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
Becki Loveless, PA
Physician Assistant
Department of Anesthesiology APP of the Quarter: January 2021
Becki Loveless, PA-C graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2000. She has worked in a variety of fields including orthopedics, emergency medicine, CT surgery, and most recently made the transition to critical care in July 2019. She currently works in the CTICU at BJH and in the ED at Missouri Baptist.
Becki has been active in both state and national PA organizations, currently serving as the HOD representative for MoAPA at the national AAPA conference. In addition, she has traveled throughout the country as a lecturer for the AAPA on responsible prescribing of opioids as well as the opioid epidemic. Becki was honored with the designation of Distinguished Fellow of the AAPA for outstanding dedication and achievement in the PA profession in 2015. In her free time, she spends time being a sports mom for her two boys and traveling the world when there isn’t a pandemic going on.
Becki was named the Q4 2020 APP of the Quarter! She has been in the COVID-19 unit working nights for many months without a break. She has been a wonderful resource to her colleagues regarding caring for ECMO patients, and she consistently recognizes and helps out her team when others are overwhelmed with their workloads.
John Luker, ACNP
Nurse Practitioner
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: December 2020
John is a recent graduate Adult-Gero Acute Care Nurse Practitioner working with the Division of Critical Care in the Surgical ICU at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the ICU at Christian Hospital, and the Tele-ICU. He was raised in central Illinois and graduated with bachelor’s degrees in Biological Sciences and Nursing from SIUE, moved to St. Louis to work as a Trauma-Neuro ICU RN at a Level I trauma center, and eventually attended Goldfarb School of Nursing to graduate with an M.S.N. His favorite aspect of nursing is the privilege of meeting and connecting with critically ill patients and their families while assisting in optimizing their chances of a safe, speedy and maximal recovery. He’s forever amazed by the courage, humor, and strength in adversity displayed by ICU patients and their families, in addition to the coworkers staffing the units.
John’s favorite professional interest so far, aside from the privilege of working on a bedside team caring for the critically ill, included leading a departmental Practice, Quality and Research Professional Governance Council. Professional Governance provided a conduit for a motivated and talented interdisciplinary mix of RNs, hospital leadership, and interdepartmental representatives to work together to bring Quality Improvement and Evidence-Based Practice to the ICUs with the primary goal of improving patient outcomes. Topics of personal interest include spinal cord injury care and education, therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest, fever control and shivering in the ICU, and the A-F ICU liberation bundle.
Outside of work, John enjoys spending time with his wife, Kayla (who is also an NP), going on walks with their 90-lb AmStaff “Gryffin,” reading, and working out. He’s fallen in love with St. Louis thanks to its delicious food, beautiful parks, and wonderful zoo and museums.
Herman Luther, MD, MBA
Resident Physician, Class of 2024
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: March 2022
Herman is a current resident physician in the Department of Anesthesiology. Prior to residency, he studied Biology and Economics at Washington University in St. Louis before attending the University of Chicago where he obtained his MD and MBA with a concentration in operations management. He has a passion for quality improvement, patient safety, and medical device development. He also takes special pride in ensuring each of his patients feels comfortable and confident in his care before every operative case.
Outside of the hospital, you can often find him trying out new restaurants with his wife, playing tennis with friends, gardening in the backyard of his CWE home, or riding his bike through Forest Park!
Devin Macklin
Research Technician I
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: June 2024
Devin Macklin graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in the spring of 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. In the summer of 2023, he participated in the ASSURE Program, gaining valuable insight into research and anesthesiology. Following ASSURE, Devin continued to work in the department as a research technician in the Pradhan lab, where he assists in investigating novel therapeutics for migraine. In his free time, Devin loves to listen to music and podcasts, work out, and create via mediums such as writing, music production, and photography.