2023 SOAP Fundamentals Speakers

Dr. Anwar 
Anjum Anwar, MD
Dr. Anwar is an anesthesiologist who comes from a diverse background and is passionate about simulation teaching endeavors. She has done her anesthesia training across three countries and three continents. She has done a fellowship in medical education in anesthesia from Stanford University, a fellowship in obstetric anesthesia, and a fellowship in patient safety and quality improvement in anesthesia from the University of Florida. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor, lead for Obstetric anesthesia simulation, patient safety, and quality improvement education lead in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor for the Division of Healthcare Simulation Science in the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Kaitlyn Brennan, MD
Kaitlyn Brennan, MD		 Dr. Brennan is a critical care obstetric anesthesiologist and is the Director of Maternal Critical Care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville TN, where she divides her time between attending in the CVICU and attending on the labor floor. She received her undergraduate degree from New York University, went on pursue an MPH at Dartmouth College, and received her medical degree at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, PA. She completed her residency in Anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and then completed both her Anesthesia Critical Care Medicine fellowship and Obstetric Anesthesia fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She enjoys teaching residents and fellows about complex illness in pregnancy and telling the story of the critically ill pregnant patient. 
Beth Clayton, DNP
Beth Clayton, DNP, CRNA, FAANA, FAAN		 Beth Ann Clayton is the Program Director for the University of Cincinnati Nurse Anesthesia Program. She leads over 80 students in doctorate level nurse anesthesia programing, with 10 didactic faculty and approximately 80 CRNA clinical faculty members over 19 clinical sites. Beth has delivered more than 150 lectures to broad audiences of nurses and physicians across the U.S. and in Europe on obstetric anesthesia, neuraxial anesthesia techniques, pharmacology, and medicolegal considerations.  She has hosted clinical skills workshops and co-authored several peer reviewed publications.

Beth is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology.  She is a primary author of the AANA Practice Guidelines Analgesia and Anesthesia for the Obstetric Patient and a member of the AANA Foundation Closed Malpractice Claims Review Team. Beth is appointed to Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC).  She served as the AANA representative to the ACOG Council on Patient Safety for Women’s Health Care and the National Quality Forum Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Committee.  

 
Benjamin Cobb, MDBenjamin Cobb, MD
 Dr. Cobb completed his MD at the Medical University of South Carolina. He went on to complete Anesthesiology residency at the University of Washington, Seattle and Obstetric Anesthesia fellowship training at Stanford University. Dr. Cobb is board-certified in Anesthesiology and joined the faculty at UNC, CH in 2015 and currently serves as the program director for the obstetric anesthesia fellowship, assistant program director for the residency, and co-lead for multidisciplinary obstetric simulation. 
Carlos Delgado, MD 
Carlos Delgado, MD 		 Carlos Delgado, MD

Associate Professor
Associate Director, Obstetric Anesthesia
Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine - University of Washington
Clinical and research interests: labor pain relief, management of high-risk pregnancies, and clinical outcomes and modes of delivery of labor analgesia.
Emily Dinges, MD
Emily Dinges, MD 		 Name pronunciation tip: Dinges rhymes with door hinges or drinking binges
Born and raised in Oregon

Undergrad: University of Portland in Portland, OR

MD and internship: OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) in Portland, OR
Residency and OB anesthesia fellowship: University of Washington in Seattle, WA

Current Position: Associate Professor and Program Director of Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA
Sheena Hembrador
Sheena Hembrador, MD  		  

Dr. Sheena Hembrador is the Section Head of OB Anesthesiology at Virginia Mason Medical Center. She built the OB Anesthesiology program for the brand-new Labor and Delivery unit that opened there in August of 2020. She is committed to providing high quality obstetric anesthesia care to the patients of the Pacific Northwest. Prior to that she worked as faculty at the University of Washington. She did her internship, residency, and OB Anesthesiology fellowship at the University of Washington. She has diverse interests having worked in engineering prior to going to medical school. Outside of work she likes to spend time with her husband and two kids. In the little time she has left she enjoys singing with the cover band The Beat Project (https://beatprojectseattle.com/).
Nicole Higgins
Nicole Higgins, MD 		  Dr. Higgins is an obstetric anesthesiologist and associate professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Higgins completed her residency and obstetric fellowship training at Northwestern and currently serves as the Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology as well as the Vice Chair for Clinical Operations of the department. Her clinical and research interests include optimal vasopressor management of spinal anesthesia-induced hypotension, placenta accreta spectrum, obesity in the parturient, and healthcare quality and she is currently enrolled in a Master’s program for Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety. She has mentored over 45 obstetric anesthesiology fellows, many of which are the leaders of the subspecialty. Dr. Higgins has been an active member of SOAP, serving in various capacities on several committees and currently serves as the Chair of the Patient Safety Subcommittee.
 Laura Kaufman, MDLaura Kaufman, MD  Laura Kaufman is a board-certified anesthesiologist with 12 years of post residency experience caring for patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings.  She served as the Chief of Obstetric Anesthesia at the Fetal Health Center of Children’s Mercy in Kansas City until May 2022 and coordinated multiple patient safety and healthcare quality advancement initiatives. She is passionate about evidence-based care and models of care improvement, as well as health equity and reproductive rights. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality.

Allison Lee, MD
Allison J. Lee, MD

 Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Columbia University, where she is an obstetric anesthesiologist and Medical Director of the Margaret Wood Center for Simulation and Education. At Columbia, she is also the Officer for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, where she has been actively working on a number of initiatives, including implementing training surrounding unconscious bias and upstander response, conducting research into racial and ethnic health disparities, and supporting pipeline programs for individuals who are from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in medicine.

She serves as the Chair of SOAP’s Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee. She is active in both clinical and education research and serves as a standardized oral examiner with the American Board of Anesthesiology.
Amy Lee, MD
Amy Lee, MD 		  Dr. Amy Lee is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where she is the Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Program Director.  Dr. Lee completed her residency at UCLA and obstetric fellowship training at Northwestern.  Her clinical and research interests include point-of-care ultrasound, Placenta Accreta Spectrum, and recycling and reducing waste in the operating room.  She is currently pursuing her Executive Healthcare MBA.  Dr. Lee is an active member of SOAP and currently serves as the Chair of the Locations and Logistics Subcommittee.
Hiba Mustafa, MD
Hiba Mustafa, MD 		 Hiba Mustafa is Assistant Professor of Fetal Surgery and Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Indiana University and Riley Children's Hospital.
She had a leading role in starting the fetal intervention program and the placenta accreta program at Indiana University and Riley children's hospital.
Dr. Mustafa's clinical and research interests include fetal Medicine, fetal surgery, prenatal diagnosis, ultrasound, and abnormal placentation.
She is passionate about conducting research, teaching, collaboration, innovative approaches in fetal diagnosis and therapy, and management of placenta accreta spectrum.
Emily Naoum, MD
Emily Naoum, MD  		 Emily Naoum did her undergraduate and medical school at the University of Michigan before residency in Anesthesiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She then completed Obstetric Anesthesia and Critical Care fellowships at the University of Michigan. She is a clinical instructor at MGH and Harvard Medical School and serves as the Program Director of the Obstetric Anesthesia fellowship. She practices a mix of general anesthesia, obstetric anesthesia, and surgical critical care and has research interests in extracorporeal life support in pregnancy, maternal critical illness, and cardiovascular critical care. In her spare time, she enjoys running, yoga, cooking, classical string bass, and cross stitching.

Barbara Orlando, MD

Barbara Orlando, MD, PhD, FASA is currently and Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UTHealth McGovern Medical School. Throughout her career, Dr. Orlando has been actively involved as a clinician anesthesiologist and researcher in her previous role as Assistant professor of Anesthesiology, Clinical Base Year Director, OB Anesthesia Research Director (with research centered on OB and wellness topics) and Wellness Champion at Morningside and Mount Sinai West Hospitals. Prior to joining the Morningside and Mount Sinai West Hospitals, Dr. Orlando completed her 2 Anesthesiology residencies in Paris, France at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital and in US at the Montefiore Medical Center. She completed an OB anesthesia fellowship training at the Morningside and Mount Sinai West Hospitals. She also received a master’s degree in biology and pharmacology of haemostasis and vessels in France.
Jack Peace, MD
Jack Peace, MD  		  Dr. Jack Peace originally hails from the Pacific Northwest but did his residency and fellowship training at Northwestern University in Chicago. In 2020, he joined the faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia as an Assistant Professor. There, he provides high-risk obstetric anesthesia care to Temple’s diverse and medically underserved patient population. He enjoys teaching residents the principles of anesthetic management for the parturient and has assumed the role of Assistant Program Director for the residency program. His research interests include maternal obesity and the impacts of maternal anemia.
Stephanie Raschilla
Stephanie Raschilla, DNP, CRNA 		  Dr. Stephanie Raschilla graduated from Baylor College of Medicine’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Program in Nurse Anesthesia in 2017. She was hired as CRNA faculty at BCM after graduation and currently works as an Assistant Professor in the department of Anesthesiology and Health Professions. Stephanie practices full time at Ben Taub Hospital, a level one trauma center in Houston, TX. She is the obstetric clinical coordinator for the DNP Program at Ben Taub Hospital, which is a SOAP center of excellence in obstetric anesthesia. Stephanie received the DNP Program’s Excellence in Clinical Teaching award in 2021.