SAN DIEGO – Oct. 25, 2015 - The Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER), a related organization of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) today announced the selection of James C. Eisenach, MD, as its new President and CEO. FAER’s mission is to advance medicine through anesthesia research and education. It is committed to ensuring physician anesthesiologists lead medicine into the future through scientific discovery and the creation of new knowledge. Dr. Eisenach will assume the role of President and CEO effective July 1, 2016.
“FAER is so fortunate to have a renowned and well-respected individual like Dr. Eisenach as our new President and CEO, continuing the precedents set by Dr. Alan Sessler and Dr. Denham Ward,” said Joy Hawkins, MD, Chair of the FAER Board of Directors. “In addition to his research credentials, Dr. Eisenach understands our close relationship with the ASA through his work with the Anesthesiology journal. We could not be more excited to have him representing FAER in the anesthesiology community.”
“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to lead FAER, an organization I’ve been involved with for more than 25 years,” Dr. Eisenach said. “Although providing anesthesia in the operating room is incredibly safe, the perioperative period is filled with dangers leading to death or permanent disability, such as postoperative stroke and myocardial infarction, acute kidney or lung injury, and generation of chronic pain. It is largely up to our specialty to generate investigators who will critically determine the causes of these dangers and find better ways to predict, prevent, diagnose and treat them. That’s precisely what FAER has been doing for the past 25 years. I plan to build on FAER’s grant portfolio to find new ways to support and promote new investigators even better.”
During his career, Dr. Eisenach has established himself as an accomplished physician scientist, leader and major advocate for anesthesiology research and scientific discovery. Dr. Eisenach is the Francis M. James, III Professor of Anesthesiology and Physiology & Pharmacology at Wake Forest School of Medicine. He has served as editor-in-chief of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the ASA, for the past 10 years, and will officially complete his term effective June 30, 2016.
He is nationally renowned for his research on the mechanisms of pain. Since starting his career at Wake Forest in 1985, Dr. Eisenach has received more than $21 million in NIH support. In addition to serving on several review committees for the NIH, VA, and national anesthesiology societies, he has been the Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Anesthesiology since 1998. Dr. Eisenach has trained 52 post-doctoral and undergraduate fellows and students throughout his career. He served on the ASA Committee on Research from 1988 to 2006 and on the FAER Board of Directors from 2006 to 2012.
Earlier this month, Dr. Eisenach was elected into the National Academy of Medicine, which is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. In 2013, he received the Excellence in Research Award from the ASA, and in 2011, his research received and NIH Merit Award. He is delivering the Emery A. Rovenstine lecture at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2015 annual meeting.
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS