Profiled

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: August 2020

Jake grew up on a horse farm in Union, MO. His father worked as a part-time horse trainer, so much of his childhood was spent cleaning stalls, fixing fence, and going to horse shows around Missouri. He completed the combined degree program at the University of Missouri - Kansas City (Go Kangaroos!). After medical school, Jake completed his anesthesiology residency, pain management fellowship, and pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Washington University. He also spent three months at Cincinnati Children's Hospital for additional pediatric pain medicine exposure. Jake is currently the Director of Pediatric Pain Management at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and his clinical practice focuses on pediatric acute and chronic pain management in addition to still providing OR pediatric anesthesia. He also enjoys being involved in medical student and resident education. Outside of work, he loves spending time with my his wife, Sarah, and his 3 children (Owen, Bella, and Lucy). Family days usually involve going on hikes, biking, and being active.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: February 2020

Ramya is a current second-year resident originally from southeast Michigan. She has slowly been moving further south to warmer climates following medical school at Ohio State University. She is currently undecided about which fellowship to pursue but is excited to complete CA-1 year to see the other subspecialties of anesthesia. Outside of work, Ramya is a foodie and enjoys exploring new restaurants both in St. Louis and abroad. She is also recently trying out rock climbing.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: July 2020

Kam has been a clinical nurse coordinator for the Pain Management Center since 2005. In her role as patient advocate, she guides the patients and their families in the referral process as well as providing information on chronic pain treatment modalities. Kam also acts as a physician liaison to promote practice growth and development. As new physicians join the Pain Center, she helps to build relationships with their referring colleagues which emphasizes the attending’s interests and expertise. She is blessed with a very supportive husband, and two talented children. In her spare time she enjoys distance running, biking and swimming.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: January 2025

Cody is a CA-1 resident in the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine. A Southern Illinois native, he earned his bachelor’s degree in physiology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and his medical degree from the SIU School of Medicine.

In his free time, Cody enjoys swimming, playing video games, and hanging out with his cat, Iroh. A fun fact about Cody: he spent eight years coaching summer league, club, and high school swimming while completing his undergraduate and medical studies.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: December 2025

Amy grew up in central Illinois and received her BSN from Millikin University. After college, she moved to St. Louis where she worked at Saint Louis University Hospital in the trauma/surgical ICU. She earned her MSN from Webster University and started working for WashU Medicine as a CRNA in 2010. She floated to all of the OR pods and did OB anesthesia at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Missouri Baptist for several years before ultimately choosing POD 1 as her home. In 2022, she transferred to Barnes-Jewish West County and is one of the core CRNAs at the surgery center.

Outside of work, Amy enjoys traveling, reading, trying new restaurants, staying active, and spending time with friends and family.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: July 2026

Léa was born and raised in Strasbourg, France, right at the border with Germany, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science in Neuroscience, and a Doctorate in Neuroscience — all from Strasbourg University. As a graduate student in the Yalcin Lab, Léa studied the contribution of the amygdalo-cingulate pathway in depression and its comorbidity with chronic pain and found that depression in humans and depression-related behaviors in mice were strongly associated with impaired myelination in the brain. Léa then had the unique opportunity to be a visiting scientific consultant at the Madagascar Biodiversity Center to help supervise MSc students and lead workshops on scientific writing and communication. She was also lucky enough to join on a few field trips and see some wild lemurs.

In October 2022, Léa moved to St. Louis for her postdoctoral training at WashU Medicine in the McCall Lab. Her research focuses on understanding how traumatic events such as pain or substance use disorder change the way organisms cope with their environment. Her current work aims to determine the effect of fentanyl withdrawal on pain and negative affect and the role of noradrenergic modulation of glial cells in those behavioral changes.

Outside of the lab, Léa enjoys hiking across Missouri and national/state parks, playing board games with her friends, and trying to improve her very limited art skills.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: March 2025

Andy is currently an intern in the Department of Anesthesiology. A St. Louis native, he grew up in south city before completing both his bachelor's degree at WashU and Medical Doctor at WashU Medicine, and joining the residency program in 2024. Andy is passionate about education and equitable access to care, himself a product of WashU's medical education outreach programs. He is still open to many subspecialty paths, and has developed a particular interest in pediatric anesthesiology. He is certain, however, that medical education will remain a large part of his career, and is involved with projects in anesthesiology education at WashU and UM.

Outside of the hospital, Andy tries to stay active and outdoors - favorites include biking, hiking, skiing, and taking walks to look at historic architecture. He has been a member at the Missouri Botanical Gardens for two decades and religiously attends its events. Andy has 2 cats, bakes sourdough bread, and is a tea snob. He and his partner enjoy spending time with family, especially their niece and nephews.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: July 2024

Richard Benzinger, MD, PhD, currently serves as Interim Vice Chair for Education for the Department of Anesthesiology. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, where he learned to drive cars with manual transmissions on hilly streets. He received his BS in biology from the California Institute of Technology in 1993, followed by a PhD in neurobiology and an MD from the University of Chicago. He joined our department as a resident in 2001, couples-matching with his wife Tammie, who is now the Hugh Wilson Professor of Radiology.  Dr. Benzinger has made invaluable contributions to our team, including serving as Chief Resident, the William Owens Research Fellow in Anesthesiology, and the residency program director from 2011 to 2018.  Clinically, he is a member of the liver transplant team and works in the CPAP clinic. Outside the OR, he enjoys working on his house, traveling, and caring for his collection of geriatric cats.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: November 2023

Andrea Bigogno is a board-certified Adult Geriatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner who has worked in Surgical Critical Care within the Department of Anesthesiology since 2015. Andrea immigrated to St. Louis with her family from Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994. She started her nursing education at the University of Missouri-Columbia and received her Bachelor of Nursing from Goldfarb School of Nursing in 2009. Andrea worked in the Surgical/Trauma/Burn ICU at BJH as a nurse and graduated from her alma mater with her Master of Science in Nursing in 2015. As a provider, she loves being able to build connections with her patients and their family members.

Outside of work, Andrea spends the majority of her time with her awesome husband, Tony, as they juggle their busy schedule with their three wonderful children, Johnny (7), Dominic (5), and Mila (4). Andrea is a self-proclaimed gym rat and bookworm, and in her free time spends her time at the gym or with her nose buried in a book.

Department of Anesthesiology Featured Member: February 2024

Abby Bisch is a CRNA and Co-Director of the Mentorship Program at WashU Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology. She floats to all pods and recently started rotating to the OB floor. She hails from Ottawa, KS, and went to Kansas State University where she studied Food Science, and Industry and Non-Profit Leadership. She earned her BSN at the University of Saint Mary, in Kansas City, KS. She gained ICU experience in Dallas, TX, at Baylor, Scott, and White Medical Center. Finally, she earned her DNP at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX.

It was at K-State where she fell in love with her now-husband, Aaron. Together they have an almost two-year-old son, Luka, and a 6-year-old Shiba Inu, Kairo. They are also expecting identical twin girls this April (feel free to send all name ideas via email)! Abby loves traveling, camping, baking, trying new restaurants, drinking bourbon, playing Settlers of Catan, and doing house projects.