Executive Board

Joshua H. Atkins, M.D., Ph.D., President, is Attending Physician, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, and Director of Anesthesia for Head and Neck Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a secondary appointment in Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery where he collaborates extensively for clinical care, academic research, and quality improvement. Dr. Atkins specializes in anesthesia for drug induced sleep endoscopy, complex airway surgery, including robotic head and neck surgery complex neurosurgery, and outpatient procedures. His research work, in close collaboration with Dr. Jeff Mandel focuses on the pharmacology of intravenous anesthetic agents and respiratory monitoring. Dr. Atkins is heavily engaged in patient quality and safety activities in the health system where he is Co-Chair of the Airway Safety Subcommittee of the Patient Safety Committee, which brings a multidisciplinary group of experts together to mitigate risk and standardize airway management in the health system. He is the anesthesia director for perioperative team simulation education, has an active clinical research program, and regularly lectures in the community and abroad. Since 2007 Dr. Atkins has been intimately involved in the development of academic exchanges between Penn and leading institutions in China.

Dr. Atkins is a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology and a junior oral examiner for the national certifying boards in anesthesiology. He is Past-President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Society of Anesthesiologists and voting member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists House of Delegates.
 

Laura F. Cavallone, M.D., President-Elect of SHANA, is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine.

Originally from Milan, Italy, Dr. Cavallone graduated from the Medical School of the “Universita’degli Studi di Milano” in 1993. She completed her anesthesiology residency at the same medical school in 1997, and continued to work as a consultant in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care in Milan until 2004, when she was offered a faculty position at the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Cavallone’s major clinical, educational and research activities are currently directed at patient safety, specifically in the fields of airway management and anesthesia for head and neck surgery. As a leader of the clinical head and neck anesthesia services at Wash.U., Dr. Cavallone has systematically investigated safe extubation practices, and developed an innovative extubation algorithm for major neck and upper airway surgery. Dr. Cavallone is also responsible for devising and coordinating a unique, multifaceted anesthesia teaching curriculum for both, the head and neck anesthesia residents, and the ENT surgical residents.

Dr. Cavallone has authored several chapters on ENT anesthesia and airway management topics in major textbooks and organized numerous workshops on airway management for residents and medical students.

Michael Aziz, M.D., Secretary, is Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland (OHSU), Oregon. He received his Medical Doctorate degree from the Ohio State University in 2001, and completed his training in Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan in 2005.

Dr. Aziz’s major academic interests are focused on airway management, particularly the role of video laryngoscopy for the management of the difficult airway. He also has an interest in outcomes research as it relates to database management.

Clinically, Dr. Aziz is active in providing anesthesia for otolaryngologic surgical procedures. He also serves several administrative roles at OHSU, such as director of adult inpatient anesthesia, medical director of post-anesthesia care, departmental informatics officer, and clinical champion of the anesthesia information management system. Nationally, Dr. Aziz serves on the multi-centered perioperative outcomes group and American Society of Anesthesiology research committee.
 

Adam Levine, M.D., Treasurer, a graduate from the Icahn School of Medicine, is a Professor of Anesthesiology, Otolaryngology and Structural and Chemical Biology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He also serves as Program Director and Vice Chair of Education for the Department of Anesthesiology.

Dr. Levine is an expert in the anesthetic management for otolaryngologic surgery, and is senior editor and major contributing author of the reference textbook “Anesthesiology and Otolaryngology”, an innovative collaborative work, which was published by Springer in 2013. Over the course of his 20-year tenure Dr. Levine has developed an innovative clinical program incorporating the extensive use of regional anesthesia for head and neck surgical procedures for intraoperative and postoperative care, and for airway management. Some of Dr. Levine’s research focuses on the use of regional anesthesia for sinus, nasal and thyroid surgery. A prolific speaker, Dr. Levine lectures nationally on TIVA and regional anesthesia for head and neck surgery. He co-moderated (with his colleague Dr. Samuel DeMaria) the first Workshops on Regional Anesthesia for Head and Neck Surgery at both the ASA 2013 and the NYSSA PGA 2013.

Recognized as an expert in simulation, Dr. Levine developed innovative programs of simulation-based education and assessment. His team’s CARE (Clinical Anesthesia ReEntry) program is perhaps the most notably known for simulation-based assessment and retraining for anesthesiologists seeking clinical reentry. Dr. Levine is an editor on the ASA Editorial Board on Simulation Education that oversees the ASA simulation endorsement program, and is also a site visitor for the Society in Simulation Healthcare accreditation program. As one of the first programs to be awarded endorsement, Dr. Levine has been the program director of the ASA endorsed HELPS (Human Emulation, Education, and Evaluation Lab for Patient Safety and Professional Study) Center Program, and has been conducting courses to satisfy MOCA ® Part IV requirements for ABA re-certification since 2010. In 2013 Dr. Levine served as the senior editor of “The Comprehensive Textbook of Healthcare Simulation”, a 50 chapter, multidisciplinary, international work published by Springer.

As a testament to his teaching abilities, Dr. Levine has been the recipient of numerous departmental, institutional, and international education awards; most notably he was the 2009 recipient of the International Anesthesia Research Society Life Time Achievement Award for Teaching.
 

Samuel Schechtman, M.D., Immediate Past President, is currently a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan. Sam also serves as the Director of Head and Neck Anesthesiology and Airway Management at Michigan Medicine. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Schechtman moved to Ann Arbor in 2003, and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Anthropology - Zoology from the University of Michigan. He then completed medical school at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 2011, and returned to Ann Arbor for anesthesiology residency training at the University of Michigan in 2015. He was then the first graduate of the University of Michigan - Department of Anesthesiology's Head and Neck - Advanced Airway Management Fellowship in 2016.

Sam developed great interest in head and neck anesthesia and advanced airway management during his residency experience. Throughout his fellowship and time as faculty, he has taken interest in airway risk assessment and intraoperative airway management for patients with complex head and neck pathologies including head and neck cancer, subglottic stenosis, laryngeal disease, cervical spine disease, and laryngotracheal trauma.

Dr. Schechtman spends significant time teaching advanced airway management skills and airway risk assessment approaches to other providers, faculty, fellows, residents, and medical students in training at the University of Michigan. His current research interests include perioperative predictors of head and neck free flap failure as well as predictors of challenging airway management using video laryngoscopy, and airway management for patients with a prior history of a "challenging airway." Additionally, Sam focuses investigation on perioperative approaches to management of complex head and neck pathologies, institutional airway management safety, and management of the cannot intubate and cannot oxygenate scenario.

Dr. Schechtman has helped to lead institutional and international airway workshops.
 

Jaime Hyman, MD is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Division Chief of Ambulatory Anesthesiology, and director of the Head and Neck Anesthesiology Fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine.

She serves as chair of the SHANA Education Board. Dr Hyman is also a Director on the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia (SAMBA) Board and chairs the SAMBA Education Committee. She has presented nationally and internationally on topics related to ambulatory anesthesiology and head and neck anesthesiology. Her clinical interests include anesthesia for laryngology, endocrine surgery, head and neck cancer surgery, and difficult airway management. Her clinical research focuses on patient-centered outcomes after ambulatory surgery and ENT surgery.

Arpan Mehta, BM, FRCA, Chair of the Communications Board of SHANA, is a Faculty of Anesthesiology and Perioperative medicine at University Of Miami and its affiliated hospitals. He has recently moved, after work at both the University Of Michigan, and most recently University College London. He completed medical school at the University of Southampton, U.K. This was soon followed by completing anesthesia residency at Warwick School of Anesthesia in Birmingham and  the North Central School of Anesthesia in London.

Dr. Mehta is fellowship trained in Perioperative Anesthesia from the University of Toronto (Toronto Western Hospital). He continues to develop his expertise in this area as an attending at preoperative assessment clinic for high risk patients withing the University Of Miami health network.

Dr. Mehta’s main academic interests are in the fields of airway management and Head & Neck anesthesia, and was focusing on the use of THRIVE and target controlled infusions (TCI) for airway procedures. Dr. Mehta worked regularly with pulmonary physicians delivering anesthesia for high risk airway procedures, using these techniques as stated regularly. He hopes to follow his most recent submissions and presentations on these topics with JoHNA and Difficult Airway Society (DAS) with other publications on these topics.

Having recently moved to the University Of Miami, Dr. Mehta will pursue his commitments in Head & Neck anesthesia, the teaching of advanced airway management and continue his general interests with a flexible schedule involving all main subspecialties.
 

Board Members at Large:

Tracey Straker M.D., MPH, Past President, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Straker graduated from the 7yr combined BS/M.D. program, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and earned her M.D. degree from New York Medical College in 1990. She then went on to train in anesthesiology at Montefiore Medical Center, graduating in 1994. In addition, she holds a Masters in Medical Administration from New York Medical College and is presently pursuing a Master’s degree in Health Information Technology online.

After graduating, she worked for 2 years in the private practice arena, and returned to academic medicine at Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Straker currently serves as the Fellowship Director of the Combined Airway / ENT Fellowship, Director of Advanced Airway Rotation and Associate Director Genearalist  Anesthesia. Full description of the Combined Airway / ENT fellowship is avalable at http://www.montefiore.org/anesthesiology-fellowships.

Dr. Straker ‘s clinical interests include Head and Neck anesthesia, with a concentration in laryngology and jet ventilation. In addition, bariatric anesthesia and oromaxillofacial anesthesia garner considerable attention as well.

Dr. Straker has written several peer reviwed articles, book chapters in major textbooks, lectured at several locations nationally and internationally and taught numerous airway management workshops. Her clinical research presently deals with airway management in the bariatric patients and intraoperative management in sleep apnea patients.

Basem B. Abdelmalak, M.D., FASA, Past President, is a Professor of Anesthesiology at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and an Anesthesiologist in the section for ENT Anesthesia at Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH) since 2001. Currently, he leads the Anesthesia Services for Bronchoscopic Surgery and is the Director of the Center for Procedural Sedation. He frequently performs the Therapeutic Whole Lung Lavage procedure to treat pulmonary alveolar proteinosis patients.

Dr. Abdelmalak is board-certified in Anesthesiology and fellowship trained in Critical Care medicine. His many clinical interests include anesthesia for ENT and bronchoscopic surgery and difficult airway management. He is also a member of the Anesthesiology Outcomes Research Department.

He served the Ohio Society of Anesthesiologists as its president in 2015 and currently serves the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia (SAMBA) as its Vice President.

He has received numerous honors and awards, including being named one of America’s Top Anesthesiologists according to the Consumers' Research Council of America. A frequently invited speaker at national and international conferences, Dr. Abdelmalak authored many scientific articles and book chapters in his field, and recently co-edited two textbooks titled Anesthesia for Otolaryngologic Surgery and Clinical Airway Management; An Illustrated Case Based Approach by Cambridge University Press.
 

David Healy, M.D., Past President, is is an anesthesiologist committed to the improvement of medical care received by patients undergoing Head and Neck Surgeries. He wants to link anesthesiologists to encourage communication, education and coordinated scientific endeavor.

Dr. Healy is the Director of Head and Neck Anesthesia at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he has been a faculty member since 2005. Raised and educated in Cambridge, England, he completed his medical school training at St Bartholomew’s and The Royal London Hospital in 1996. He completed both Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology boards in the UK, becoming both a Member of The Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) and Fellow of the Royal College of Anesthetists (FRCA). His interests include novel airway device development and performance assessment and clinical outcomes research.

Dr. Healy has lectured, published book chapters and original articles on airway management and devices. He is the course director of the Annual Interdisciplinary Airway Management Course of the University of Michigan. He is an advisory board member of M-HEAL (Michigan Health Engineered for All Lives), a biomedical engineering group that applies novel engineering solutions to the health problems of the developing world.
 

Vladimir Nekhendzy, M.D., Past President, is Clinical Professor of Anesthesia and Otolaryngology at the Department of Anesthesia, Stanford University School of Medicine. Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Dr. Nekhendzy graduated from Pavlov Medical School in 1979. He completed anesthesia residency training at St. Petersburg Institute for Advanced Training for Physicians in 1985, and University of California, San Francisco in 1996.

After completing a research fellowship at Stanford (Dr. Mervyn Maze’s lab), Dr. Nekhendzy joined Stanford Anesthesia Department in 1997. He has been the Director of Stanford ENT Anesthesia and Advanced Airway Management Program (SAAMP) since their inception, in 1998. He also serves as Director of Clinical Fellowship in ENT Anesthesia and Advanced Airway Management, offered by Stanford Anesthesia Department since 2009. Full description of the fellowship training is available at: http://med.stanford.edu/anesthesia/education/clinical_fellowship.html

Dr. Nekhendzy’s major clinical, teaching and research activities are centered on perioperative care of patients undergoing a wide variety of otolaryngologic, neurotologic, maxillofacial, orthognatic, and facial plastic surgical procedures, and on the use of advanced airway management devices and techniques. He has authored several chapters on ENT anesthesia in major textbooks, lectured extensively nationally and internationally, and directed numerous workshops on difficult airway management.
 

Narasimhan (“Sim”) Jagannathan, M.D., practices pediatric anesthesia at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. It is tertiary care children’s hospital, which conducts 25,000 anesthetics for children a year. Sim is also the Associate Chair for Academic Affairs and an Associate Professor Anesthesiology at Northwestern University. Dr. Jagannathan completed anesthesiology residency at the Cleveland Clinic in 2005 and subsequently did his pediatric anesthesia fellowship at Children’s Memorial Hospital (now Ann & Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago).

Dr. Jagannathan’s clinical research is focused on airway research in children. He has designed and conducted many randomized trials on the use of advanced airway devices and techniques for pediatrics, observational airway studies, and has authored 85 publications. Sim has lectured nationally and internationally on the topics of airway management in children, specifically the use of advanced airway techniques for the difficult airway. Currently, Dr. Jagannathan gives the Refresher Course lecture on difficult airway management in children and runs the pediatric airway workshop for the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) annual meeting. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Society for Airway Management (SAM).

Dr. Jagannathan is an Editor of American Board of Anesthesiologists written exam and an Oral Board Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiologists. He reviews extensively for Pediatric Anesthesia, Anesthesia & Analgesia, British Journal of Anaesthesia, BMC Pediatrics, European Journal of Pediatrics, Journal of Clinical Anesthesia, Journal of Anesthesia (Editorial Board Member), and BMC Anesthesiology, completing over 50 manuscript reviews a year.