Featured Anesthesiology Members

Heather is a CA-2 resident in the anesthesia department. She grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, attended undergrad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then completed an MD/PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. She is now in the WU Scholars Program conducting research on postoperative delirium with Dr. Ben Palanca.

When she’s not working on her research, she can be found rotating through the various anesthesiology specialties. Her goal is to complete two fellowships after her residency training, one in obstetrics and one in cardiothoracic anesthesiology. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring St. Louis, going dancing, and doing crafts such as knitting stuffed animals and making custom cross-stitch patterns. She is very happy that she chose to come to WashU for residency, and she is excited to continue her anesthesia training!

Zekeriyya (aka Zek) was born and raised in Ankara, Turkey. He attended Medical School of Ankara University where he obtained his MD degree. He joined Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation of Ankara University for his Anesthesia training. He joined the same department as a Specialist in Anesthesia in 2000. Zek specialized in different clinical work and studies in solid organ transplantation, airway management and teaching-assessment in Anesthesia training. He obtained his board certifications from Turkish Anesthesiology and Reanimation Society and European Society of Anesthesiology (ESA) in 2005 and 2006, respectively. He contributed to the ESA as Examination Committee Member and Council member starting 2008 till 2017. He hosted Part I and Online Assessment of European Board Exam in Ankara for many years, translated the exam into Turkish, wrote and reviewed exam content, examined as an examiner and senior examiner for Part II exam all around different exam center in Europe. He is still contributing to the ESA and Turkish Board mission as an examiner for online oral board exams. He served at the University of Ankara as an Associate and afterward as a Full Professor for more than 12 years. He was appointed as the Co-Director of the Cebeci Hospital of Ankara University and served almost 6.5 years till he departed for WashU in 2018. He officially retired from his position at the Ankara University in the summer of 2020 after serving 25 years.

Zek’s involvement with WashU goes back to 2007/2008. He joined the International Specialist program at WashU in 2007 but returned to Turkey in 2008. He and his family never forgot their time, friends and great memories in St. Louis and returned to St. Louis in 2018. It was of course very attractive to work again for WashU for many reasons, including the outstanding opportunity to watch live St. Louis Cardinals games with his youngest son at baseball heaven, Busch Stadium.

Zek played basketball for many years and still enjoys watching the sport. He also supports his hometown soccer team, AnkaraGucu, by hanging its flag on the main entrance of his home, enjoys his free time with his family of two young gentlemen and his wife, Betul. The Alanoglu family always misses their beloved daughter who lives in Turkey and studies Psychology.

Mark is a third-year resident originally from Orlando, FL. He completed the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, earning an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Computational Biophysics. He is on the ASAP Residency Research Track and is looking forward to starting his Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship next year. His research interests are focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of general anesthesia and developing new computational tools to tackle biomedical problems. When not training to be a future leader in the field of Anesthesiology, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Rachael, and daughter, Eleanor, as well as playing bass guitar.

Kelsey Arends is a member of the Marketing & Communications team within the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine. With a Bachelor of Journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism, Kelsey thrives on the art of storytelling and content creation, crafting captivating stories that bring her colleagues’ work to life.

Prior to transitioning to the Medical School, Kelsey served on the Danforth Campus in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions as a marketing and communications strategist. During this time, she pursued her MBA part-time at Olin Business School, graduating in 2023. She has enjoyed using this new skillset in her role at WUDA.

In her free time, Kelsey enjoys being outside, whether that’s running, walking her dog, Willa, traveling to places where she can hike, reading a good book, or spending time with the people she loves in the sunshine. She is running 50 (half or full) marathons in every state, so you can find her running the perimeter of Forest Park on any given morning.

Kelsey is so thankful to work with such amazing colleagues and is honored to be the Q2 2024 Employee of the Quarter. She is looking forward to many more years at WashU!