Profiled
Burel Goodin, PhD
Professor of Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: August 2025
Dr. Burel Goodin is a Professor of Anesthesiology in the Washington University Pain Center. He is also the current President of the U.S. Association for the Study of Pain (USASP). Trained as a clinical health psychologist, he began his tenure track faculty career as an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), rising to the rank of full professor and Co-director of the Center for Addiction and Pain Prevention and Intervention (CAPPI). He relocated to WashU Medicine in 2023.
Dr. Goodin’s career integrates cutting-edge translational pain science with a profound commitment to equity, mentorship, and community engagement. He merges quantitative laboratory methods with social-contextual awareness to inform pain treatment that is inclusive, precise, and culturally competent. Concurrently, his credentials reflect academic excellence through sustained NIH funding, leadership roles in professional societies, and exemplary mentorship of emerging scholars.
When not working, Dr. Goodin can usually be found chasing his two young daughters (ages 4 and 2 years old) while his lovely wife yells at them to “stop running in the house." He enjoys fishing, cycling, and playing simulated golf, none of which he is actually any good, but mostly he enjoys sharing good food and conversation with the people he loves most.
Stacey Gopalakrishnan, MBA
Financial Analyst II/ Project Manager II
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: October 2022
Stacey joined the Department of Anesthesiology in July 2017. Prior to Joining the department as an accounting and purchasing assistant, she worked in the accounting office of Mungenast Automotive dealerships as the Assistant office manager of their its and Toyota stores.
Stacey currently works in the Research Administration office as a Financial Analyst II/Project Management II. Her day-to-day tasks include coordinating grant applications/budgets, reporting on individual lab financials to PI’s, and reporting on overall division financials to division chiefs.
Stacey recently completed her Master’s in Business Administration at Washington University Olin Business School in August of 2022. Her Concentration in the MBA program was Accounting/Finance and People Management. She hopes to utilize her education to support the department and further the mission of the medical school now and in the future.
Now that school is over Stacey has a little more spare time on her hands and she likes to spend that time with her husband and her family. Stacey is married to a third-generation Indian chef, from South India. Her husband is also attending culinary school at forest park community college currently, so enjoying new culinary creations is something that she enjoys. A regular activity involves walking her dogs around St. Louis City and County parks with her sisters or her husband. Stacey and her husband have two dogs: a 9-year-old Lab mix named Ammo and a 1-year-old Weimaraner named Sterling.
Kathryn Gratza, CRNA, DNP
Nurse Anesthetist
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: September 2025
Kathryn is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist in the Department of Anesthesiology, primarily serving the obstetric population at Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bradley University, a Master of Science in Nursing from Saint Louis University, and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Outside of her professional responsibilities, Kathryn enjoys spending quality time with her daughter and family, reading, baking, and coaching volleyball.
Michael Green, MD
Resident Physician, Class of 2027
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: May 2025
Michael is a CA-1 in the anesthesiology residency class of 2027. Originally from Michigan and raised in St. Louis, he earned his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After college, Michael joined the Peace Corps and spent time teaching in Ecuador. He later moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he helped license and expand a free primary care clinic for uninsured individuals ineligible for public healthcare—an experience that sparked his passion for increasing access to high-quality medical care and ultimately inspired him to pursue a career in medicine.
In true adventurous spirit, Michael attended medical school at La Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in Mexico. More than a decade after leaving St. Louis, he was excited to return home and join the department as a resident physician.
Michael values the exceptional training environment at WashU Medicine, where he sees a wide variety of complex cases as part of a quaternary care center, while also helping care for the local community in a safety-net hospital role. He’s proud to be part of a department that welcomes people from all backgrounds, including many who’ve followed nontraditional paths—just like him.
Outside the hospital, Michael enjoys hiking, traveling with his wife and dogs, and cycling. A personal goal of his is to visit every U.S. National Park—he’s already made it to 23, with 40 more to go!
Ottavia Green, MD
Resident Physician, Class of 2023
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: May 2021
Ottavia is a current CA-1 resident in the Department of Anesthesiology. She was born and raised in Jamaica and migrated to Florida with her family in 2011. She attended college and medical school there before moving to St. Louis to battle the winter. She is interested in working with the pediatric population after residency.
During her spare time, she enjoys watching anime and reading manga. She is currently learning Japanese as a means of watching her anime without needing to use subtitles. She is also a fan of the show ‘Survivor’ and is contemplating applying to the show once she overcomes the fear of sleeping outside in the cold. Ottavia currently lives in the central west end with her 12 plants all of which have names. Prior to the COVID pandemic, Ottavia also enjoyed solo traveling. Her favorite country visited so far is Thailand.
Tori Greenberg
Senior Coordinator of Payroll & Administration
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: April 2025
Tori joined WashU Medicine nearly five years ago and became part of the Department of Anesthesiology in December 2022. As the Senior Coordinator of Payroll & Administration on the finance team, she handles monthly clinical payroll, new hire onboarding, and various administrative tasks.
Originally from St. Louis, Tori earned her undergraduate degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Northern Iowa, where she was also a member of the swim team. In her free time, she enjoys staying active, cooking, exploring local breweries, and watching Cardinals games.
Stephen Gregory, MD
Division Chief, Perioperative Medicine; Medical Director, Center for Preoperative Assessment and Planning (CPAP)
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: February 2020
Stephen grew up in Wood River, Illinois and attended McKendree University for his undergraduate degree, where he was also a member of the track and field team. He went to medical school at Saint Louis University before moving to Duke for his anesthesia residency. In 2016, he moved back to St. Louis for a cardiac anesthesia fellowship at WashU and joined the faculty after his fellowship year. Stephen is currently the director of the CPAP clinic and co-director of the physiology course at the School of Medicine, and he splits his clinical time between the CPAP clinic and the cardiac operating rooms. He is interested in the influence of cognition on perioperative outcomes and in using telemedicine to improve perioperative management. In his free time, he likes to rock climb, cycle, and spend time with his wife, Katie, and their two children, Richter and Emery.
Andrew Griesbaum, ACNP
Nurse Practitioner
Andy Griesbaum is an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, practicing in the ICUs at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Christian Hospital. He has been a member of the Department of Anesthesiology art WashU Medicine since 2021. He earned a BA in History from the University of Michigan in 2009—followed by a BSN in 2014 and MSN in 2020, both from Barnes-Jewish College Goldfarb School of Nursing.
Andy's wife, Maggie, is also a Nurse Practitioner, and together they have a four-year-old daughter and a 7-month-old son. When not at work, Andy can be found indoctrinating his children into Michigan sports fandom, tinkering in the woodshop in his basement, watching historical documentaries, or playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.
Russell Groener, MD
Assistant Residency Program Director; Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: October 2020
Russell is an Assistant Program Director for Residency Education and an Associate Professor in the division of pediatric anesthesiology. He grew up in South Africa, graduating with a medical degree from the University of Cape Town. Before beginning his anesthesiology residency training in Johannesburg, he worked as a general practitioner in Manitoba, Canada, backpacked through South America for 6 months, and spent time at a rural hospital in South Africa, training nurses to practice primary health care in villages where there were no doctors.
After residency, he came to Washington University for fellowship training in pediatric anesthesia. He joined the faculty in 2002, after being in private practice in Cape Town. He especially enjoys working with residents and helping them develop from anxious tutorial newbies into skilled clinicians.
Outside of work, he enjoys gardening with his wife, running with his dog, and playing squash as often as he can.
Fun fact: “I was 33 years old before I was able to vote for the very first time. I stood in line for more than 6 hours with people like me without a single complaint - we were just so excited and overjoyed to be able to vote for Nelson Mandela to be president!”
Ryan Guffey, MD
Fellowship Director for Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain; Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: February 2020
Ryan was born near Detroit in Michigan but spent time growing up in both the Detroit area and St. Peters, MO. He went to medical school at Wayne State University where he met his wife, Amy. Together they attended residency at Emory, and Ryan went on to study Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been an attending at Washington University since. Ryan is the Regional and Acute Pain Fellowship Director and his research focuses on pain after breast cancer surgery and enhanced recovery. He enjoys travel, hiking, architecture, cooking, and smoking BBQ.