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
Catherine Gould, PA-C
Physician Assistant
Parita Jani, MD
ACTA Fellow
Sherry McKinnon
Manager of Clinical Research, Regulatory and Compliance
Andrew Schaffer, MD
Resident Physician
Featured Anesthesiology Department Members Archive
Swarup Varaday, MD
Associate Professor, Obstetrics and General Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: October 2020
Swarup is an Associate Professor in the departments of Obstetrics and General Anesthesiology. He grew up and attended medical school in the beautiful coastal city of Visakhapatnam, India. He did his anesthesia residency in India before moving to England to complete his specialist training in anesthesiology at Imperial College London, earning both FRCA from U.K. and FCARSI from Ireland.
He worked as a consultant anesthetist in London for short period before moving to St. Louis in 2007. Swarup considers joining the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine as one of the best decisions of his life because of its diverse, wonderful, and supportive people. Swarup is passionate about teaching is very active in medical student and resident education. He has been a dedicated faculty mentor and advisor for several residents. He is actively involved in the new Gateway curriculum for the School of Medicine’s medical students and is co-director for the medical student clinical immersions program. His clinical work is shared between the obstetric and general anesthesiology divisions and he serves as co-leader for POD1 at Parkview Tower.
Outside of work, he loves spending time with his family, especially with his sons Tamish, who is 11 years old, and Grihith, who is a freshman at Washu. When time allows he enjoys, gardening, cooking, DIY-home improvement projects, and traveling.
Anandhalakshmi Varadharajan, MD, MBBS
Physician
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: July 2020
Dr. Ana was born and raised in a coastal town Pondicherry, in India. She graduated from medical school in India and moved to St. Louis in 2002. She completed her IM residency at St. Luke’s hospital in Chesterfield, and her Critical Care fellowship at St. Louis University School of Medicine, in the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program at Mercy Hospital. In 2018, Dr. Ana joined Washington University’s Department of Critical Care Medicine as an intensivist. She currently resides in Chesterfield with her husband, Rajan, and children, Sri and Akilesh. She enjoys traveling with her family and watching home decoration shows. Interior decoration is her second passion after medicine.
Zameer Vaswani, MD, MBA
Resident Physician, Class of 2027
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: June 2024
Zameer G. Vaswani, MD, MBA, is a rising CA-1 resident with the Department of Anesthesiology. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, he obtained both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Texas at Austin prior to starting residency in 2023. During his time in medical school, he also obtained his Master of Business Administration, with the hopes of one day bridging the gap between the clinical and administrative aspects of healthcare to advocate for his future patient population.
Outside of the hospital, Zameer enjoys spending time with his family and friends, playing golf, traveling, and supporting his alma mater, the Texas Longhorns. While undecided on what fellowship he would like to pursue at this time, he has interests in cardiac, trauma, and pediatric anesthesiology.
Fun Fact About Zameer: He likes to listen to deep house music and explore new coffee shops, restaurants, and breweries in his new home, St. Louis.
Shirley Vaughn
Academic Programs Assistant
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: September 2022
Shirley joined the department in 2010. Prior to joining the clinical world, she worked in sales and marketing for several companies over 30 years, including Mercy Health Plans, Spectrum Brands, and Angelica Image Apparel. She currently works in the resident office as the academic programs assistant. Her day-to-day tasks include coordinating the medical student rotations and doing what she loves best, event planning.
Shirley is proud to say she’s a country girl born and raised. She was born on a farm in Arkansas, and raised in Kennett, MO (Bootheel), which is also the home of Sheryl Crow, singer, songwriter.
In her spare time, Shirley enjoys spending time with her family, Caribbean traveling, sampling new restaurants, tending to her herb garden, cooking, and attending world-wide jazz concerts.
She is excited to be traveling to Curacao in October. Her bucket list trip is to attack Europe via backpack by train in her jeans, crisp white shirt, boots, toothbrush, and a pair of really cool shades. Living life is what it’s all about!