Dr. Jessica Cassavaugh is a T32 Research fellow and Clinical Instructor in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She completed her anesthesiology residency and critical care fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her current research focuses on estrogen-dependent regulation of inflammatory and hypoxic signaling, especially as it relates to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

This article brings to your attention Dr. Meghan Lane-Fall, an extraordinarily achieved female physician-scientist who continues to excel in many aspects of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. I invited Dr. Lane-Fall to be the center of this story because I am impressed and inspired by her remarkable achievements and her capacity to remain approachable.

I am an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado, where I attend in the operating rooms and the Surgical Trauma ICU (STICU). Throughout my early career as a physician-scientist, I have been dedicated to studying critically ill patients, trauma, and multi-organ dysfunction.

Dr. Carlee Clark is an Associate Professor in the department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina where she is Chief of the Anesthesia Integrated Clinical Center of Excellence and Vice Chair of Clinical Operations. She is currently serving on SOCCA’s Board.

Dr. Michael O’Connor is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, at The University of Chicago. He also serves as a Vice-Chair of Academic Affairs and as the Executive Medical Director of Critical Care Services at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

How long have you been a SOCCA Member?
Since 2010

What is your favorite part of SOCCA?
I like that it highlights critical care anesthesiologists and creates a community for us to engage in.

Dr. Pinxia Chen currently practices at Saint Luke’s University Health System in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and has been with her group for five years. Dr. Chen is originally from the South Jersey/Philadelphia area and started her career with an anesthesiology residency at Penn State Medical Center in Hershey and a fellowship in critical care at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Chen stated that she then looked for academic jobs with a strong anesthesiology presence in the ICU. However, the academic jobs available in her preferred geographic location left something to be desired and her current position in private practice did allow for strong clinical involvement by anesthesiologists in the critical care setting. When Dr. Chen started there were only two people in the group with formal critical care training. That number has grown considerably since that time. 

This month we are featuring Dr. Jing Tao. Dr. Tao is an anesthesiologist and intensivist at Memorial Sloane Kettering Hospital in New York. She is originally from NYC, completed residency training at the University of Maryland, and then her critical care medicine fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. We asked Dr. Tao to reflect on her experience as a SOCCA member so far.

Jeanine P. Wiener-Kronish, MD, Henry Isaiah Dorr Distinguished Professor of Research and Teaching in Anaesthetics and Anaesthesia; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts was the 2020 SOCCA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

Natalia Ivascu, MD (Weill Cornell Medicine) and Jonathan Hastie, MD (Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) are critical care and adult cardiothoracic anesthesiologists in New York City. Their leadership of a coordinated COVID-19 pandemic response across the New York-Presbyterian health care system was recently featured in NEJM Catalyst.

For the past few years, we’ve highlighted members and their achievements in this ongoing series. This month, we will highlight Vivian Abalama,CAE, IOM, the SOCCA Society Director from the IARS. Without her, many of the Society’s day-to-day functions would not exist and our Physician leadership, committees and others would surely be lost.

Mike Fierro is an anesthesiologist and critical care medicine physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin. His practice includes general adult anesthesiology and critical care in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital. He has maintained the SOCCA Twitter account since 2016.

Jeff Vender, MD, MCCM, MBA is the Emeritus, Harris Family Foundation Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois and a Clinical Professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School Of Medicine. Dr. Vender was the recipient of the SOCCA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Dr. Sean Josephs, MD is an Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesia at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH. He is board certified in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Todd Dorman MD, FCCM is the Senior Associate Dean for Education Coordination, the Associate Dean of Continuing Medical Education, the Vice-Chair for Critical Care and a Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a past president of the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologist and the Society of Critical Care Medicine and was the 2017 SOCCA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner.