Board of Directors

Brenda G. Fahy, M.D.  President

Dr. Fahy is a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Florida and associate chair and division chief, Anesthesiology Critical Care. She is the medical director of Critical Care Medicine-Anesthesiology Clinical Services at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. She also serves as program director for the Combined Critical Care Adult Cardiothoracic and Critical Care Medicine Fellowships. Dr. Fahy is the president of the ABA and serves on its Assessments, Research and Critical Care Medicine Examination Committees. Her research interests include studies in the critically ill patient population and multidisciplinary translational research teams as well as educational studies.

David O. Warner, M.D. Vice President

Dr. Warner is a professor of anesthesiology, clinician investigator and consultant for the Department of Anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he practices pediatric anesthesiology. He directs the Mayo Clinic Office of Health Disparities Research and Anesthesia Clinical Research Unit, and is the associate director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences. He is vice president of the ABA, serves as chair of its OSCE Committee and is a member of the Assessments, ADVANCED Examination and Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political Factors (STEEP) Advisory Committees. Dr. Warner’s research interests include respiratory physiology, outcomes of anesthesia and surgery, tobacco control, neurotoxicity of anesthetics and substance use disorders.

Deborah J. Culley, M.D. Secretary

Dr. Culley is an attending physician and vice chair of research at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an associate professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She is secretary of the ABA and serves on its Credentialing and Continuing Certification and Research Committees. Dr. Culley serves as chair of the Academic Anesthesiology Committee of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. She is a past president of the Society of Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care, serves on the executive editorial board of “Anesthesiology” and is currently funded by the NIA to study the effects of baseline cognitive impairment on outcomes in older surgical patients.

Santhanam Suresh, M.D. Treasurer

Dr. Suresh is the Arthur C. King Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatric Anesthesiology at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (formerly Children’s Memorial Hospital) and is a professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He previously served as the vice chairman and director of research for the Department of Pediatric Anesthesiology at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital and as chair of its Pain Practices Committee. Dr. Suresh is treasurer of the ABA and serves on its Assessments, Research and Pediatric Anesthesiology Examination Committees. He also serves as co-chair of the SmartTots PPP Steering Committee, as chair of the Educational Track Subcommittee on Pediatric Anesthesia for the American Society of Anesthesiologists and on the board of trustees for the International Anesthesia Research Society. He is also a member of the Anesthesiology Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Anesthesiology.

Daniel J. Cole, M.D.

Dr. Cole is a professor of clinical anesthesiology and the vice chair for professional and business development at David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a director of the ABA and serves as its executive director, professional affairs and as a member of the Credentialing and Continuing Certification and STEEP Advisory Committees. Dr. Cole is also on the board of directors of the American Board of Medical Specialties, the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. He is a prior president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Rupa J. Dainer, M.D.

Dr. Dainer is medical director and chief strategy officer at the Pediatrics Specialists of Virginia. She served honorably as a commander in the United States Navy until her end of service in October 2015. During her time in service she was chief of pediatric anesthesia at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. In 2009, Dr. Dainer deployed to Afghanistan to serve in Operation Enduring Freedom and then deployed to the Dominican Republic in 2013 to participate in Medical Readiness Training Exercises. She is currently a director of the ABA, serves as chair of its Standardized Oral Examination Committee and is a member of the Credentialing and Continuing Certification, Research, Pediatric Anesthesiology MOCA Minute and Pediatric Anesthesiology Examination Committees.

Robert R. Gaiser, M.D.

Dr. Gaiser is the chairman for the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Kentucky where he also serves as a professor of anesthesiology in the School of Medicine. He previously served as the program director for the Department of Anesthesiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he also served as a professor of anesthesiology and critical care, as well as a staff anesthesiologist. Additionally, he was a professor within the Department of Pharmacology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and School of Nursing at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His academic interests include education and obstetric anesthesia, while he focuses his clinical work on the care of the pregnant patient. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. He is a director of the ABA, chair of its Assessments and Nonstandard Examinations Committees and a member of the STEEP Advisory, BASIC Examination and OSCE Committees.

Mark T. Keegan, M.B., B.Ch.

Dr. Keegan is a professor of anesthesiology and full-time clinician, who works as a consultant anesthesiologist and intensivist in the operating rooms and intensive care units at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He is a director of the ABA and serves on the Research, Assessments, In-Training Examination, Standardized Oral Examination and Critical Care Medicine Examination Committees. He serves as chair of the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the American Board of Medical Specialties. He has been honored with the Mayo Brothers Distinguished Fellowship Award and multiple critical care clinician of the year and teacher of the year awards. He has received the Mayo Critical Care Master Clinician and Educator Hall of Fame Awards and has twice received the Mayo Department of Anesthesia Distinguished Clinician Award. Dr. Keegan’s research interests include the use of prognostic scoring systems in the intensive care unit and critical care of the liver transplant recipient.

Alex Macario, M.D., M.B.A.

Dr. Macario a professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, and, by courtesy, health research and policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as vice-chair for Education and program director for the Anesthesia Residency. Dr. Macario is a director of the ABA, serves as chair of the Research Committee and is a member of the Credentialing and Continuing Certification, In-Training Examination and OSCE Committees. His research career has been dedicated to the economics of health care, in particular costs, quality and outcomes for patients having surgery and anesthesia.

Thomas M. McLoughlin Jr., M.D.

Dr. McLoughlin serves as chair of anesthesiology for Lehigh Valley Health Network. He is also a professor of surgery in the Division of Surgical Anesthesiology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine and a clinical professor at DeSales University. He is a director of the ABA, serves as chair of its STEEP Advisory Committee and is a member of its Assessments, Nonstandard Examinations and MOCA Minute Committees. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. He is the editor-in-chief of Advances in Anesthesia, which is published annually by Elsevier.

Andrew J. Patterson, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Patterson is professor and chair of the department of anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. He previously served as the Larson Professor and executive vice chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. Prior to that he spent nearly two decades on the faculty at Stanford University, where he served as an associate professor of anesthesiology and chief of the Critical Care Medicine Division and director of the Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program. His clinical focus includes critical care medicine, as well as intraoperative anesthesia care for thoracic and vascular surgery. His research interests include adrenergic receptor biology, vascular biology, hemodynamic physiology and pharmacology, as well as the cardiovascular impact of sepsis. Dr. Patterson is a director of the ABA and serves on its Credentialing and Continuing Certification, STEEP Advisory and Standardized Oral Examination Committees. He is also a member of the Anesthesiology Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Anesthesiology.

Margaret Pisacano, B.S.N., J.D.

Ms. Pisacano is the Public Member Director of the ABA and serves on the Credentialing and Continuing Certification, STEEP Advisory and Nonstandard Examinations Committees. She is an Associate General Counsel for the University of Kentucky and Director of Risk Management for UK HealthCare. She is an adjunct faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Law where she supervises an Externship for law students in the UK HealthCare Department of Risk Management.  Ms. Pisacano graduated from the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in 1980, and worked as a registered nurse for nine years primarily in the operating room and labor and delivery. She graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law with honors in 1989, and worked as a medical malpractice defense trial lawyer in private practice for eighteen years prior to assuming the Directorship of the UK HealthCare Department of Risk Management in 2007.

James P. Rathmell, M.D.

Dr. Rathmell is the chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He previously served as chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and executive vice chair of the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In 2012, he was appointed as the inaugural Henry Knowles Beecher Professor of Anesthesia at MGH. Dr. Rathmell is a director of the ABA, serves as chair of its Credentialing and Continuing Certification Committee and is a member of its STEEP Advisory, OSCE and Pain Medicine Examination Committees. Dr. Rathmell’s current research interest focuses on examining the effectiveness of new and emerging treatments for pain.

The American Board of Anesthesiology® is a Member Board of the American Board of Medical Specialties.

Upcoming Dates

  • APPLIED Exam Week 5

    May 6-9

  • APPLIED Exam Week 6

    May 20-23

  • Summer BASIC Exam

    June 7-8

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