2027 SOAP Fundamentals Speakers

Rachel Achu-Lopes, MD, is the Director of Obstetric Anesthesia at Boston Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She completed her anesthesiology residency at Boston Medical Center and went on to complete an Obstetric Anesthesia Fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Dr. Achu-Lopes' clinical, educational, and scholarly interests include postoperative cesarean section pain management, obstetric hemorrhage, maternal cardiac disease, and perioperative quality improvement. She has led multidisciplinary quality improvement and educational initiatives focused on improving post-cesarean pain management, advancing evidence-based obstetric hemorrhage care, and enhancing the perioperative management of pregnant patients with complex maternal cardiac disease through interdisciplinary collaboration and case-based education.

An active member of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP), Dr. Achu-Lopes serves on the Member Value Committee and is Chair of the Under-Resourced Environments (URE) Outreach Subcommittee, which operates under the Member Value Committee. She is also a member of the SOAP Intersociety Committee and is committed to advancing equitable obstetric anesthesia care through education, mentorship, research, and quality improvement.

Her current scholarly work focuses on optimizing obstetric hemorrhage management and improving post-cesarean pain control, with the goal of translating evidence into clinical practice and improving maternal outcomes. Dr. Achu-Lopes is passionate about making complex obstetric anesthesia concepts practical, evidence-based, and immediately applicable to clinical practice.

Beth Clayton, DNP, CRNA, FAANA, FAAN

Beth Ann Clayton is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, a Level I Trauma Center and a Level IV Maternity Hospital. She is also a Professor and Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program at the university. She is a primary author of the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) Practice Guidelines: Analgesia and Anesthesia for the Obstetric Patient. Beth leads the faculty for the AANA Spinal Epidural and Obstetric Essentials Workshop and serves as a speaker for the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology Fundamentals Workshop. She serves on the AANA Foundation Malpractice Closed Claims Research Committee, focusing on obstetric anesthesia claims. She is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology. Beth has been appointed to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC). Additionally, she has served on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care, the Joint Commission Perinatal Safety Standards Review Panel, and the National Quality Forum Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Committee. 

Dr. Michaela K. Farber is Chief of the Division of Obstetric Anesthesia at Mass General Brigham (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital) and is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Farber served as BWH fellowship program director for OB anesthesia for 12 years, mentoring 56 fellows. Dr. Farber has served on the SOAP Board of Directors and is currently Vice Chair of SOAP Education Committee and Chair of the SOAP Abstract Review Subcommittee.

Dr. Farber serves on the Massachusetts Maternal Mortality Review Committee for the Department of Public Health. Through the lens of reducing preventable morbidity and mortality, her research focuses on enhancing postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) management. Her investigations to date have highlighted PPH preparedness, national trends, impact of quantitative blood loss and point-of-care coagulation testing, risk assessment models, anesthetic management of placenta accreta spectrum, and pharmacokinetics of tranexamic acid therapy. 

Dr. Kelly Fedoruk is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University, where she serves as Quality Improvement Lead for the Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology and Maternal Health. Born and raised in rural Saskatchewan, she completed her medical training and anesthesiology residency at the University of Saskatchewan, obtaining FRCPC status in 2016. She subsequently completed a fellowship in Obstetric Anesthesiology at Stanford University.

Dr. Fedoruk's career has focused on bridging clinical excellence with systematic quality improvement in obstetric anesthesia. As quality lead, she oversees institutional safety reporting systems, reviews quality assurance and key performance data derived from said systems and coordinates grassroots QI projects in the multidisciplinary team setting. She holds Lean Six Sigma black belt certification and has served on the SOAP Patient Safety Committee and MPOG's Obstetric Subcommittee.

Her scholarly work addresses critical gaps in quality metric utilization, with recent publications examining how institutions can responsibly interpret and act upon quality data to drive meaningful improvements in maternal care. She has published on obstetric hemorrhage, coexisting disease in pregnancy, spinal hypotension management, and quality improvement initiatives on labor and delivery. Her clinical interests include point of care ultrasound and transfusion medicine in obstetrics. 

Dr. Fedoruk lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two daughters and son. She loves to treat her learners on call to take out food and enjoys returning to Canada to ski!

Pratik Kothary, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Health. He is board certified in Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and maintains a broad clinical practice at North Shore University Hospital, which includes, but is not limited to, all types of adult cardiac cases. He is also a member of the hospital’s obstetric anesthesia team, caring for patients across the spectrum of routine and high-risk obstetric care. He is actively involved in his institution’s Heart and Obstetric Multidisciplinary Experts (HOME) Clinic,
caring for patients with complex cardiovascular disease during pregnancy and working closely with a multidisciplinary team to optimize maternal and fetal outcomes. He also has a strong interest in medical education and enjoys teaching medical students and residents. Outside the hospital, he enjoys spending time with his four-year-old son and eight-month-old daughter and teaching them to cheer for the New York sports teams.

Dr. Sangeeta Kumaraswami is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Obstetrics & Gynecology and Chief of Obstetric Anesthesia at Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College at Valhalla, NY.

She has presented on topics related to obstetric anesthesia both locally and nationally. This includes the  NY State Society of Anesthesiology ( NYSSA)  Post Graduate Assembly ( PGA) meeting held annually in New York City as well as at the ASA meetings. She is also a member of the ASA committee on Obstetric Anesthesia as well as the ASA Abstract Review Subcommittee on Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology.

She is passionate about teaching and is the Obstetric Anesthesia Resident rotation director at her institution. She was voted by anesthesia residents as the best sub-specialty teacher of the year and has received this award in 2021, 2022 and 2025. In 2024, she was recognized by the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and received the Chair’s Award for Excellence in Education and Service to Patients. She has been part of the faculty that teaches Point of care ultrasound at the workshop in the SOAP conference and specifically teaches gastric ultrasound.

She has also been involved in mentoring medical students and starting in 2025, has organized an Obstetric Anesthesia summer course approved by the medical school for M1 students who are transitioning to M2 year. This was the inaugural year that had 4 medical students. The course was well received and is an excellent way to introduce medical students early to the specialty of obstetric anesthesiology.

Professor Ruthi Landau is the Virginia Apgar Professor of Anesthesiology and serves as the Division Chief of Obstetric Anesthesia at Columbia University in New York.

She completed her medical training and her residency in Anesthesiology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and then a two-year Obstetric Anesthesia Fellowship at Columbia University in New York. She has worked for many years in Switzerland, before moving permanently to the United States in 2008, first as the Division Chief of Obstetric Anesthesia at the University of Washington in Seattle, and then back at Columbia University in New York in 2014.

She was the President of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) in 2020 and is the current chair of the SOAP Centers of Excellence Committee. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia (IJOA) since 2024.

She has authored over 200 articles and is invited to lecture worldwide on precision medicine,  genomics and anesthesia, contemporary practice of neuraxial labor analgesia, the opioid crisis, enhanced recovery after cesarean delivery, use of neuraxial adjuvants, pain during cesarean delivery, and ethnic/racial disparities in maternal health care. 

Greg Palleschi, MD

Dr. Palleschi is the Director of Obstetric Anesthesia for Northwell Health’s Central Region.  He is passionate about maternal healthcare and firmly believes in the importance of the healthcare team in improving maternal outcomes.  His efforts in mobilizing and energizing the team have been recognized.  Both North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center are recognized as Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) Centers of Excellence.  Dr. Palleschi currently serves on the SOAP Board of Directors—and he has served SOAP in varying capacities throughout the years.  Dr. Palleschi is the Associate Program Director for the Northwell Health Anesthesiology Residency Program and Chairman of the Clinical Competency Committee.

Sharon Reale is a faculty member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Originally from Texas, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed anesthesiology residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by obstetric anesthesia fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Sharon has an interest in trainee education and serves as fellowship program director for Mass General Brigham. Sharon’s research focuses on leveraging large databases to study maternal morbidity and mortality, including rare comorbidities and outcomes. 

Mark Rollins, MD

Pervez Sultan, MD, FRCA

Joseph George Tharion, MD, FRCA, is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He completed his anesthesiology residency at Christian Medical College, Vellore, and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India. He then worked as a fellow in Intensive Care Medicine at North Middlesex University Hospital, London, UK, and as a fellow in Cardiac Anesthesia at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, UK, where he also completed his FRCA examinations to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists.

Dr. Tharion is an active member of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP), where he serves as Vice-Chair of the Under-Resourced Environment (URE) Outreach Subcommittee and is a member of the POCUS Subcommittee, and SOAP Abstract Review Subcommittee. Through these roles, he contributes to the Society’s broader mission of advancing equitable, high-quality obstetric anesthesia care through education and research.

His recent scholarly work centers on point-of-care ultrasound in obstetric anesthesia and the management of autoimmune conditions in pregnancy, including a co-authored chapter on autoimmune conditions in A Quick Reference to Obstetric Anesthesia (Academic Press) and a forthcoming chapter on POCUS in A Practical Approach to Obstetric Anesthesia (Wolters Kluwer).

Dr. Tharion is dedicated to improving the quality of obstetric anesthetic care through education, inter-disciplinary collaboration, and evidence-based medicine.

Daniel Wingert, MD

Cynthia Wong, MD

Dr. Wong is a Professor of Anesthesia, in the Department of Anesthesia at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Dr. Wong is an obstetric anesthesiologist whose research interests revolve around labor analgesia and its effects on the progress of labor and fetal status, epidural labor analgesia, as well as anesthesia for cesarean delivery and postoperative analgesia. She and her group have published several seminal studies that have changed the practice of obstetric anesthesia. Dr. Wong is a consultant editor for the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia. She has edited several major textbooks, including Chestnut’s Obstetric Anesthesia, Principles and Practice, and has authored multiple book chapters in major anesthesiology and obstetric textbooks. Dr. Wong is also an active educator, lecturing worldwide. Other interests include malignant hyperthermia; she has served as an MH Hotline consultant for many years.