have been reasonably productive in publishing peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Over the last 10 years I have published over 100 peer-reviewed articles.

After receiving her undergraduate and medical degree at the University of Rochester, Dr. Schleelein did her Anesthesiology residency training at the University of Pennsylvania and was elected chief resident from 2006 to 2007. She completed her fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and then joined the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine as Assistant Professor at CHOP. She became the department patient safety officer in 2010 and in 2015 was named the Safety Director for the Division of Anesthesiology. She was excited to be elected CHOP Medical Director of Patient Safety in 2016. In 2019, she joined the Watson Clinic, LLP team in Lakeland, Florida as the Director of Pediatric Anesthesiology. During her career, her academic interest and quality improvement work has centered on adverse events in the perioperative complex. She has started an adverse events database and has completed several quality improvement and research projects focusing on the epidemiology of these events and improving team response.

I have been a practicing anesthesiologist for over 35 years. I have worked in a variety of practice settings, from private practice and HMO to academic medicine. For the past 20 years I have worked at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Division of Pediatric Anesthesia and Pain Medicine within the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical care Medicine. My academic interests are in perioperative optimization, simulation and pediatric pain management. I am the Medical Director of the Center for Perioperative Optimization. My administrative interests are in the use of data analytics to inform the industrial organization of perioperative services and improve patient outcomes.

Devika Singh, M.D., is an Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She serves as an attending pediatric anesthesiologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). With 18 years of experience in simulation-based educational activities, Dr. Singh completed the facilitator’s course at CHOP and the Institute of Medical Simulation in Boston in 2013, as well as Team STEPPS training in 2015. She also holds a master’s in medical education from the University of Pennsylvania which she completed in 2018. Dr. Singh has developed multiple simulation educational programs and curricula, including a multi-institutional pediatric anesthesia fellows boot camp, now in its 15th year. She mentors junior faculty in the development and execution of simulation-based educational sessions for residents and fellows. As a co-director and standing faculty member for the ABA-endorsed MOCA center at CHOP, Dr. Singh has been actively involved with the ASA-endorsed MOCA simulation offered at the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) meetings for the past decade. She has both developed and contributed to various simulation workshops for the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and other organizations. These sessions have highlighted pediatric anesthetic techniques, perioperative PALS training using high-fidelity mannequins, navigating difficult conversations with families, and addressing challenges faced by new faculty. Additionally, she is an active member of the SPA simulation special interest group (SIG).

Dr. Tait is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Stanford with clinical interests in liver transplantation, cardiac anesthesia, and anesthetic management of medically complex patients undergoing major procedures. She is passionate about educating trainees and attendings alike about anesthetic management of complex pediatric patients, and she co-runs the Stanford pediatric anesthesia morbidity and mortality conference.

Dr. Anna Varughese, MBBS, MD, FRCA, MPH, FAAP, is a distinguished pediatric anesthesiologist who serves as Professor of Anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine. She is the Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and also serves as the Associate Chief Quality and Safety Officer and Perioperative Director at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Varughese served for 15 years as Associate Chief of the Department of Anesthesia at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). She earned her Master of Public Health (MPH) from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2005. Renowned for her clinical expertise, Dr. Varughese has made significant contributions to the fields of patient safety, quality improvement, and perioperative care. Her exceptional mentorship was recognized by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), which honored her with the ASA Mentoring Award in 2013. Dr. Varughese’s research focuses on health services and outcomes, emphasizing the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of patient care delivery. She has authored at least 60 peer-reviewed publications in major journals and books and has presented her work extensively at national and international scientific meetings.

Received a medical degree from the University of Kentucky. Completed anesthesiology residency at Texas Tech University. Completed a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Has remained on staff at Cincinnati Children's hospital and is currently an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Dr Wang is at Stanford University where she is Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Program Director for the Pediatrics/Anesthesiology Residency Program.

Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital

Associate Professor Program Director Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology Department of Anesthesiology WashU Medicine

Dr. Whitney is a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist and pediatric intensivist who serves as the Director of Anesthesia Quality and Outcomes and the Medical Director of Patient Safety for the Children's Hospital Colorado system.

During his distinguished career at Johns Hopkins and the University of Colorado, Myron Yaster, MD has changed the practice of anesthesiology, pediatrics, pediatric pain medicine and pediatric critical care medicine locally, nationally, and internationally. He has mentored more than 150 faculty and fellows who have gone on to establish independent, distinguished careers in academic and private practice medicine. Dr. Yaster is board-certified in Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pediatric Anesthesia, and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. After completing residencies in Pediatrics (Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh) and Anesthesiology (University of Pennsylvania) and fellowships in Pediatric Anesthesia and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania) he joined the Hopkins faculty in 1982. He retired from Hopkins in 2016 and joined the faculty at the University of Colorado. He retired from the University of Colorado in 2021. In retirement he edits the daily Ron Litman’s Pediatric Anesthesia Article of the Day which reaches a daily audience of over 5,900 readers in 99 countries. In an ongoing series of clinical and laboratory experiments that started shortly after his arrival at Hopkins, Dr. Yaster has been at the forefront of studies that demonstrated that the newborn infant responds to pain. More importantly, he and his colleagues have proven that this pain can be prevented by the appropriate use of anesthetics (general and regional) and analgesic drugs. Clearly pain, anxiety, and discomfort (both physical and psychological) are not limited to the newborn and do not begin and end with the induction and conclusion of surgery and anesthesia. Dr. Yaster started the Pediatric Pain Service at Johns Hopkins and was until 2005 its clinical director. This program treats approximately 3,000 in- and out-patients a year and is considered by many to be among the best programs in the world. It sets the standard for practice nationally and internationally and has served as the source of extensive clinical and translational research as well as practice policy. He and his colleagues have published extensively in this area. He has authored more than 300 original papers and book chapters as both the first author and as the senior author. In the later capacity he has been the mentor of many individuals who have gone on to become leaders in the areas of Pediatric Anesthesiology, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, and Pediatric Pain Management. Finally, Dr. Yaster founded and was the first President of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia. This is the largest subspecialty organization of its kind in this field. It currently has over 4,000 members. In recognition of his many contributions to the Society, the Society founded the Myron Yaster, MD Lifetime Achievement Award which is awarded annually to leaders in the field of Pediatric Anesthesiology.