Profiled

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.

Anuradha moved to St. Louis in 2018 and joined the Department of Anesthesiology as an international specialist. She enjoys working in the diverse department and has made many good friends here -- so much so that she considers the department as an extend family!

She values the work culture in the department and really enjoys teaching residents.

Outside of work, Anuradha enjoys reading, cooking (experimenting) and listening to music. She values family time and finds spending time playing with her daughter (Anvi) a great stress reducer.

Tammie has been with WashU Medicine for a little over two years. She initially began her career in an IBC III position within the Department of Surgery, where she worked for her first year. In August 2023, she transitioned to the Department of Anesthesiology and has been with the team ever since. Tammie thoroughly enjoys working with the department and her colleagues and looks forward to continuing her role within anesthesiology in the years ahead.

Melissa was born at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and grew up right around the corner from the medical campus. She has been with the School of Medicine for just over 5 years. She is the manager of credentialing and scheduling and has an excellent team she is incredibly proud to be a part of. Melissa initially planned to be an artist and went to art school after high school, but instead ended up spending 17 years in the medical field at another local University where she obtained an undergraduate degree in Humanities, another in Education, and a Masters in Teaching. She has a 16-year-old son who will be a junior at Ladue this year and wishes he could be preparing for another football state championship right now. She loves to craft, hike with her dog, cook, and travel as often as possible. Fun fact: she has a sister (by marriage) also named Melissa Bowman.

Bobbie Brown is a graduate student in the DBBS program, training under Dr. Rob Gereau and Dr. Bryan Copits. Bobbie moved from her hometown Little Rock, Arkansas, to St. Louis to begin her undergraduate studies at WashU in 2013. Throughout undergrad, she researched voltage-gated potassium channels with Dr. Larry Salkoff and Dr. Celia Santi. In 2017, she earned her bachelor's degree in physics.

For her graduate research, Bobbie is working on optogenetic tool development. Optogenetics involves the use of light-sensitive proteins (opsins) that allow for light-mediated modulation of cellular processes; her research is focused on using opsins to regulate neuronal activity. Along with research, she has helped teach undergraduate classes including "Molecular Biology of Genetic Disorders," "Neurophysiology Lab," and "Biophysics of Consciousness." Bobbie is also involved with leadership in the department's ASSURE summer research program.

Outside of the lab, Bobbie enjoys listening to music, playing instruments, exploring outdoors, watching scary movies, teaching (or attempting to teach) her cat Momo to walk on a leash, watching basketball, facilitating local queer-Christian community, discovering new personal allergies, and architectural photography.

Joel Brown is a Research Nurse Coordinator with DoCTR. He graduated from SIU-Carbondale and went on to work with the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at WashU. He then went back to school and graduated from Goldfarb School of Nursing in December 2020. He started his nursing career in the cardiothoracic surgery step-down unit at BJC. He is from Mascoutah, Illinois, is a huge Marvel junkie, loves golfing, and is a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, and Dallas Cowboys!

Dr. Brown-Shpigel is an instructor in trauma and general divisions under the Department of Anesthesiology. She is the Center for Advanced Medicine Outpatient Surgery Center’s POD leader. In this capacity, she manages the operative board schedule, coordinates with surgeons on what cases are appropriate for the location, and works with the nursing management on perioperative process quality improvement programs. She has a special interest in trauma anesthesiology and critical care. She will be taking a sabbatical to return to training for a Critical Care Medicine Fellowship in 2021-2022 with anticipation of rejoining the Washington University Department of Anesthesiology.

Brown-Shpigel notes, "Did you know there are well over 60 different hikes you can do within 60 miles of St. Louis? I find my life balance by spending as much time as possible outdoors when I am away from work so I'm working my way through these great outdoor experiences. I have an 18 month old toddler and two doggies who love to tag along. Even though I have only been in St. Louis 6 years, I really feel like we have found our home."