Our success is intimately linked to the accomplishments of each and every member of our department.
Each month, four members are nominated and featured to celebrate their commitment to patient care, education, and research.
Current Featured Anesthesiology Department Members
Ream Al-Hasani, PhD
Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Ashley DuBois, CRNA
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
Ivan Torres
Assistant Supervisor for Insurance Billing
Muthu Vijayasankar, MD
Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Featured Anesthesiology Department Members Archive
Jeff Goff
Research Technician
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: February 2026
Jeff is a research technician in the Creed Lab at the WashU Medicine Pain Center. Across multiple institutions, Jeff has contributed to research on how the brain works in motivation and decision-making. Before coming to St. Louis, Jeff graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Kansas in 2023, where he did research on stress and social anxiety. Then, he completed a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health studying risk-taking and addiction. He joined the Creed Lab in July 2024, and studies how the brain is affected by chronic pain and how that leads to symptoms of depression. He hopes to stay in St. Louis and continue his research career by joining a neuroscience PhD program. Outside of the lab, Jeff enjoys reading, rock climbing, and spending time with his partner and their two cats.
Janice Goffstein-Davis
Staffing Administrator
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: February 2023
Janice has worked in the Department of Anesthesiology for 44 years — it will be 45 in December 2023. She attended college at Drake University in Des Moines, IA, but returned to back to University City — her hometown where she still resides. Outside of work, Janice enjoys spending time with her grandkids and loves the beach.
Cesar Gonzalez, PhD
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: September 2025
Cesar Gonzalez, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and clinical psychologist at the Washington University Pain Center. He specializes in pre-surgical psychological evaluations, psychological assessments, and outpatient psychotherapy, with a focus on pain psychology. In addition to chronic pain, Dr. Gonzalez provides evidence-based care for anxiety, depression, insomnia, adjustment to chronic illness, and stress management, drawing on approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and mindfulness-based strategies.
Outside of work, Cesar can usually be found at a Cinema St. Louis screening, hunting for records, checking out new restaurants, or trying to land a first serve on the tennis court.
Vivian Gonzalez-Perez
Instructor, Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: November 2020
Vivian is an Instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology. She grew up in Cuba where she graduated from the University of Havana with a B.S. in Biochemistry. She moved to Chile in 2003 and later obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from University of Valparaiso.
During her graduate program in Chile, she became engaged in studying fundamental biophysics of potassium channels which lead to joining the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Lingle at Washington University’s Department of Anesthesiology in 2010. In the Lingle Lab, she has been studying the physiological roles of Ca2+ and voltage-regulated BK-type potassium channels and their regulatory subunits. Her current research focus is to understand how ion channels impact epithelial homeostasis and inflammation. This has led to the discovery that a particular form of BK channel is selectively expressed in goblet cells and protects against inflammation.
Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her husband and their two children, traveling, reading, visiting family and friends. She is a fan of St. Louis Cardinals. Fun fact: “This is the first time in my life that I am able to vote for a President (so excited!)”