Faculty

Brian Allen, MD, is an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he directs the acute pain service and the fellowship in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine (ACGME-accredited).  He completed undergraduate and medical school at Washington University, residency at Vanderbilt, and regional fellowship at OHSU before returning to join the Vanderbilt faculty.  His clinical focus is on regional and multimodal analgesia in ERAS pathways.  Research interests include educational assessment, evaluating ERAS efficacy and compliance, and opioid minimization.  

Adam Amundson, MD, attended residency and fellowship in regional anesthesia at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. As a Mayo Clinic anesthesiology consultant, his educational interests involve point-of-care ultrasound, research in regional anesthesia, and orthopedic perioperative surgical home improvements. He is very active in resident and fellow regional anesthesia education and teaching ultrasound-guided workshops at ASRA and American Society of Anesthesiology meetings. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, two boys, and a new baby girl.

David Auyong, MD, is the medical director of the Lindeman Ambulatory Surgery Center and section head of orthopedic aesthesiology at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA.  His research focuses on improving patient outcomes with regional anesthesia, most recently with blocks like the continuous adductor canal block and suprascapular nerve block. He has co-authored a popular textbook, Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia, now in its second edition. Dr. Auyong is often recognized by his videos on YouTube describing ultrasound guided regional anesthesia approaches to many different nerve blocks.

W. Michael Bullock, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC.  He graduated in 2010 with an MD and PhD from the University of New Mexico in 2010 and completed residency and fellowship in regional anesthesiology at Duke University Hospital in 2015.  He remained on staff at Duke where he is currently director of resident education for the regional anesthesiology rotation and assistant program director for the regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine fellowship.  His research interests include ultrasound-guided nerve blockade, tourniquet hypertension, gastric ultrasound, and trainee education.

Derek Dillane, MB BCh, FCARCSI, is an associate professor at University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, where he completed a clinical and research fellowship in regional anesthesia in 2006. His clinical research interests involve the use of ultrasound in regional anesthesia with a particular focus on education and training techniques. He has taught and led numerous ultrasound workshops in North America and internationally. He is a past chair of the Canadian Anesthesia Society Regional Anesthesia Section. 

Sean Dobson, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of anesthesiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. He completed his residency and fellowship in regional anesthesia at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. He served in the United States Navy at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, VA, where he was the division officer of acute pain management assisting in the care of wounded warriors. He was deployed to Afghanistan as a forward resuscitative anesthesiologist in 2012 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was chosen by the anesthesiology residents at Wake Forest to receive the 2015 Golden Apple Teaching Award.

Carlo Franco, MD, is the chairman of regional anesthesia at JHS Hospital of Cook County Chicago, IL, and a professor of anesthesiology and anatomy at Rush University Medical Centerin Chicago. Dr. Franco received his degree in general surgery and anatomy from the University of Valparaiso in Chile. He immigrated to the USA in 1985 and served as visiting professor of anatomy at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, 1985-86 and 1988-89. Dr. Franco completed his anesthesiology residency at Sinai Hospital of Detroit in Detroit, MI, 1990-94, and was recruited to Cook County Hospital of Chicago (now JHS Hospital of Cook County) by Dr. Alon Winnie in 1994.

Stuart Grant, MBChB, MMCI,  trained in Glasgow Scotland before moving to the US. He is chief of regional  anesthesiology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He serves on the ASRA CME committee and directs the free standing UGRA courses for ASRA.  His textbook “Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia” is now in its second edition.

Andrew Gray, MD, PhD, is a professor of clinical anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directs the regional anesthesia program at San Francisco General Hospital. He has written more than 20 articles and two textbooks on ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia and now pursues investigations on safety and efficacy of new regional anesthetic techniques. 

Neal Mehta, MD, is a board-certified assistant professor of anesthesiology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL. After growing up in the Bay Area, California, he attended undergrad at UC San Diego followed by medical school at University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He completed his anesthesiology residency at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago and regional anesthesiology fellowship at University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.

Eman Nada, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine at the University of Massachusetts. She has completed a regional anesthesia fellowship and another in neuroanesthesia at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She is passionate about education, which she demonstrates through participating in workshops and other educational activities.  She believes in the importance of having strong knowledge of anatomy to be a good regional anesthesiologist. Her interests include prolonging nerve blocks and integrating them into the multimodal pathway to reduce or even replace the use of opioids.

Antoun M. Nader, MD, is a professor in the department of anesthesiology and orthopedics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. He is the section chief for regional anesthesia and acute pain management at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the medical director for acute pain medicine. He is also the fellowship co-director for the adult and pediatric regional anesthesia and acute pain management fellowship at McGaw Medical center, Northwestern University. Dr. Nader is board certified in anesthesiology, with a subspecialty certification in pain management. He is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, ASRA, and the Association of University Anesthesiologists. With interests in neuroanesthesiology and pain management, he is engaged in numerous activities, including authorship, editorial work, grant review, lecturing for many societies. During his medical career in pain management, he has authored and coauthored more than 150 original peer-reviewed articles, editorials, reviews, books, commentaries, case reports, and technical notes. He is very involved in the development of institutional pathways for regional anesthesia and pain management protocols that have resulted in publications in major anesthesia journals.

Rohit Rahangdale, MD, enjoys sailing, tennis, golf, and learning about regional anesthesia adjuvants. 

Kristopher Schroeder, MD, lives and works in Madison, WI where he serves as the section chief for the regional anesthesia and acute pain management section at the University of Wisconsin. He currently serves as the Editor of the ASRA News and welcomes suggestions for future topics and authors.  Outside of work, he enjoys spending time running, biking and traveling with his three daughters and Veterinary Anesthesiologist wife.

Uma Shastri, MD, FRCPC,  is a consultant anesthesiologist at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.  She completed her residency at University of Toronto, followed by a regional anesthesia fellowship at The New York School of Regional Anesthesia (NYSORA), St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital.  After her fellowship she worked at both the University of Toronto and Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor of anesthesiology before relocating to Atlanta.  Her non-clinical interests involve improving patient outcomes by utilizing regional anesthesia.  Dr. Shastri has taught at multiple state, national, and international meetings.

Leslie Thomas, MD, is section head of regional anesthesiology and director of the Acute Pain Service at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, LA. She completed medical school and residency at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans and a regional anesthesiology fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, NY. In conjunction with the orthopaedic department, Dr. Thomas co-manages joint arthroplasty patients as a member of the Perioperative Surgical Home Team. She holds a faculty appointment at the University of Queensland Medical School in Australia.

Luminita Tureanu, MD, FRCPC, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. She is board certified in anesthesiology and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Tureanu completed her anesthesiology residency and chronic pain fellowship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and the regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine fellowship at Western University, London, ON, Canada. Her interests include teaching evidence-based ultrasound guided regional anesthesia and multimodal analgesia to residents and fellows.