2022 Virtual Fall Forum Speakers 

BauchatJeanette Bauchat, MD 
Dr. Jeanette Bauchat is an Associate Professor and fellowship-trained obstetric anesthesiologist of 15 years. She completed her residency and chief year in anesthesiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center. She is the current Division Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University where her Division achieved SOAP Center of Excellence designation under her leadership. Dr. Bauchat led the Obstetric Anesthesiology Division at Northwestern University for 2 years and obtained a Master’s in Science in Healthcare Quality and Safety and led quality efforts in the Department of Anesthesiology at Northwestern. She continues her quality work in Women’s Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her current research interests lie in the areas of quality and safety on the labor floor, intrathecal opioids, diversity equity and inclusion and opioid use disorder. 
 
Bateman
Brian Bateman, MD 
Brian T. Bateman, MD, MSc is the Stanford Medicine Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine.

Before coming to Stanford, Dr. Bateman served as the Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Chief of the Division of Obstetric Anesthesia in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and as Co-Director of the Harvard Program on Perinatal and Pediatric Pharmacoepidemiology in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
BauerMelissa Bauer, DO  Melissa Bauer, D.O. is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Duke University. She is dual board certified in Critical Care and Anesthesiology. She is Principal Investigator and independently funded by the National Institutes of Health (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development) to work to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity from maternal sepsis. Her research is centered on the early identification and treatment of maternal sepsis. She has published multiple studies identifying the differences and difficulties of diagnosis of sepsis in pregnant women and highlighted opportunities for improvement in maternal sepsis care. She served as an editor for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative Maternal Sepsis toolkit, which provides step-by-step instructions for hospitals on how to implement screening and treatment for maternal sepsis. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Sepsis Alliance. She currently serves as Chair for the national Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health Sepsis in Obstetrical Care Patient Safety Bundle Workgroup with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health. 
Ende
Holly Ende, MD
Dr. Holly Ende is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she currently serves as Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship Program Director and Associate Medical Director of the Vanderbilt Anesthesiology and Perioperative Informatics Research Group. Dr. Ende previously completed both anesthesiology residency and obstetric anesthesiology fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Her academic interests include informatics and predictive analytics, and particularly how we can leverage technology to improve the delivery of personalized medicine in obstetric anesthesia. She is currently completing her Masters in Applied Clinical Informatics at Vanderbilt University. 
Kacmar
Rachel Kacmar, MD
Dr. Rachel Kacmar completed her undergraduate work at the University of Notre Dame and medical school at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She did her residency training in Anesthesiology at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she served as Chief Resident. Following residency she stayed at Northwestern to complete a fellowship in Obstetric Anesthesiology. Dr Kacmar joined the faculty at the University of Colorado in 2013. Currently she is an associate professor of anesthesiology and is the core residency program director at CU and serves as an ABA Oral Board examiner. She is active in SOAP on the Intersociety Committee and Center of Excellence Subcommittee and is the former Chair of the SOAP Patient Safety Committee. Her academic interests include maternal safety and perioperative operations and efficiency.

Dan Katz, MD 
 Dr. Dan Katz is a professor and vice chair of education in the department of anesthesiology, pain, and perioperative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the director of education of the Mount Sinai HELPS center. His research focuses applications of learning theory and bias to simulation as well as on education in novel environments including serious games and virtual/mixed reality. In the clinical research arena Dr. Katz’s area of interest included hemostasis and coagulation as well and the quantification of blood loss for labor and delivery. 

Klaus Kjaer, MD, MBA
Dr. Klaus Kjaer studied at Stanford and UC San Francisco prior to completing his internship, residency and fellowship training in Boston.  He joined the Weill Cornell faculty in 2000, and in his 22 years here has held multiple leadership roles.  He has an MBA from Columbia and has served as Weill Cornell's Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer since 2015.  In this role, he works closely with the leadership of Weill Cornell and New York Presbyterian Hospital to support physician-led initiatives focused on improving quality, patient safety, and risk management across all clinical departments.  He is also the current President of the Society of Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology and teaches in the Executive MBA Program at Cornell, where he has developed a course called "Influencing with Quality and Patient Safety Metrics."  In 2014, he received Weill Cornell's Physician of the Year Award.  

Thomas Klumpner, MD
 Dr. Thomas Klumpner is an obstetric anesthesiologist and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan. His research interests include automation of maternal early warning systems and anesthesiology informatics. He is the Assistant Director of Informatics and Systems Improvement at his home institution where he puts his experience in computer programming and as an Epic Physician Builder to good use. These roles have quickly made him one of his department’s go-to computer nerds.
Leffert
Lisa Leffert, MD 

Dr. Lisa Leffert is the Nicholas M Greene Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology at Yale Medical School in New Haven, CT. She is recent Past President of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) and long-time Division Chief of the Obstetric Anesthesia Division at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Dr. Leffert lectures nationally and internationally on diverse topics such as the anesthetic management of patients with intracranial lesions, strategies for placing neuraxial anesthetics in patients with diverse comorbidities, and the peri-delivery care of patients with substance use disorder and does research on obstetric patients with neurologic disease.  She has led an interdisciplinary effort to create a SOAP consensus statements on neuraxial anesthesia in the obstetric patient on thromboprophylaxis and higher dose anticoagulants and thrombocytopenia, and currently leads the SOAP Consensus and Endorsed Statements subcommittee.


Grace Lim, MD
Dr. Grace Lim is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA. She also serves as the Chief of Obstetric & Women's Anesthesiology for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health system, and is a member of the SOAP Board of Directors. As a physician scientist, her clinical and translational research aim to improve acute care, monitoring, and pain management in special populations. Her published work has revealed the significant impact that optimizing acute care in pregnancy and childbirth can have on long-term postpartum outcomes, including obstetric pain, psychosocial outcomes, depression, and cognition. Her work includes dozens of peer-reviewed articles, editorials, and reviews published in high impact journals. Her research work encompasses almost $2m in funding from the NIH, foundations, and industry support. She has received numerous research and teaching awards, including twice receiving Teacher of the Year award from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Anesthesiology. She is a recipient of the SOAP Teacher of the Year award. She serves as a primary mentor to clinical residents, fellows, and post-doctoral research fellows. Her mentees have received national research awards and published in the top journals in anesthesiology, neuroscience, pain, and translational medicine. Dr. Lim presents regularly at local and international meetings and has been invited to lecture at prestigious institutions. Her clinical practice focuses on routine and high-risk obstetrics and women's health.

Grant Lynde, MD

Until recently, Dr. Grant Lynde served Emory University as an Associate Professor and Vice-Chair of Quality for the Department of Anesthesiology. Leveraging his clinical role and informatics resources, he is leading hospital system-wide efforts to reduce postoperative wound infections, decrease the need for opioid prescriptions after surgery, and improve care for patients with diabetes.  

Dr. Lyne serves as the Chair for the American Society of Anesthesiologists Section on Professional Standards, which includes oversight of the committees on Ethics, Patient Safety & Education, Practice Parameters, Professional Liability, and Quality Management & Departmental Administration.  He was also a founding member of the State of Georgia’s Department of Public Health Maternal Mortality Review Committee. 

Dr. Lynde's clinical passion is Obstetric Anesthesia, and his administrative passions are good systems design and mentorship/sponsorship.  He has practiced anesthesia in seven countries as part of his commitment to promoting global health. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling with his family and learning about a region’s culture and history through its food.   


Brian Mahoney
Bryan Mahoney, MD 
 Bryan Mahoney, MD, received his undergraduate education at the University of Florida and undergraduate medical education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.  During his residency training in Anesthesiology at the Mount Sinai Hospital, he acquired expertise in simulation education through the clinical education residency track in the Human Emulation, Education, and Evaluation Lab for Patient Safety and Professional Study (HELPS) Center.  He went on to complete fellowship training in Obstetric Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  


As a faculty member at the Wexner Medical Center at the Ohio State University Department of Anesthesiology Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology, Dr. Mahoney conducted multiple clinical trials exploring epidural loading techniques and represented the division on the multi-disciplinary group for parturients with congenital and acquired cardiac disease.  As a core faculty member at the Ohio State University Clinical Skills and Assessment Center, he helped lead the effort to establish the first ASA endorsed simulation center in the state of Ohio. 

Dr. Mahoney currently serves as the Residency Program Director And Vice Chair of Education at the Mount Sinai St. Morningside & West Hospitals Department of Anesthesiology and as a faculty member in the Division of Obstetric Anesthesiology. He serves on multiple committees in regional, national, international and subspecialty societies, and his research focuses on obstetric anesthesiology, physician wellbeing, and graduate medical education.


Jill Mhyre, MD 
 Dr. Jill Mhyre is the Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  Dr. Mhyre is also a Professor and is The Dola S. Thompson Professor and Chair.  She received her medical degree at University of Michigan in 1999.   

Dr. Mhyre is an American Board of Anesthesiology Diplomat.  Her academic career has focused in maternal patient safety and safe systems of care. 

Heather Nixon, MD 

Dr. Heather Nixon is the Associate Head of Education in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  She also serves as the Division Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology, Fellowship Director for Obstetric Anesthesiology Division and as Director of Obstetric Anesthesiology Resident Rotation.  Dr. Nixon received her medical degree at University of Illinois at Chicago in 2006.  

Dr. Nixon is an American Board of Anesthesiology Diplomat. She has won multiple awards at Teacher of the Year from Society for Obstetric Anesthesiology and Perinatology, American Society of Anesthesiologists and Society of Education in Anesthesia, American Medical Association and University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Anesthesiology.  


Feyce Peralta, MD

Dr. Feyce Peralta is an obstetrical anesthesiologist actively involved in patient care, clinical research, and medical education. She completed a fellowship in Obstetric Anesthesiology in 2011 at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and has served as Program Director for this fellowship since 2015. Her areas of interest include women’s health, trainee mentorship, and faculty development.


John Sullivan, MD 

John T. Sullivan, M.D., M.B.A serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for St. Clair Health in Pittsburgh. He previously served as an Associate Chief Medical Officer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Professor of Anesthesiology at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Sullivan is a Past President for the Society of Obstetric Anesthesiology and Perinatology. He has published research and lectures on strategies to reduce cesarean delivery rates. He retired Commander after serving 33 years in the Medical Corps of the United States Naval Reserve.


Lawrence Tsen, MD 

Lawrence C. Tsen, MD is an Associate Professor in Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School and Director of Anesthesia for the Center for Reproductive Medicine, in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Tsen’s research focuses on the assessment of novel agents and techniques for labor analgesia, the optimization of maternal and fetal physiology during the peripartum period, and healthcare provider professionalism and wellness.  He has authored over 170 peer reviewed articles and textbook chapters and is the recipient of a number of research and teaching awards.  He serves as the Chair for the MassGeneralBrigham Institutional Review Board/Human Research Committee and is a member of the Research Grant Review Boards for a number of countries.   

Dr. Tsen has served as President for the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology and Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia.  He currently serves as Editor for Chestnut’s Obstetric Anesthesia:  Principles and Practices and is on the editorial boards of a number of anesthesia journals. Dr. Tsen has three children and plays jazz piano.