2023 AAAC Council Candidates
Listed Alphabetically by Last Name
Candidates for Councilor
- David Adams, MD
- Harendra Arora, MD, FASA, MBA
- Jeffrey S. Berger, MD, MBA, FASA
- Dan E. Berkowitz, MB, BCh
- David Glick, MD, MBA
- Zaki-Udin Hassan, MBBS, MBA, FASA
- Lisa Leffert, MD
- Andrew B. Leibowitz, MD
- Patrick O. McConville MD, FASA
- K. A. Kelly McQueen, MD, MPH, FASA
Candidate for Councilor
David Adams, MD
Indiana University School of Medicine
Dr. David Adams has served as the Robert K. Stoelting Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesia at Indiana University School of Medicine since January, 2021. After earning undergraduate and medical degrees at Michigan State University, Dr. Adams completed his residency and post-doctoral clinical fellowship in anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, where he joined the cardiovascular and neuroanesthesia teams as an Assistant Professor. After 5 years as a member of the CUMC anesthesia faculty, Dr. Adams was recruited as Associate Professor and neuroanesthesia section chief in the Department of Anesthesiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Thereafter, Dr. Adams joined the anesthesia faculty at the University of Vermont, where he held several clinical and administrative leadership positions. At UVM, Dr. Adams served as Vice Chair for Education and Residency Program Director in the Department of Anesthesiology, Chair of the Research and Education Committee of the UVM Faculty Practice Group, and the inaugural Chair of the multidisciplinary Learning Environment and Professionalism (LEAP) Committee. Dr. Adams served as the Associate Dean for GME and the Designated Institutional Official at UVM from 2007 through 2014. In 2017, Dr. Adams was recruited as Professor and Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Anesthesiology at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine prior to being recruited to his current position at IUSM. Dr. Adams has been an ABA examiner since 2014 and a member of the ASA Committee on Economics since 2019, where he serves on the ASA Crosswalk, Reverse Crosswalk, and Relative Value Guide editorial board.
Candidate for Councilor
Harendra Arora, MD, FASA, MBA
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Dr. Harendra Arora is the current Department Chair at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Arora previously served as the Edward A. Norfleet Distinguished Professor in Anesthesiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. At the University of North Carolina, he also served as the Residency Program Director from July 2012 thru Dec 2020. Dr. Arora obtained his medical education from Maulana Azad Medical College, India. After completing residency training at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, he obtained subspecialty training in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology. He currently practices Cardiothoracic, Vascular, Transplant and Regional anesthesia. Dr. Arora received his Master’s in Business Administration from the Kenan Flagler Business school at the University of North Carolina in October of 2018. Dr. Arora has served as an Oral Board Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) since 2014. He has also served on ABA’s Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) committee from its inception. Dr. Arora has published extensively in the areas of cardiovascular and transplant anesthesiology. He has participated in a number of clinical trials as well as quality improvement projects that have resulted in a substantial contribution to new and evolving knowledge in the field of anesthesiology.
Candidate for Councilor
Jeffrey S. Berger, MD, MBA, FASA
George Washington University SMHS
Jeffrey S. Berger, MD, MBA, FASA, is Seymour Alpert Professor and Chair, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. Prior to his current role, Dr. Berger was anesthesiology residency program director for 8 years and associate dean for graduate medical education and ACGME designated institutional official (DIO) for 4 years at The George Washington University.
Dr. Berger is currently completing his third year on the AAAC Council. He assisted with planning the 2021, 2022 and 2023 SAAAPM and AAAC meetings and has facilitated New Chair Sessions annually for the AAAC. Dr. Berger serves on the SAAAPM Annual Survey committee, and recently represented SAAAPM at the ASA Annual Meeting with a report on ASA Finances to the Academic Caucus.
Dr. Berger looks forward to continuing to bring lessons learned from previous and on-going leadership experiences to the Council role, such as associate editor for the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Education in Perioperative Medicine, ad hoc reviewer for the NIH’s Health Services Organization and Delivery study section, board member of the Society of Education in Anesthesia (SEA), council for the Society for Academic Anesthesia Core Program Directors, education advisory board member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists, and executive board member of the DC Society for Anesthesiologists where Dr. Berger served as President of the Society.
He and his wife, Rachel, who is a private practice cardiologist, have three daughters and live in the Maryland suburbs, just outside of Washington, D.C.
Candidate for Councilor
Dan E. Berkowitz, MB, BCh
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. Dan E. Berkowitz is a renowned clinician-scientist and academic leader in the field of Anesthesia. He obtained his medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa before completing his residency in anesthesia and a fellowship in cardiac anesthesia at Duke University. Following his fellowship, Dr. Berkowitz joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University where he spent 25 years as a clinician-scientist and academic leader. During his time at Johns Hopkins, he made significant contributions to the field of vascular pathobiology as an NIH funded researcher. He also held several leadership roles, including Director of Cardiac Anesthesia and Vice-Chair for Research. His leadership skills were recognized when he was appointed Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2019. Under Dr. Berkowitz's leadership, the Department of Anesthesiology at UAB has continued to be a leader in patient care, research, and education. He has worked to recruit and retain top talent, enhance the department's infrastructure, and expand its clinical programs. Dr. Berkowitz has also played an important role in advancing the field of anesthesiology through his involvement in professional organizations including the IARS and AUA. Dr. Berkowitz's commitment to excellence in patient care, research, and education has earned him widespread respect and admiration from his colleagues and peers.
Candidate for Councilor
David Glick, MD, MBA
University of Illinois at Chicago
My name is David Glick, and I would like to serve as a councilor of the AAAC/SAAAPM. I am the Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). I went to medical school and did my anesthesia residency at the University of Chicago. I also received my MBA from the U of C. I was a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago for 20 years, and I served as the director of the PACU and the Anesthesia Perioperative Medicine Clinic and as the section chief for Multi-Specialty Adult Anesthesia, prior to taking the job at UIC in 2022. My research interests include awake intubations, the challenges at emergence for non-native English speakers, OR efficiency modeling, and the uses and abuses of the Bispectral Index monitor. In the past I’ve shied away from the politics of professional societies, but my first interactions with the AAAC/SAAAPM were so positive that I feel the need to forward the organization’s objectives in any way that I can. Specifically, the Society’s benchmark productivity data were essential to me in my negotiations with hospital leadership to free up additional funds for faculty salaries. On a personal level, the “here’s what to expect” sessions for new chairs were extremely helpful and reassuring to me as I stepped into my new role at an unfamiliar institution.
It is my hope that I will be able to contribute meaningfully to these and other essential programs as a councilor of the AAAC/SAAAPM.
Candidate for Councilor
Zaki-Udin Hassan, MBBS, MBA, FASA
University of Kentucky
Dr. Zaki Hassan, MBBS, MBA, FASA, is a board-certified anesthesiologist and Professor of Anesthesiology and Surgery at the University of Kentucky. He has specialized training in pain medicine, liver transplant anesthesiology, and cardiothoracic anesthesiology. He completed his MBBS at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School at the University of London followed by several years of training as a House Officer, Senior House Officer, and Registrar at various institutions in the United Kingdom that provided him a wide breadth of experience. He then completed an anesthesia internship and residency, fellowship in pain medicine, and MBA at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. He is currently the Director of Liver Transplant Anesthesia for the University of Kentucky Department of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Hassan has also served as the Enterprise Director of Simulation for UKHealthCare since 2014 and as Medical Director of the UKHealthCare Simulation Center since it opened in 2018 under his leadership. He is intimately involved in all aspects of simulation education, including development of scenarios, teaching at all levels of medical education, and simulation education research. In an effort to enhance medical education, he previously worked closely with the College of Medicine to secure a grant for clinical simulation education. This grant provided $250,000 for the purchase of the first high-fidelity simulator, METI HPS. He has authored numerous articles in the area of simulation education. He completed Crisis Resource Management Instructors training at Stanford University as well as METI HPS and Laerdal SimMan 3G instructor/user trainings. He serves as course director for the Department of Anesthesiology’s Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesiology (MOCA) course every year, a simulation-based course offered for ABA credit to both university faculty and external anesthesiologists.
An active educator and mentor in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Dr. Hassan has received the Abraham Flexner Master Educator Award multiple times and is a Designated Five-Star Master Educator. He has received numerous other awards for his skill and dedication to education. He regularly provides lectures to residents in the Department of Anesthesiology on a variety of topics, in addition to the simulation trainings he leads throughout the year. He regularly serves as a mentor and co-investigator in human patient simulator-based research projects conducted by anesthesiology residents.
While completing his MBA in the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics, Dr. Hassan was able to achieve Business Administration Certification, Project Management Certification, and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification. Utilizing his business background in the clinical setting, he has served on the finance and call schedule committee for the Department of Anesthesiology. He also serves as an elected faculty representative on the Kentucky Medical Services Foundation Board of Directors and an elected member of the University of Kentucky Implementation of the Epic EHR (Electronic Health Record) Project.
Candidate for Councilor
Lisa Leffert, MD
Yale-New Haven Medical Center
Dr. Leffert is the Nicholas M Greene Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology at Yale Medical School and the Yale New Haven Health System in New Haven, CT. She is a Past President of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) during which time she led an effort to restructure the board of directors and committees to represent the more contemporary and inclusive professional organization SOAP had become. Dr. Leffert has a deep commitment to faculty development and mentorship, as evidenced by a two-decade tenure as the inaugural Vice Chair of Faculty Development at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Division Chief of Obstetric Anesthesiology.
Dr. Leffert’s scholarly work is dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration, with a particular expertise on the intersection between pregnancy and neurological comorbidities or complications. She lectures nationally and internationally on these topics, and has led several efforts across multiple specialty societies, including the creation of consensus statements on neuraxial anesthesia in the obstetric patient on thromboprophylaxis and thrombocytopenia. She has worked collaboratively with ASRA on key guidelines and currently chairs the SOAP Consensus and Endorsed Statements subcommittee.
If selected for this Councilor position, Dr. Leffert would commit to deeply engaging our current and future leaders in our evolving field of academic anesthesiology.
Candidate for Councilor
Andrew B. Leibowitz, MD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Andrew Leibowitz, MD graduated the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1983 and went on to complete residencies in Internal Medicine, and Anesthesiology, followed by a Fellowship in Critical Care Medicine and he is board certified in all three disciplines. He joined the faculty of the Department of Anesthesiology at Mount Sinai in 1989 and split his time between Operating Room Anesthesiology and the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. He was amongst a small group of physicians who founded the Surgical Nutrition Support Service, the Central Venous Access Service and the nascent four member liver transplant anesthesiology team. His past responsibilities have included Interim Director of the Institute for Critical Care Medicine, and Director of the Biocontainment Unit.
He is currently the System Chair of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine for the Mount Sinai Health System. It houses the largest training program in the United States with nearly 200 house staff, over 160 faculty Anesthesiologists, and performs more than 109,000 Anesthetics per year in 5 hospitals and several ambulatory site across in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island.
He is a Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and Surgery, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Mount Sinai Professor of Perioperative Medicine, Vice-President of the Medical Board of the Mount Sinai Hospital, and past President of the Faculty Council. He is also on the Executive Committee of the Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice, a 3500 member group with over $1B a year in revenue.
Candidate for Councilor
Patrick O. McConville MD, FASA
The University of Tennessee Medical Center
My name is Patrick McConville, and I would be honored to serve as a councilor for SAAAPM. I am a graduate of Yale University, Tulane University School of Medicine, residency at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and fellowship in OB Anesthesia at Wake Forest. I am a former Program Director at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville for 6 years and am now serving as chair. I have found SAAAPM to be the most engaging and useful network of colleagues of any organization that I have been a member, both in the PD and now in the chair role. Serving on the council would allow me to support a fantastic organization and add additional perspective to the value this group provides to chairs across the country.
My role is fairly unique in comparison to many academic anesthesia departments, being a hybrid model of a private practice group in an academic center where all of my partners have faculty appointments. Given the financial and personnel challenges we face nationally, my dual role of chief manager of our group has given me additional perspective that may be helpful to some members of SAAAPM who are increasingly facing these challenges we manage since our inception over 30 years ago.
I would be honored to serve on the council if elected and thank you for all of your dedication to the organization.
Candidate for Councilor
K. A. Kelly McQueen, MD, MPH, FASA
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Kelly McQueen is the Ralph M Waters Distinguished Chair and Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Previously a Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Surgery at Vanderbilt University, she served as the Director of Vanderbilt Anesthesia Global Health and Development, and as Director for the Vanderbilt Global Anesthesia Fellowship. As global researcher, Dr. McQueen focuses on improving infrastructure and studying outcomes in low and middle-income countries. She recently started the Global Academic Anesthesia Consortium, a US academic department collaborative that is committed to supporting residency training and education, service and research development in Lusaka, Zambia.
Dr. McQueen was the founder and the Inaugural President of the Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence, a collective member society of the International Surgical Society. Kelly was also the Founder and President of The Global Surgical Consortium, a public charity committed to improving safe anesthesia and surgery in low-income countries. Dr. McQueen has also served as the President of the Arizona Society of Anesthesiologists, and the Chair of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Committee on Global Humanitarian Outreach.
