We are excited to announce the appointment of Liz Whitlock, MD, MS as the Chair of the Anesthesia Biostats and Clinical Research Design (ABCD) Committee, effective April 1, 2025. Liz succeeds Romain Pirracchio, MD, PhD, who served as the inaugural chair from 2018 until last month.
The ABCD Committee was formed after the 2018 Department of Anesthesia faculty retreat. A task force, led by Drs. Liz Whitlock and Matthias Behrends, proposed the committee as a unified structure to promote clinical research in our department. Composed of Anesthesia faculty with expertise in clinical research, the group: (1) provides formal and informal advice and mentoring on clinical research; (2) oversees the department’s Clinical Seed Award Program; and (3) implements a research training curriculum as part of the Anesthesia Research seminar series.
Dr. Whitlock received her medical degree, M.A. in Biological/Biomedical Sciences, and M.Sc. in Clinical Investigation from Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her anesthesia residency in our department as part of the second cohort of Research Track Scholars. She was subsequently a T32 postdoctoral research fellow before joining the faculty. Her research focuses on perioperative cognitive outcomes in geriatric patients and has been funded by the NIH and FAER. In addition to her involvement in the ABCD Committee, Liz has participated in numerous activities promoting research training and mentorship, including serving as president of the Early-Stage Anesthesiology Scholars, faculty discussion leader for the UCSF Fellows Advancement Skills Training in Clinical Research (FAST-CaR) program, and a research mentor to Anesthesia faculty and trainees.
