Featured Anesthesiology Members

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: March 2020

David is originally from London in the UK and joined WashU in 2018 to further his academic ambitions in obstetric anesthesiology. His current clinical research aims to profile the pharmacokinetics of oxytocin at cesarean delivery and examine ketamine as a possible preventive intervention for postpartum depression. David met his wife, Scarlett in London in 2012 but they have now spent the majority of their relationship outside of the UK (Canada and Australia before their current stay in the USA). He and his family are enjoying settling down and making St. Louis their home with their baby daughter, Millie. Despite the blue that dominates his photograph (still celebrating the Stanley Cup, perhaps), David and his family are big Liverpool FC fans (soccer) and are very hopeful that the Reds will end 30 years of hurt by winning the English premier league in 2020!

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: January 2023

Arianna Montes de Oca grew up in Caracas-Venezuela and went to MD school in Colombia. She joined the WashU anesthesiology family in 2019 to work in telemedicine research and is now halfway through her intern year. She has enjoyed the exposure to different specialties and teams this year and has definitely learned a lot in the process, but she can’t wait to start her CA-1 year!

She lives with her husband (Nimrod) and beautiful dog (Lara), but her family lives abroad, so she doesn’t miss a chance to travel and visit them. She loves working out, especially boxing and running in some of the beautiful parks this city has to offer…but it is not all exercise, she also likes drinking wine and beer, as well as eating out. She says life is all about balance!

Department of Anesthesiology FAS Employee of the Quarter: January 2022

Karen is a Business and Technology Applications Analyst II in the IS group and just celebrated her 14th anniversary with the department. She manages the remaining departmental servers as well as KnowledgeLake and SharePoint support. Karen also handles Epic training role assignments and general access and training questions. Technical support of clinical issues has been recently added to her responsibilities and she looks forward to gaining a more in-depth knowledge of the clinical side of our department. She has been married for 30 years and has one child who is a REACH teacher in the Kirkwood school district. In her spare time, she enjoys working on her Lego city, New Brickmoore, which recently opened a new hospital, WUDA Memorial.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: April 2023

Rachel joined the department in 2020 as a faculty member and the director of learning and development. She enjoys getting to support department members in teaching and learning efforts, educational scholarship, and professional development. Some of her favorite things to think, talk, and learn about are feedback, mentoring, and qualitative research methods.

Rachel is from Memphis, Tennessee, but she moved to St. Louis five years ago and has fallen in love with the Midwest! She went to the University of Mississippi for both undergraduate and graduate school, where she earned her Master of Curriculum and Instruction, before continuing her education at Vanderbilt University, earning her Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

She and her husband, Dave, met in grad school and have two sons: Noah, who is almost five, and Thomas, who is one and a half. On weekends you can find them exploring all of the wonderful places St. Louis offers for kids– the Magic House, the Zoo, and the National Museum of Transportation are some of their favorites. Rachel is happiest when she is at a beach with a good book, and she loves to travel with her family. Her two main hobbies are reading (usually several books at a time) and watching select reality TV shows (Amazing Race and Survivor are favorites!).