Rasheeq Nizam, MD

Rasheeq was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and moved to Columbia, Missouri, at the age of two, when his family moved for his father’s ophthalmology residency. He lived there for twenty years and attended the University of Missouri-Columbia for his undergraduate studies. He majored in biology and Spanish, and studied abroad twice in college: once in Santiago, Chile, and once at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. He was also involved in brain trauma research throughout his undergraduate career. His true interest was in service and he volunteered a significant amount of time with underserved children in Columbia and around the country. Rasheeq then attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for his medical education, initially planning to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue a career in ophthalmology. During a required third-year anesthesia rotation, however, he discovered his interest in the field while spending a half day with a chief resident on her PACU rotation. Rasheeq graduated in 2021 and came back home to Missouri for residency. Currently, his interests include cardiothoracic anesthesiology and regional anesthesia. 

Rasheeq is the youngest of three siblings and a fourth-generation physician. His wife, Nadira, is an occupational therapy student at WashU and will also graduate in 2025. In his free time, Rasheeq enjoys touring St. Louis, trying new restaurants, hiking, and playing video games. His true passion, however, is in cooking and hosting dinner parties. Fun fact: he even wrote his personal statement for his residency application about the parallels between cooking and anesthesia!