Profiled

Karam Atli , MD, is a resident physician in the Department of Anesthesiology. Prior to joining Washington University in St. Louis for residency, she earned her MD at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and master's degree in Biotechnology with a concentration in Biodefense and National Security Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

She is an avid researcher and currently working on multiple large-scale multi-center clinical trials, studying patient recovery after total intravenous anesthetic versus inhaled anesthetic and the utilization of machine-augmented intraoperative monitoring in systematic quality improvement. She is interested in combining her background in biotechnology and national security with her clinical career as an anesthesiologist. Outside of work, she’s traveled to over 20 countries and enjoys exploring the local cuisine and culture. She enjoys playing the violin, dancing, and is working on attaining her pilot’s license.

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 l 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.

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.

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.

Javaughn Baker is a resident physician in the Department of Anesthesiology from Panama City, Florida. He completed his MD in Nashville, Tennessee at Meharry Medical College, which is one of four historically black medical schools in the U.S. Javaughn earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Emory University in 2015. He then went on to complete a Master of Health Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2016. Javaughn attributes much of his initial interest in anesthesiology to his participation in the FAER Medical Student Anesthesia Research Program during medical school.

During his free time, he enjoys spending time and visiting his lovely wife Jakayla who is a psychiatry resident at Duke University School of Medicine. Javaughn also enjoys watching basketball and football. Fun fact: Javaughn minored in Ancient Greek in college and can translate Ancient Greek and Latin.

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.

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.

Michelle joined the Department of Anesthesiology in 2015 as a nurse practitioner (NP) with critical care medicine. Her NP career initially began in 4400 Surgical/Burn/Trauma ICU but with the growth of the division, her career also expanded to 7800 SICU, eICU, Memorial Hospital Belleville, 8200 COVID ECMO, and a small amount of time at Christian Hospital Northeast to provide additional support during the COVID pandemic. Additionally, in 2019 she accepted an APP Leadership position at Memorial Hospital, Belleville.

Michelle says she is “grateful for the opportunity to take care of patients and families during some of the darkest days of their lives”, citing this as “a constant reminder that both humbles and inspires me to be grateful for everything I have each day.”

Within our department, she finds great joy in the expansion of our critical care APP group, citing these new opportunities to learn and work alongside such a diverse group of highly intelligent, culturally diverse, and engaged colleagues as a personal motivator to continue to improve her practice each day.

Michelle was named the Q2 2023 APP of the Quarter! Her nominator says, "Michelle is a great teammate, leader, patient advocate, and friend. She truly cares about our ICU as one that not only delivers quality care to our patients, but that's great to work in as well."

Outside of work, Michelle is engaged with her spouse, young family (children ages 8, 5, 2), and dog.  She has newly adopted yoga as a daily practice both to challenge her body physically and to release some of the emotional stress brought on by caring for critically ill patients.

Fun fact, Michelle grew up in a small town in southern Illinois - so small that the entire town’s population is less than half that of the BJH patient bed capacity.

Dr. Boland has been a member of the department since the fall of 2020, joining as an intensivist practicing in the community. Since transitioning to the academic staff as an associate professor in the spring of this year, Matt has focused his attention on the ICU at Christian Hospital as one of its medical co-directors.

When not sharing his passion for teaching with the team at Christian, Matt is blessed to help his wife, Molly, care for their five kids, ages 3 to 16. On the rare occasion he's not at work, or actively parenting, you might catch him on a local softball field, nursing a hamstring injury; or on the ski slopes in Colorado, babying his surgically-repaired MCL down a double-black diamond; or chasing after his "qualified-for-Boston" marathoner bride, wondering "when did I get this old?". No matter if at work or at play, Matt's goal is always to "Make Today Count!"

Malgorzata, known as Gosia, was born in Wroclaw, Poland, and was raised there until her family moved to Chicago at the age of 15. Her family then moved to the St. Louis area for better work and living opportunities. Gosia self-taught most of her English language while adjusting to the high school life. It was then that she, with guidance of her mother, focused her education on the medical profession. She graduated from SLU with a BSN and BA and went on to pursue her MSN in nurse anesthesia at Webster University.

Gosia has been at Barnes since 2005 as her only -- and what she expects to be her only -- hospital and university to work for. The ortho department is favored by Gosia as she enjoys the challenges of the trauma cases that the hospital sees. She has since volunteered as a pod leader to be a voice for her fellow anesthetists and enjoys the opportunity to teach, consult and guide.

After living and working in the Central West End and having the unique ability to walk to work, she and her new husband moved to Fenton to raise a family that now includes older sister Ava and younger brother Lukas. They have moved into their forever home but have never forgotten their travels as Gosia has a great respect for the outdoors with hobbies of fishing, hiking and an extraordinary resume of summiting 4 out of the 7 summits which includes the elusive summit of Mount Everest in 2013.