People
Amrita Aranake, MD

Medical School: Washington University
Internship: Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri
Mark Arcario, MD, PhD
ACTA Fellow (2021)
Medical School: University of Illinois-Urbana
Residency: WashU Medicine — Anesthesiology (ASAP Scholar)
Mark Arcario, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: November 2019
Mark is a third-year resident originally from Orlando, FL. He completed the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, earning an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Computational Biophysics. He is on the ASAP Residency Research Track and is looking forward to starting his Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship next year. His research interests are focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of general anesthesia and developing new computational tools to tackle biomedical problems. When not training to be a future leader in the field of Anesthesiology, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Rachael, and daughter, Eleanor, as well as playing bass guitar.
Kelsey Arends, MBA
Marketing & Communications Specialist
Department of Anesthesiology FAS Employee of the Quarter: January 2024
Kelsey Arends is a member of the Marketing & Communications team within the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine. With a Bachelor of Journalism from the Missouri School of Journalism, Kelsey thrives on the art of storytelling and content creation, crafting captivating stories that bring her colleagues’ work to life.
Prior to transitioning to the Medical School, Kelsey served on the Danforth Campus in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions as a marketing and communications strategist. During this time, she pursued her MBA part-time at Olin Business School, graduating in 2023. She has enjoyed using this new skillset in her role at WUDA.
In her free time, Kelsey enjoys being outside, whether that’s running, walking her dog, Willa, traveling to places where she can hike, reading a good book, or spending time with the people she loves in the sunshine. She is running 50 (half or full) marathons in every state, so you can find her running the perimeter of Forest Park on any given morning.
Kelsey is so thankful to work with such amazing colleagues and is honored to be the Q2 2024 Employee of the Quarter. She is looking forward to many more years at WashU!




