Faculty

Hari Kalagara, MD; Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL (Chair)

Faculty

Srikar Adhikari, MD, MS; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 
Walid Alrayashi, MD; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 
Nibras Bughrara, MD; Albany Medical College, Delmar, NY
Melissa Byrne, DO, MPH; Michigan Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI
Javier Cubillos, MD; Western University/ London Health Sciences Center, London, ON, Canada
Hari Kalagara, MD; Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL
Sree Kolli, MD, EDRA; Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 
Promil Kukreja, MD, PhD, FASA; The University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL
Iyabo Muse, MD; Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College, New York, NY
Bridget Pulos, MD; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Erik Sloth, MD, PhD; USabcd, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Risskov, Denmark
Rakesh Sondekoppam Vijayashankar, MBBS; University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 
Joshua Zimmerman, MD, FASE; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Associate Faculty

Keerthi Chigurupati, MD; USHA Cardiac Center, Vijayawada, India
Omar Durra, MD; University of Southern California/Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA
Andrea Gomez Morad, MD; Hilo Medical Center, Hilo, HI
John Hagen, MD, MBA; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Melody Herman, MD; Atrium Health/Scope Anesthesia of North Carolina, Waxhaw, NC
Federico Jimenez Ruiz, MD; University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Sudipta Sen, MD; McGovern Medical School at UT Health, Houston, TX
Marissa Weber, MD; Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 

Walid Alrayashi, MD, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Harvard Medical School and director of the regional anesthesiology program at Boston Children's Hospital. He completed medical school in Northwestern and residency at NYU with fellowship at Boston Children's.  He has a special interest in the use of ultrasound in the perioperative care of pediatric and young adult patients. He has published widely in these fields and lectured at conferences nationally and internationally.  He also loves to innovate in the field and to share those with physicians taking care of children.

Nibras Bughrara, MD, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, surgery, and internal medicine. He completed his critical care medicine fellowship and advanced perioperative echocardiography training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Currently he is the division chief of anesthesia critical care and the founder and director of the Critical Care Echocardiography Program at Albany Medical College in Albany, NY. Dr. Bughrara is the principal investigator (PI) of an ongoing multicenter study on blending focused transthoracic echocardiography learning in existing anesthesiology residency training programs and the PI of a multicenter study on performing focused echocardiographic evaluation in life support for in-hospital cardiac arrest patients. 

Melissa Byrne, DO, MPH, is a graduate of Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. After residency in anesthesiology at the University of Michigan, she worked in private practice in Virginia before returning back to her home in Michigan to complete a fellowship in Regional and Ambulatory Anesthesia. Her interests include resident education and Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS). She has recently been named assistant director for POCUS where she is active in curriculum development.

Keerthi Chigurupati, MD, completed medical school from Siddhartha Medical college in India. Dr. Chigurupati did anesthesiology from N.R.I. Medical college and D.M Cardiovascular & Thoracic anesthesia from Sree Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences, Kerala. University Gold medalist during M.B.B.S and M.D. Dr. Chigrurpati is interested in teaching, particularly echocardiography. She is chief anesthesiologist at Usha Cardiac center, Vijayawada, and is interested in teaching and research. She has many national and international publications as primary author, two of which have been cited in the Millers textbook of anesthesia, 8^TH EDITION. She is also a youtuber with 28000 subscribers to her channel.

Javier Cubillos, MD, completed anesthesiology residency at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia followed by fellowship training in regional anesthesia and obstetric, both at the University of Toronto. From 2012 to 2018, he served as assistant professor of anesthesiology in the Hospital San Ignacio and Fundacion Santafe de Bogota, Colombia. Currently, he is back in Canada as an assistant professor in the department of anesthesia & perioperative medicine of Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. 

Omar Durra, M.D., FASA,: is a clinical professor at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Rush Presbyterian St Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago; he did his fellowship in Cardio-thoracic Anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

He is a diplomate of the national board of echocardiography in the advanced PTEeXAM and has fulfilled the requirement for the POCUS diagnostic certification program provided by the ASA, where he serves as a local mentor to help other anesthesiologists complete their certification. He previously served as director of point of care ultrasound service at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. In addition to the clinical responsibility , he is involved in resident, fellow and faculty education in Point of Care Ultrasound. He helped organize and place a curriculum for POCUS residents’ rotation and develop workshops annually for cardiac and regional fellows using hands-on skill station and simulation lab education. He is a faculty member of the Basic POCUS and TEE workshop in Critically ill patients, in the annual ASA conference.

Andrea Gomez Morad, MD, is an pediatric anesthesiologist with training in regional anesthesia from Boston Children's Hospital, currently working at Hilo Medical Center in Hawaii. She has a wide experience in pediatric regional anesthesia and point of care ultrasound. She has organized and participated as instructor in multiple conferences related to pediatric, regional and Point of Care Ultrasound around the world. She has an special interest in technology and global health. She has help developing and teaching pediatric anesthesia courses for low resource settings working with organizations like Lifebox and WFSA (SAFE).

John Hagen, MD, MBA, completed his residency at Mount Sinai in NY, followed by a pediatric fellowship at U of M with a special focus on congenital cardiac anesthesia. After training, he worked for many years at Cohen Children’s as the Director for Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia. He is currently the Director for Pediatric Anesthesia at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, as well as the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of baby-blocks.com, a vanguard of pediatric perioperative ultrasound & regional anesthesia.

Melody Herman, MD, is director of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine with Scope Anesthesia. She completed residency at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and regional anesthesiology and acute pain fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Most notably, she began creating short regional videos, “Nerve Block TikToks”, in 2020. Dr. Herman is associate faculty for ASRA Pain Medicine, and serves as US representative for the ESRA International Committee.

Federico Jimenez, MD, is an anesthesiologist at the University of Florida, Gainesville. After completing his medical school in his hometown  Medellin, Colombia he completed his anesthesiology residency at the University of Minnesota. His interest in regional anesthesia led him to pursue additional training at the University of Virginia followed by a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at the University of Florida. He is an ultrasound enthusiast and enjoys learning and teaching POCUS.   

Hari Kalagara, MD, is passionate about regional anesthesia and has completed a regional anesthesia fellowship at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. He has attained European Diploma in Regional Anesthesia (EDRA) by the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy and was awarded the ASRA Resident/Fellow of the Year Award in 2017. Dr. Kalagara served as Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Kalagara holds certifications in perioperative echocardiography and critical care echocardiography by the National Board of Echocardiography (NBE). Dr. Kalagara is currently working as an assistant professor in Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the Mayo Clinic with special interest in regional anesthesia and POCUS. He is currently the Chair of ASRA Pain Medicine POCUS courses.

Sree Kolli, MD, EDRA, is a regional anesthesiologist and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) enthusiast. Dr. Kolli trained at the Cleveland Clinic for his anesthesia residency and fellowship in acute pain and regional anesthesia. He completed training in the United Kingdom and attained European Diploma in Regional Anesthesia from the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy in 2011. Dr. Kolli is the organizer and primary activity director for the Cleveland Clinic's Cadaver Regional Anesthesia & POCUS Workshops and the Chronic Pain Ultrasound Workshops at the Pain Management Symposium. He is currently the associate program director for the regional anesthesia fellowship program at the Cleveland Clinic.

Promil Kukreja, MD, PhD, FASA, is currently appointed as professor in the department of anesthesiology and peri-operative medicine at prestigious University of Alabama (UAB). He started his academic career at UAB as assistant professor in 2009. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to have meaningful impact in the field of anesthesiology at department, institute, national and international level.  Dr. Kukreja has played instrumental role in the field of regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. He has clinically served as medical director for UAB's regional service and currently serving as fellowship program director for regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. He took the initiative to create the regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine fellowship in 2014 He is extensively involved in resident, and fellow teaching.  He is proud to be voted as a teacher of the year 2020-2021 & 2019-20 and has been voted top 10 teachers every year for last 10 consecutive years.  On national level, he has serve as associate faculty for ASRA Pain Medicine POCUS workshops, and research committee.

Iyabo Muse, MD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist with fellowship training and expertise in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. She is an associate professor of anesthesiology at New York Medical College. She is the section chief for the division of orthopedic anesthesia at Westchester Medical Center. Her clinical focus is on orthopedic procedures for which she provides peripheral nerve blocks and multimodal pain strategies for perioperative pain management.  She also teaches the use of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) to residents. 

Bridget Pulos, MD, is a regional anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She graduated from Tufts University in Medford, MA, and completed medical school, anesthesiology residency, and regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Her interests include resident education, ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia, and the impact of regional anesthesia on perioperative outcomes. Dr. Pulos is also the Program Director for the RAAPM Fellowship at Mayo Rochester. 

Sudipta Sen, MD, is an assistant professor at McGovern Medical School at UT Houston specializing in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. She is the division director for orthopedic anesthesia and co-director of the perioperative anesthesia clinic at Memorial Herman Hospital, TMC. Dr Sen was awarded her medical degree in India and completed her anesthesia residency from Indiana University School of Medicine. Her research includes ultrasound guided regional anesthesia and point-of-care ultrasound. She is interested in improving existing processes and implementing new clinical pathways.

Erik Sloth, MD, PhD, is a professor of point-of-care ultrasound. He has authored 150 papers, mainly on hemodynamics and focused transthoracic echo. Dr. Sloth developed the FATE-protocol (Focus Assessed Transthoracic Echo) almost 30 years ago, recognizing him as the founder of point-of-care cardiac-pulmonary ultrasound. He has developed a unique learning concept, based on pre-course eLearning and systematic and comprehensive hands-on training. His innovative ideas, that all critical care physicians should learn FATE, is becoming reality.

Rakesh Sondekoppam, MD, is the division director of regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City. He heads the acute pain and regional anesthesia services at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) and continues to be involved in resident and fellowship training at the UIHC. He is also the founding member and current vice chair of the ASRA Pain Medicine Green Anesthesia special interest group.  

Marissa Weber, MD, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital. She completed an anesthesia residency at Thomas Jefferson University and regional and acute pain medicine fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center. At Cornell, she serves as a member of the regional faculty. She also has a special interest in point-of-care ultrasound and is in charge of the point-of-care ultrasound program for the anesthesia fellows at Cornell as well as the Director of Intern Programming for the Anesthesia Residency Program.

Josh Zimmerman, MD, FASE, is a clinical professor and the vice chair of perioperative medicine at the University of Utah.  He directs the preoperative clinics and runs the perioperative echocardiography service at the University Hospital.  Dr. Zimmerman is the director of cardiopulmonary exercise testing as well as assistant director of echocardiography at the Salt Lake City VA Hospital, which has the only anesthesiologist-run comprehensive echo lab in the country.