Dr. Ty Kiser is a Professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the University of Colorado Hospital. Dr. Kiser received his Pharm.D. at the University of North Carolina. He completed a pharmacy practice residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a Critical Care Residency and Critical Care/Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the University of Colorado. Dr. Kiser served as the chair of the Society of Critical Care Medicine Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology section and as chair of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) critical care practice and research network. He is currently on the board of regents for ACCP. Dr. Kiser’s research has focused on optimizing the
pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of pharmacologic agents in critically ill patients with organ dysfunction and has resulted in over 100 peer reviewed publications.

Zachary (Zach) Asher is a Physician Assistant in the Surgical and Trauma Intensive Care Unit at the University of Colorado Hospital. He has been the lead Advanced Practice Provider since 2016. He completed his Master’s of Health Sciences at Duke University followed by a post-graduate fellowship in Critical Care at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Zach remained at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as a Physician Assistant in the Medical Intensive Care Unit prior to returning home to Colorado. After attending other conferences, Zach appreciated the diversity, inclusivity, and dedication to critical care at his first Critical Care Congress. Zach saw the void exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for a Rocky Mountain Chapter. He was the inaugural President of the Chapter.

Since entering medicine as a provider in 2019, I have gained an appreciation for the varied educational experiences that an academic institution offers. I enjoy improving my knowledge base and being surrounded by motivated, smart, and passionate individuals who elevate my skills to provide the highest quality care to patients. Along with clinical duties, I enjoy being involved in medical education with a focus on educating future advanced practice providers, so they feel comfortable practicing as autonomously as possible at their highest scope of practice. As president-elect, I hope to use these educational and leadership skills to build on the excellent foundation of the SCCM Rocky Mountain Chapter. My goals include fostering a sense of community among our critical care teams and to bring more educational opportunities to the critical care providers at University of Colorado. I look forward to collaborating with members of the board and partners throughout the institution to embrace the resources of SCCM to elevate our critical care skills and knowledge base by offering CME to members with the ultimate goal of having a Critical Care conference at UCH to not only offer education, but also to showcase the excellent work and research our providers are doing. I look forward to the opportunity to serve as president-elect.

Kimberly Berry worked as a bedside RN for approximately 10 years before obtaining her DNP. She has worked in critical care for the last 7 years with experience in medical intensive care and surgical trauma intensive care. She is passionate about quality improvement and has done podium presentations at SCCM’s critical care conference on her QI project to improve security measures in the ICU at a busy level 1 hospital. When she isn’t working, she loves the outdoors and kickboxing.

John is a critical care physician in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.  He serves as the director of pulmonary and critical care at Lutheran Medical Center critical care intensive care units.  Dr. Ferguson completed his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at the University of Colorado and his Master of Public Health at the Colorado School of Public Health.  In addition to his clinical duties, he serves as an adjunct instructor for Rocky Vista University.  He is excited to help lead the membership committee for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Scott W. Mueller, Pharm.D., FCCM, FCCP, BCCCP is a critical care clinical pharmacist at the University of Colorado Hospital. He maintains an active practice as the bedside pharmacist for the Burn Service at UCHealth. He is a Clinical (Adjunct) Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy, RUSH University Medical Center PGY-1, and University of Colorado Critical Care PGY-2 programs before completing a 2-year fellowship in critical care and infectious disease. In addition to his practice, he remains active in research, scholarship, and the education of those interested in improving the health of others. He is an active member of SCCM and the SCCM-CPP subsection as well as ACCP. He is the current outgoing PGY-2 Critical Care Residency Program Director at the University of Colorado.

I am an Assistant Professor of Medicine within the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at Denver Health Hospital and the University of Colorado. My research interests and scholarly activity have long been focused on the impact of the delivery of critical care on family members of the patients, working to define the prevalence of sustained stress related disorders as well as exploring interventions to reduce these disorders. Since joining the faculty at the University of Colorado in 2019, I have additionally been involved in several aspects of medical education and medical education research leading to several publications around novel mechanisms to teach bronchoscopy and management of massive hemoptysis as well as applying cognitive load theory to ICU rounds to help maximize a learner’s opportunity for assimilating new information. I have research training in and expertise in mixed methods, combining expertise in quantitative and qualitative trial design and data analysis.  I have been an active member of SCCM since 2015 and regularly attend the national conference, helping me understand the mission of the society and I am excited to help further that within the RMSCCM chapter. Furthermore, I have a strong track record of leadership, starting with being selected as a Chief Medical Resident at Brown University, to serving on national committees through the ATS (currently ending my term as a member of the patient and family education committee for the ATS), as well as serving as the medical director of the ICU at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA hospital throughout the pandemic. This combination of leadership opportunities has lead me to be uniquely in tune with the overlap between running a functional ICU, the educational needs of learners of all types and stages from GME to pharmacy to nursing, as well as understanding the national dialogues around care delivery and improvement. I believe I could well serve the RMSCCM chapter both at a local level and represent it well at the national SCCM meetings.

Alyssa Marsh is the associate nurse manager (ANM) of the Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU) at the University of Colorado Hospital. She graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Arizona in December of 2013. Alyssa began her nursing career as a new graduate nurse in the University of Colorado Residency Program on the STICU in February 2014. She was then promoted to a permanent charge nurse and credentialed to a level 3 RN in September 2017. Most recently, she accepted the position of associate nurse manager in February 2021. Alyssa is an active teaching assistant for the University of Colorado at Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, College of Nursing Faculty, where she educates student nurses on health assessment and foundations of nursing practice through hands on skills and simulation. After presenting at a SCCM conference in 2019, Alyssa had great enthusiasm for the practice of SCCM and was thrilled to serve as a board member for the Rocky Mountain Chapter.

Maggie is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Teaching at the University of Colorado College of Nursing. She teaches primarily within the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner track. Maggie also practices clinically as an AGACNP in the Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit at the University of Colorado Hospital. Working in both the clinical and academic realm gives Maggie a unique perspective on the delivery of healthcare and how to, in turn, prepare future nurse practitioners to successfully function as part of an interdisciplinary team to improve patient outcomes. Maggie is excited by the opportunity to participate as a member of the board for the Rocky Mountain SCCM chapter and to promote collaboration between professionals throughout the Rocky Mountain Region.

Frank Wright, MD is a trauma/acute care surgeon and surgical intensivist and the Medical Co-Director of the Surgical/Trauma ICU at the University of Colorado Hospital. He has an administrative and educational focus on critical care and is the associate program director for the surgical critical care fellowship, burn/surgical critical care fellowship, and the pediatric surgical critical care fellowship, as well as the assistant program director for the anesthesia/EM critical care fellowship and the program director for the advance practice provider surgical critical care fellowship. He completed medical school at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, surgical residency at the University of Colorado, and critical care fellowship at Loyola University outside of Chicago.

My name is Joseph Jacaruso and I am a nurse practitioner in the pulmonary critical care section at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA. I am passionate about doing my part to shape the future of the critical care community in the region. I graduated from Messiah College in Grantham, PA in 2011 with my bachelor’s in nursing and the University of Colorado School of Nursing in 2019 with my master’s in nursing. Throughout my career I have worked as a critical care nurse at UCHealth, a flight nurse for Reach Air Medical, served as a captain in the US Air Force in an aeromedical evacuation squadron in Colorado Springs, and as a nurse practitioner in the surgical/trauma ICU at UCHealth. What makes me most proud is that my entire career has been of service to the Rocky Mountain Region. I look forward to the opportunity to utilize the chapter to improve the delivery of critical care in the region. While serving our great state as a flight nurse my eyes were opened to all the rural communities with critical access hospitals that provide care to many Coloradans. I see an extraordinary opportunity for wide chapter outreach and the provision of training around our state.