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
Thomas Nguyen
Clinical Research Coordinator, DoCTR
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: September 2021
Thomas graduated from the University of Missouri – St. Louis with a major in psychology and continued with graduate training at DePaul University in Chicago, IL.
He joined the Division of Clinical and Translational Research in 2018 and currently works as a clinical research coordinator in lab of Dr. Ben Palanca.
Outside of work, Thomas enjoys spending time with his family, practicing martial arts, watching anime, hiking, and chasing his almost 3-year-old daughter Rain around the house.
Hunter Niemeyer, CRNA
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: May 2025
Originally from Red Bud, Illinois, Hunter moved to St. Louis in 2013 to pursue his nursing education. He earned his BSN from Saint Louis University in 2017 and began his career in the Cardiothoracic ICU at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Building on that experience, he went on to complete his Doctor of Nursing Practice in Nurse Anesthesia from Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College in 2022.
Hunter now works primarily with the Division of Acute and Critical Care Surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and is a key member of the trauma anesthesia team. He actively contributes to the department’s educational and wellness efforts—serving as a CRNA mentor, a PIA SAFE Champion, and Peer Advocate, while also helping guide scholarly projects at Goldfarb. He values the department’s emphasis on evidence-based learning and enjoys passing along knowledge to the next generation of providers. Hunter is especially drawn to the complexity and diversity of the patient population he cares for.
When he’s not at work, Hunter enjoys hiking, exploring new restaurants, reading, antiquing, traveling, and spending time with his friends and family.
Max Nieva, MD
Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: May 2026
Max Nieva, MD, is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, and serves as the Medical Director at St. Louis Children’s Specialty Care Center West County, South County, and CAM South County.
Max came back to his hometown of St. Louis in 2007 as a pediatric fellow at WashU Medicine/St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He intended to return to New York after fellowship but joined the faculty due to the culture and camaraderie, and has remained ever since!
Outside of work, Max spends as much quality time as possible with his 13-year-old twins, Andrew and Abigail, and his partner Dalton. When he doesn’t have his kids, Max enjoys any form of exercise including group classes, yoga, tennis, and reluctantly, pickleball. He is always open to a challenge including Tough Mudders, “Murph challenge,” or a walk with a friend.
Fun fact: For the last 8 years, Max has grown his hair out & shaved it to raise awareness and money for childhood cancer with the organization St. Baldrick’s.
Rasheeq Nizam, MD
Resident Physician, Class of 2025
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: April 2023
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!