ASRA Pain Medicine Update

Meet September's Resident & Fellow Committee (RFC) Featured Member, Justin James, BA, a fourth-year medical student at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in State College, PA, and a member of the Resident & Fellow Committee (RFC) Medical Student Subcommittee!

Justin is applying to anesthesiology residency and has particular interests in regional anesthesia, acute pain medicine, and academic medicine. Within the RFC, he is helping develop a high-yield Regional Anesthesia Handbook for medical students. He serves as a Medical Student Liaison for Pain Illuminated, helping expand outreach to medical schools and residency programs.

Justin joined the RFC because ASRA Pain Medicine has played an important role in his development as a medical student interested in anesthesiology and pain medicine. He wanted to help create that same experience for other trainees by building educational resources and pathways that introduce students to the field earlier in their training.

His interest in anesthesiology began with his undergraduate research in pain neuroscience. He was fascinated by the profound effect pain can have on a patient’s experience—and how difficult it can be to measure and treat objectively. During medical school, he discovered a specialty that combined those scientific questions with physiology, pharmacology, procedural skill, and the opportunity to make an immediate difference for patients.

After training, Justin hopes to pursue a career in academic anesthesiology specializing in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. He also plans to make teaching and mentorship central to his career, creating pathways for students from inner-city, underserved, and first-generation backgrounds to see medicine and academic anesthesiology as places where they can belong, thrive, and lead.

One of Justin’s favorite memories is attending his first ASRA Pain Medicine meeting in Orlando in 2025. He especially enjoyed the Visual Brilliance: Mastering the Art of Infographics PBLD and the welcoming conversations he had with trainees and faculty between sessions. That meeting marked the beginning of a meaningful journey: Justin later received the ASRA Graduate Student Research Award and will present his work on cortical modulation during peripheral nerve stimulation for acute postamputation pain at the ASRA Pain Medicine 2027 Spring Meeting!

If he weren’t pursuing medicine, Justin would choose another career rooted in connection and community: barbering. Growing up, his barbers were important figures in his community, and he admired how the barbershop could be a place of trust where people left feeling better than when they arrived, though he admits he would need a lot more practice first!

Read about past featured members here.