APSF recognizes and thanks those individuals who have generously supported APSF through an estate or legacy gift.
Steve and Janice Barker
Dan and Cristine Cole
Jeffrey and Karma Cooper
Burton A. Dole, Jr.
Dr. John H. and Mrs. Marsha L. Eichhorn
Jeffrey and Debra Feldman
David Gaba, MD and Deanna Mann
Drs. Alex & Carol Hannenberg
Drs. Joy L. Hawkins and Randall M. Clark
Dr. Eric and Marjorie Ho
Drs. Michael and Georgia Olympio
Lynn and Fred Reede
Bill, Patty and Curran Reilly
Dru and Amie Riddle
Steve Sanford
Dr. Ephraim S. (Rick) and Eileen Siker
Robert K. Stoelting, MD
Brian J. Thomas, JD and Keri Voss
Mark and Mary Ellen Warner
Drs. Susan and Don Watson
Matthew B. Weinger, MD and Lisa Price
Steve and Janice Barker
After my first career in aerospace engineering, I went into medicine in my mid-thirties and became an anesthesiologist. Throughout my second career, I have tried to apply lessons from the first one to improve patient safety. Medicine and particularly anesthesiology can learn a great deal from aviation and getting those lessons into clinical practice has been a major goal for me. Early on in this mission, I discovered that the APSF has many of the same goals I have, and that APSF is very supportive of using novel approaches to improve patient safety. I found that Bob Stoelting, Mark Warner, and now Dan Cole are very open-minded in this respect, and all of the APSF staff have been very supportive. About ten years ago I helped organize the Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF), founded by Joe Kiani of Masimo. APSF and PSMF (an alphabet soup mouthful) have much in common in our missions and strategies, and I have tried to help broker increasing collaboration between the two. APSF has been open to this idea, and together we have moved forward with the relationship.
In summary, the APSF mission is my mission, the APSF leaders and members are my good friends, and they are the people with whom I want to work. I am therefore honored to become a member of the Legacy Society as one more way I can support the APSF.
Dan and Cristine Cole
We went into medicine to make the world a better place. How professionally and personally gratifying it is to be an anesthesiologist and have a role in the miracles of medicine. But how tragic it is whenever I hear of an instance where the medical system that was intended to help a human being ends up harming them. The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) has a mission that we can all connect to and it is an honor to work with the many selfless professionals at APSF who volunteer their time to eradicate preventable harm. It is a mission that Cristine and I are privileged to support.
Jeffrey and Karma Cooper
As a founding member of the APSF Executive Committee, I take great satisfaction in the sustained leadership and success of this organization in advancing perioperative patient safety.
What is so remarkable and has brought me great personal pleasure and joy, is the continuous, unwavering, extraordinary mutual respect, support and camaraderie of the Executive Committee. Despite almost complete replenishment of its composition more than once over the more than 30 years since the APSF’s inception, that team has sustained those qualities and continued to evolve and work effectively. The current board and leadership are a new generation; I have no doubt that they will continue that legacy of working together effectively, of innovating to meet the new challenges ahead and enjoying their working together. My expectation is that there will be a need for APSF far into the future because it will continue to evolve to meet the future needs of patient safety. Our trust in that is secure; Thus, Karma and I are confident that our pledge of support from our estate will be a worthy investment in the future.
Burton A. Dole, Jr.
Dr. John H. and Mrs. Marsha L. Eichhorn
Having been intensely involved with the APSF since its creation in 1985, of course we are supporting its long-term survival and success, including through a contingent legacy grant as part of our estate plan.
Jeffrey and Debra Feldman
When Deb and I arrived at the University of Florida to begin my training in Anesthesiology we were both welcomed into the department and anesthesia community by Dr. JS (Nik) Gravenstein and his wife, Alix. Nik provided mentorship and a role model of an accomplished anesthesiologist, who was never satisfied with the status quo and was driven to enhance the safety of anesthesia practice. He was among a few visionaries who recognized the essential role of technology in patient care at a time when digital electronics were opening up possibilities for patient monitoring that had previously been impossible. Partnering with industry, he and others helped to shape the technology we use every day to keep patients safe. Nik was one of the founders of the APSF and, as a young trainee, I witnessed the birth of the organization, never dreaming that I might one day be able to contribute personally. What a privilege and joy it is to be a part of an incredible community of people who dedicate countless hours to promoting patient safety.
How does one decide where to spend their time and resources in life for the most impact? It is difficult to find organizations as impactful in our specialty on anesthesia care at the bedside as the APSF. This foundation embraces all anesthesia professionals to achieve the mission that “no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.” The newsletter is translated into eight languages and read worldwide! Deb and I are pleased to be able to strengthen the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation as members of the legacy society.
David Gaba, MD and Deanna Mann
Our two careers in healthcare were dedicated to the provision of safe patient care. David’s academic mission centered on patient safety – both on its theoretical basis and on a number of practical avenues to bring it to fruition around the world. Without APSF’s support of these efforts, and those of countless others, patient safety as a specific targetable goal would never have come to the fore. That “no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care” is a vision that we believe should continue in perpetuity.
Deanna Mann, RN, BSN, RNP, MSN is a Registered Nurse and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has worked in both hospital and community clinic settings, giving care to patients of diverse economic and cultural backgrounds. Dr. David Gaba is an anesthesiologist at Stanford School of Medicine and at VA Palo Alto Health Care System. He has served as a Director of the APSF continuously from 1990 through 2019, as well a member of its Executive Committee, and Secretary, at various times in this period. He was also a founding member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Simulation Editorial Board. He was a founding board member of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the founding editor-in-chief of its peer-reviewed journal Simulation in Healthcare”
Drs. Alex & Carol Hannenberg
The groundbreaking improvements in clinical outcomes and patient safety for which the specialty of anesthesiology is known – above all other disciplines – has been a profound source of pride for me. To call myself an anesthesiologist and be associated with the work and achievements of so many I admire deeply is a privilege. The APSF is the home of these people and this work and its commitment to ceaselessly capture opportunities to protect our patients deserves our support.
Carol and I are delighted to provide for ongoing support of APSF in our estate planning and encourage others to do so.
Drs. Joy L. Hawkins and Randall M. Clark
We are very pleased to be part of the APSF Legacy Society. A foundation like APSF that focuses on the safety of patients is an essential part of our identity as anesthesiologists. As others before us have correctly observed, the safety of our patients is at the center of everything we do as physicians.
Joy and Randy are both professors of Anesthesiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. Joy is the head of obstetric anesthesia for the Department of Anesthesiology and University Hospital. She has previously served as President and Chair of the Board of Directors for the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. Randy is a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. In October 2019 Randy became ASA First Vice President and is slated to become president of ASA in October 2021. Randy and Joy have two daughters, Catherine and Victoria, both of whom are in graduate school.
Dr. Eric and Marjorie Ho
Vigilance and safety are integral parts of anesthesia practice. And I had benefited from the APSF Newsletter since summer of 1990, both in my practice and teaching of medical students. Now I have retired and want to pay back by joining the APSF Legacy Society.
Drs. Michael and Georgia Olympio
My first anesthesia “machine” failure made a dramatic presentation when we had to induce general anesthesia for a patient who became ischemic after carotid cross-clamping. My student could not ventilate the now-intubated patient. Were it not for sudden astonishment leading me to action (while aggressively trying to ventilate, the bag and a cork flew off the bag-arm) our patient might have been severely harmed!
A single dramatic event can trigger a lifetime commitment to patient safety; for me it pertained to technology and there was no better organization than the APSF to foster a passion for the understanding, application, teaching and troubleshooting of anesthesia technologies to improve patient safety. While serving as Chair of the Committee on Technology, my team endeavored to bring clinicians and industry engineers together for the benefit of patients, by promoting respectful critiques of technical safety issues through the ever-popular Dear SIRS (now RAPID Response) column in the Newsletter.
Without the unwavering support and love from my wife, Dr. Georgia K. Olympio, I could not have dedicated the time that I did to the APSF, and to my education roles at ASA and Wake Forest School of Medicine. Together, we shared the joy and camaraderie of working and associating with the finest anesthesia safety experts. Now, even in the earliest years of our retirement, we feel compelled to pledge Legacy support for the vision of APSF, that “That no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.” Please join us in supporting this remarkable foundation!
Lynn and Fred Reede
From the first hour of the first day in nursing school and in my nurse anesthesia program, I learned that the care I would provide must be grounded in responsibility to advocate for my patients’ safety and best outcomes. Each and every day my classmates and I partnered with patients and their families to understand and improve their plans of care.
I entered anesthesia practice at a time before the routine use of monitors such as pulse oximeters. We had one peripheral nerve stimulator for 16 operating rooms. Fast forwarding across decades, I now celebrate and support the work of many brilliant clinicians, industry partners and scientists by helping them translate patient and provider safety issues into better techniques, medications, technologies, and quality improvement processes.
Our family’s investment in each patient and provider’s safety is one of the best gifts we can share for everyone’s well-being. We hope that we can all work together to improve our complex and fragmented health care system.
Bill, Patty and Curran Reilly
As a nurse and as a CRNA I have always been a patient advocate with a focus on safe care. I was lucky early on in my anesthesia career to meet Dr. Ellison Pierce who not only invited me to volunteer within the Foundation but also inspired me to want to make a difference in the safe practice of anesthesia.
I have been honored to be a part of the APSF for 35 years, contributing to the work being done, always feeling a sense of pride about what we do and how we do it, knowing in my heart we make such a difference and very proud as a CRNA that I am a part of that difference. I have watched the organization grow; we now have a global reach; our newsletter is read by so many anesthesia clinicians in so many countries.
I have been privileged to collaborate with many great anesthesia leaders within the APSF, I can never thank them enough for their care of the patient and their work in moving safety forward. My special thanks to all the APSF family, for in some small way you have touched me, my practice, my husband or my daughter for which I am and will continually be grateful. I hope in a small way my contribution to the Legacy Society will continue to support the work of the APSF.
Dru and Amie Riddle
“No one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.” The mission of APSF resonated deeply with us as we have dedicated our entire professional careers to ensuring safe care for patients. APSF is a critical part of accomplishing this goal and we are proud to support the Foundation in a way that we hope will be long-lasting. Legacy giving is critical to any organization, and we are honored to support an organization that aligns with our personal and professional values.
Dru is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) and Amie is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP).
Steve Sanford
As the former CEO of Preferred Physicians Medical (PPM), a leading insurer of anesthesia practices across the country, our collaboration with the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation has been a cornerstone of our success as an anesthesia-only insurance provider. As a corporate contributor for well over twenty years, our financial support of APSF is just one measure of PPM’s shared vision regarding the importance of patient safety. In addition, I served for 11 years on both the APSF Executive Committee and the APSF Board of Directors. In that capacity, I saw first-hand the important work of the APSF and had the privilege of working alongside many of the “giants” in the anesthesia patient safety movement. PPM’s unique access to anesthesia loss data allowed us to help identify emerging loss trends, contribute timely articles to the APSF newsletter and in several meaningful ways we were able to have a meaningful impact on patient safety via our partnership with APSF. Our collaboration on post-operative vision loss following spinal surgery, for example, demonstrated our ability to quickly provide patient safety guidance in response to an emerging loss trend and together with the APSF alter the anesthesia landscape. This more proactive approach to patient safety was only possible because industry stakeholders are welcomed stakeholders in the anesthesia patient safety movement.
For me, my personal involvement in the APSF allowed me to re-imagine the traditional insurance industry view of risk management and re-organize our efforts around providing meaningful patient safety guidance to both our member insureds as well as the larger anesthesia community. This change, more than any other, helped transform PPM as an organization and in turn had a dramatic impact on our success in the insurance marketplace. For this reason, I am delighted to lend my personal support toward continuing the mission of the APSF via the APSF Legacy Society.
Dr. Ephraim S. (Rick) and Eileen Siker
Rick’s interest in anesthesia began as a third year medical student at NYU when he had a brief opportunity to cross paths with Emery Rovenstine, the first of future encounters. What an honor it was when Rick was invited to give the Rovenstine Lecture in 1981. Rick’s circle of friends and influencers include too many to list, but a few names stand out: Drs. Frances Foldes, John Bonica, Pepper Jenkins, Richard Kitz, David Little, Bill Hamilton, Art Keats, Al Betcher, Don Benson, and most importantly Eileen B. Siker, his wife of more than 60 years. Rick was dedicated to patient safety and it’s noteworthy that in 1996 he was invited to present the Lewis Wright Lecture. Rick’s talk was titled; “Anesthetic Safety: an Evolution”. This would turn out to be his final opportunity to address an ASA audience.
Rick’s tenure with the APSF began in 1985 when he became the Founding Secretary. He was then appointed as the first Executive Director of the APSF, a role in which he served from 1992 – 1997.
Rick and Eileen Siker truly are an APSF legacy.
Robert K. Stoelting, MD
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) was established in 1985 with the vision “that no patient shall be harmed by anesthesia.” A foundation dedicated solely to advocate for anesthesia patient safety was the goal of APSF’s founding president, Ellison C. Pierce, Jr., MD. Today, APSF and anesthesiology are recognized world wide as pioneers in advocating for patient safety.
I had the privilege of following Dr. Pierce as the second president of APSF (1997-2016) and it was on the “shoulders of those early pioneers in APSF’s history” that during my presidency APSF was able to both continue and expand its role in pursuing its mission that “no patient shall be harmed by anesthesia.”
Brian J. Thomas, JD and Keri Voss
As the Vice President of Risk Management for Preferred Physicians Medical (PPM), a leading insurer of anesthesia practices across the country, I’ve devoted nearly my entire professional career as an attorney to providing risk management services for anesthesia professionals to improve patient safety. PPM has been a corporate sponsor of and patient safety partner with the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) for over 30 years. During that time period, the APSF and PPM have collaborated on many important patient safety initiatives and projects including, but not limited to, authoring, and co-authoring several patient safety articles in the APSF Newsletter, the ASA Monitor, and Anesthesia & Analgesia. I have also had the pleasure to serve as a guest speaker for the ASPF Stoelting Conference and contributed to the APSF Patient Safety Podcast and the APSF Newsletter “In the Literature” synopsis summaries.
My personal experience with the APSF began over a decade ago when one of my mentors and fellow APSF Legacy Society Member, Steve Sanford, introduced me to the APSF Family and my first Stoelting Conference. Since then, I have had to the privilege and honor to serve on the APSF Newsletter Editorial Board and Corporate Advisory Council since 2018 and the APSF Board of Directors since 2019. The APSF is one of the most widely recognized and respected patient safety organizations in the world. Being part of such a noble organization and working alongside some of the most brilliant, tireless, and diverse anesthesia leaders and stakeholders as we continue to strive to fulfill the APSF Vision “that no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care” has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career. It is for these, and many more, reasons that my wife, Keri, and I are proud to be able to join the other generous members of the APSF Legacy Society in supporting the APSF into the future as part of our estate plan.
Mark and Mary Ellen Warner
We believe that foundations such as the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation are fundamental to the future development of anesthesiology. The APSF is especially important to us as improving perioperative patient safety is such a noble cause and has been a major goal for us during our careers. We are proud to have the opportunity to help APSF fulfill its vision that “no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.”
Drs. Warner are anesthesiologists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Mary Ellen has served as president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library Museum and is vice-president of the Anesthesia Foundation. Mark has served as president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, been a director of the Foundation for Anesthesia Education & Research, and president of the APSF. Two of their sons and two of their daughters-in-law also are anesthesiologists at Mayo Clinic.
Drs. Susan and Don Watson
Throughout our careers in Pediatric Anesthesiology and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, patient safety has been a fundamental priority. Having trained in the generation before the adoption of pulse oximetry, we have seen vast improvements in monitoring and safety over the decades. The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation has been the leader in encouraging, developing and refining safety measures for our patients and our specialty.
We hope that this support of APSF will help the foundation to continue its important mission.
Matthew B. Weinger, MD and Lisa Price
