SAMBA Committees

By-Laws Committee

The SAMBA Bylaws Committee is responsible for the maintenance of the society bylaws, which is the set of rules that helps to guide the organization’s operations and activities.

Chair: Christopher Burkle, MD, JD – burkle.christopher@mayo.edu 

Board Advisor: Michael Guertin, MD, MBA, CPE, FASA – michael.guertin@osumc.edu

Members:

Meena Desai, MD

Arnaldo Valedon, MD

Michael Walsh, MD

Alan Marco, MD

Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee

The Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee works closely with other committees to develop various guidelines. This process involves a literature search, selecting and grading the available evidence, and developing recommendations. In the absence of high quality evidence, expert opinion and consensus are used to formulate recommendations. The guidelines and practice advisories thus developed are published on the SAMBA website or as a journal article. The Guidelines Committee also works closely with other subspecialty societies to update or develop Practice Guidelines.

Chair: Niraja Rajan, MD – nrajanmd@yahoo.com

Co-Chair: Girish P. Joshi, MB, BD, MD – girish.joshi@utsouthwestern.edu

Board Advisor: Dawn Schell, MD – SCHELLD@ccf.org

Members:

Kumar Belani, MD

Mahesh Nagappa, MD

Rebecca Twersky, MD

Richard Urman, MD

Rita Saikali, MD

Srinivas Pyati, MD

Chhaya Patel, MD

Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA

Arnaldo Valedon, MD

John George III, MD

CME Committee

The SAMBA CME committee provides oversight for the CME offerings of SAMBA. It has traditionally ensured accreditation for the CME offerings of the society including the annual meeting, webinars, and website content.

Chair: Michael O’Rourke, MD – miorourke@lumc.edu

Vice-Chair: Julius Pawlowski, MD – jpawlow@lumc.edu

Board Advisor: Victor Davila, MD – vicdtx@gmail.com

Members:

Steve Butz, MD

Michael Presta, DO

Chhaya Patel, MD

Melinda Seering, MD

Beverly Philip, MD

Kenneth Cummings, MD

Platt Niebur, MD

Neha Dasmunshi, MD

Communications Committee

The Communications Committee aims to develop and maintain effective communications with SAMBA members, other professional societies, other medical specialties, surgical patients, and the public to promote the medical specialty of ambulatory anesthesiology. It maintains effective communications via the SAMBA mailing list, social media accounts, website, webinars, and other electronic media. One of the key responsibilities of the committee is to contribute articles and ideas to the SAMBA LINK Newsletter. The committee also facilitates the communications between various SAMBA committees.

Chair: Sher-Lu Pai, MD – pai.sherlu@mayo.edu 

Vice-Chair: Kelly Lebak, MD – kellylebak@gmail.com

Board Advisor: Richard Urman, MD – bostonworks1@gmail.com

Members:

Mahesh Nagappa, MD

BobbieJean Sweitzer, MD

Alberto Ardon, MD

Tazeen Beg, MD

Carla Todaro, MD

Tacee Walker, MD

Caryn Hertz, MD

Kumar Belani, MD

Kathy Walsh, MD

Shaina Drummond, MD

Allyson Hascall, MD

Jarrett Heard, MD

Development Committee

The Development Committee represents SAMBA and builds relationships with pharmaceutical, and industrial supporters and sponsors. The committee creates and maintains SAMBA prospectus for exhibiting at, partnering with, and sponsoring SAMBA. The committee fundraises to support SAMBA’s mission and vision, especially the educational endeavors.

Chair: Basem Abdelmalak, MD, FASA – abdelmb@ccf.org

Co-Chair: Victor Davila, MD – vicdtx@gmail.com

Board Advisor: Joseph “Max” Hendrix, MD, FASA – Joseph.Hendrix@UTSouthwestern.edu

Members:

Michael Walsh, MD

Kenneth Cummings, MD

Jarrett Heard, MD

Alan Marco, MD

Education Committee

The Education Committee is here to educate our members. We organize monthly webinars. These webinars are live with a speaker giving a lecture on a topic with time for questions and answers at the end. The webinars are available for future viewing on the SAMBA website. We also submit and organize a SAMBA Panel with experts to ASA Annual Meeting. In the past we have worked on other online learning tools such as Anesthesia Tool Box. We are always happy to collaborate with others on educational projects.

Co-Chair: Jaime Hyman, MD – jaime.hyman@gmail.com

Co-Chair: Catherine Tobin, MD – tobinc@musc.edu

Board Advisor: Steven Butz, MD – sbutz@mcw.edu

Members:

Niraja Rajan, MD

Claude Abdallah, MD, MS

Kumar Belani, MD

Kara Barnett, MD

Janette Covington, MD

Chhaya Patel, MD

Karlyn Powell, MD

Fred Shapiro, MD

Ashley Shilling, MD

BobbieJean Sweitzer, MD

Carla Todaro, MD

Connie Khanh Tran, MD

Richard Urman, MD, MBA

Megan Rodgers McCormick, DO

Ramprasad Sripadua, MBBS, MMM, CPE

Arnaldo Valedon, MD

Joseph “Max” Hendrix, MD

Michelle Harvey, MD

Greta Duncan Wiebe, MD

Tom Epperson, MD

Solmaz Nabipour, MD

Anuradha Mann, MD

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee meets to review the results of the audit process and make recommendations for budgetary and investment actions to be approved by the Board.

Chair: Steven Butz, MD –  sbutz@mcw.edu

Vice-Chair: Richard Urman, MD –  bostonworks1@gmail.com

Board Advisor: Dawn Schell, MD – schelld@ccf.org

Members:

John George III, MD

Steven Gayer, MD

Michael Guertin, MD

Deepak Gupta, MD

International Relations Committee

The International Relations Committee engages members and non-members from other countries, as well as societies to carry SAMBA’s mission and vision around the world.

Chair: Victor Davila, MD – vicdtx@gmail.com

Vice-Chair: Simon Lee, MD – simon.lee@emory.edu

Board Advisor: Leopoldo Rodriguez, MD, FAAP, FASA – leopoldo@leopoldorodriguez.com

Members:

Arnaldo Valedon, MD

Richard Urman, MD, MBA

Fred Shapiro, DO

Steven Gayer, MD

Gail Granowitz, MD

Sherine Hanna, MD

Sakura Kinjo, MD

Claude Abdallah, MD

Kumar Belani, MD

Akiko Ando, MD

JP Ouanes, MD

Meetings Committee

The Meetings Committee works year-long on the logistics of planning the Annual Meeting in regard to location, topics, speakers, and format. It also delegates authority to other members in planning specialty meetings such as Office-Based Anesthesia, Medical Directors, Ambulatory Pediatrics, Mid-year, etc. The committee also works within the financial framework to provide at least an even budget, if not a profit. Work is in done in tandem with the Development, CME, and Education Committees.

Chair: Steven Butz, MD – sbutz@mcw.edu

Vice-Chair: Basem Abdelmalak, MD, FASA – abdelmb@ccf.org

Board Advisor: BobbieJean Sweitzer, MD – bobbie.sweitzer@gmail.com

Members:

Beverly Philip, MD

Rebecca Twersky, MD, MPH

Tacee Walker, MD

Nancy Wilkes, MD

Simon Lee, MD

Dawn Schell, MD

Michael Guertin, MD, MBA, CPE, FASA

Michael O’Rourke, MD

Arnaldo Valedon, MD

Allyson Hascall, MD

Alan Marco, MD

Membership Committee

The SAMBA Membership Committee promotes the benefits of SAMBA membership, identifies issues important to our members, and works to enhance the value of SAMBA membership by evaluating both current and potential products and services. The committee evaluates due structures and can also be tasked by the Board of Directors to address membership-related issues or special projects that requires discussion, research and recommendations for changes to SAMBA membership.

Chair: Victor Davila, MD – vicdtx@gmail.com

Board Advisor: Alberto Ardon, MD, MPH – Ardon.Alberto@mayo.edu

Members:

Meena Desai, MD

John George III, MD

Kelly Lebak, MD

Tazeen Beg, MD

Mark Phillips, MD

Leopoldo V. Rodriguez, MD, MBA, FAAP, FASA

Deepak Gupta, MD

Sonia Pyne, MD

Olga Vornovitsky, MD

Nominations Committee

The Nominations Committee is responsible for scouting talented interested members, and encouraging, supporting, mentoring, and nominating them to different leadership positions

Chair and Board Advisor: Leopoldo Rodriguez, MD, MBA, FAAP, FASA, SAMBA-F – leopoldorodriguez@icloud.com

Members:

Kumar Belani, MD

Arnaldo Valedon, MD

John Dilger, MD

Michael Walsh, MD

Basem Abdelmalak, MD, FASA

Alan Marco, MD

Non-Operating Room Anesthesia Committee

As non-operating room anesthesia (NORA) cases increase each year so does interest in the Non-Operating Room Anesthesia (NORA) Committee of SAMBA. It is our hope that this group can address the special challenges to providing safe care in NORA settings, while being vigilant with the medical complexity of these patients. In this rapidly changing field, we hope to focus our attention on the implementation of innovative technologies, procedures or medications while harboring a special focus on patient safety. With new challenges being seen each day, we hope we can foster a better understanding of the risks associated with NORA while maintaining quality care that benefits all of our patients. 

Chair: Michael Presta, DO – mpresta1@gmail.com

Vice-Chair: Mark Phillips, MD – mphillip@uabmc.edu

Board Advisor: Joseph “Max” Hendrix, MD – joseph.hendrix@utsouthernwestern.edu

Members:

Michael Walsh, MD

Tazeen Beg, MD

Ahmad Elsharydah, MD, MBA

Laurence Hausman, MD

Kelly Lebak, MD

Syed Shah, MD

Allyson Hascall, MD

Kara Barnett, MD, FASA

Rahel Selassie, MD

Mary Ann Vann, MD

Jeffrey Lee, MD

Maria Michaelis, MD

Stephen O’Donnell, MD

Srinivas Pyati, MD

Keira Mason, MD

Hinda Abramoff, DO

Hedwig Schroeck, MD

Anthony Bonavia, MD

Ellen Janke, MD

Kunal Karamchandani, MD

Ellis Lai, MD

Jessica Lovich-Sapola, MD

Audra Webber, MD

Office-Based Anesthesia Committee

The Office-Based Anesthesia (OBA) Committee is a general resource of anesthesia providers who want to share and exchange information to provide safe anesthesia care in the office-based procedural and surgical setting. 

Co-Chair: Grace Lee Dorsch, MD – gldorsch@me.com

Co-Chair and Board Advisor: Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA – frednopain@gmail.com

Members:

Michael Walsh, MD

Tazeen Beg, MD

Laurence Hausman, MD

Kelly Lebak, MD

Anu Mann, MD

Keira Mason, MD

Syed Shah, MD

Stephen Smith, MD, DABA

Richard Urman, MD, MBA

Teresa Roberts, MD, FASA

Brandon Wong, MD

Rahel Selassie, MD

Adel Bishai, MD

Mark Saxen, DDS

Brian Osman, MD

Philip Yen, DDS

Meghan Valach, MD

Ophthalmologic Anesthesia Committee

The Ophthalmologic Anesthesia Committee deals with all aspects of Ophthalmic anesthesia, surgery, and ambulatory care with particular emphasis on teaching ophthalmic regional anesthesia, relevant sedation techniques, and general anesthetic aspects pertinent to the niche subspecialty.

Co-Chair: Steve Gayer, MD – sgayer@med.miami.edu

Co-Chair: Dawn Schell, MD – schelld@ccf.org

Board Advisor: Fred Shapiro, DO, FASA – frednopain@gmail.com

Member:

Tina Tran, MD

Pediatric Anesthesia Committee

The Pediatric Anesthesia Committee’s (PAC) Mission is to promote the highest standards of anesthesia care and safety for pediatric patients in Pediatric Ambulatory Surgery Centers (PASC) and other settings

Chair: Amgad Saied, MD – asaied@chla.usc.edu

Co-Chair: Kumar Belani, MD – belan001@umn.edu

Board Advisor: Niraja Rajan, MD – nrajan@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

Members:

Michelle Harvey, MD

David Beebe, MD

Marjorie Brennan, MD

Benjamin Massey, MD

Rosalie Tassone, MD

Akiko Ando, MD

Wanda Chin, MD

Neha Dasmunshi, MD

Greta Duncan Wiebe, MD

Keira Mason, MD

Sameh Nour, MD, MMM

Chhaya Patel, MD

Audra Webber, MD

Performance Measures Committee

The Performance Measures Committee is responsible for developing, reviewing or advising on ways to determine the effectiveness of processes, procedures and systems to improve and optimize patient outcomes in ambulatory surgery. 

Chair: Jarrett Heard, MD – Jarrett.Heard@osumc.edu

Vice-Chair: Victor Davila, MD – vicdtx@gmail.com

Board Advisor: Leopoldo V. Rodriguez, MD, MBA, FAAP, FASA – leopoldorodriguez@icloud.com

Members:

Michael Guertin, MD, MBA

Kumar Belani, MD

Lucinda Everett, MD

Rebecca Twersky, MD

Sonia Pyne, MD

Tong Gan, MD, MHS, FRCA

Shaina Drummond, MD

Stanford Plavin, MD

Timothy Curry, MD

Neha Dasmunshi, MD

Sherina Hanna, MD

Maria Michaelis, MD

Steven Gayer, MD

Regional Anesthesia Committee

The Regional Anesthesia Committee advances the knowledge and use of regional anesthesia and modern acute pain management approaches in the ambulatory setting. 

Chair: Alberto Ardon, MD – a.ardon@gmail.com

Vice-Chair: Hanae Tokita, MD – tokitah@mskcc.org

Board Advisor: Srinivas Pyati, MD – srinivas.pyati@duke.edu

Members:

Roy Greengrass, MD

Sakura Kinjo, MD

Karen Nielsen, MD

Olga Nin, MD

Michael O’Rourke, MD

Julius Pawlowski, MD

Ashley Shilling, MD

Sylvia Wilson, MD

Jihye Ha, MD

Walter McNally, MD

Melinda Seering, MD

John George III, MD

Irina Gasanova, MD

John Hagen, MD

Alec Lawrence, MD

JP Ouanes, DO

Tejinder Swaran Singh, MBBS, FRCA

Resident Committee

The Resident Committee provides a framework for residents to participate in the education and guidance of the specialty of ambulatory anesthesia. They participate in the development of the resident lectures at the Annual Meeting and provide opportunities to network throughout the year.

Board Advisor: Steve Butz, MD – sbutz@mcw.edu

Members:

Fred Shapiro, MD

Jarrett Heard, MD

Connie Tran, MD

Carey Brewbaker, MD

Solmaz Nabipour, MD

Karlyn Powell, MD

Tejinder Swaran Singh, MBBS, FRCA

Scientific Papers Committee

The Committee on Scientific Papers is committed to furthering scientific research and recognizing advances in the field of ambulatory anesthesia. The committee is responsible for abstract review prior to the annual meeting, abstract award determination, and research grant review. 

Chair: David Beebe, MD – beebe001@umn.edu

Vice-Chair: Kara Barnett, MD, FASA – karambarnett@yahoo.com

Board Advisor: Victor Davila, MD – vicdtx@gmail.com

Members:

Katie Bridges, MD

Srini Pyati, MD

Ahmad Elsharydah, MD, MBA

Audrice Francois, MD

Alec Lawrence, MD

Catherine Tobin, MD

Carla Todaro, MD

Kenneth Cummings, MD

Jennifer Matos, MD

Anthony Bonavia, MD

Chhaya Patel, MD

Website Committee

The Website Committee is responsible for periodic review of website content and functionality, investigating issues and complaints from members, looking for opportunities to improve, advance and modernize the website, and promoting the creation of new website contents.

Chair: Kumar Belani, MD – belan001@umn.edu

Vice-Chair and Board Advisor: Leopoldo Rodriguez, MD, MBA, FAAP, FASA – leopoldorodriguez@icloud.com 

Members:

Sher-Lu Pai, MD

BobbieJean Sweitzer, MD

Catherine Tobin, MD

Michael O’Rourke, MD

Carla Todaro, MD

Tacee Walker, DO

Caryn Hertz, MD