Anne M. Drewry, MD, a nationally recognized leader in critical care medicine, has been installed as the inaugural Llorin-Roa Professor of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine. The professorship honors the late Necita Llorin-Roa, MD, a pediatric anesthesiologist and member of the WashU Medicine faculty for 42 years.
"This inaugural professorship stands as a tribute to Dr. Llorin-Roa's remarkable legacy - a career defined by compassion, a strong sense of professional and social responsibility, and unwavering dedication to her patients," said Chancellor Andrew D. Martin. "Dr. Drewry's work reflects those same values. Her commitment to patients and her care for the teams she leads are inspiring."
Drewry, who serves as vice chair of the WashU Medicine Department of Anesthesiology and director of the Division of Critical Care Medicine, was installed by David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of the School of Medicine.
"This professorship recognizes Dr. Drewry's academic and clinical excellence and the impact she has made in critical care medicine," Perlmutter said. "A visionary in the field, she understands that its reach extends beyond any single ICU or hospital. By combining multidisciplinary expertise with telemedicine, she has helped build a critical care model that connects across our region - strengthening the infrastructure for the sickest patients and saving many lives."
Drewry joined the WashU Medicine faculty in 2011 and has held multiple leadership roles at WashU Medicine and BJC HealthCare, including executive director of the WashU Medicine/BJC Telemedicine Critical Care Center. In this role, she leads a large, multidisciplinary critical care enterprise spanning academic intensive care units (ICUs), community hospitals and a system-wide telemedicine program. Under her leadership, the Division of Critical Care Medicine has expanded its clinical footprint, strengthened cross-departmental partnerships and prioritized consistent, high-quality care, while fostering professional development for faculty, advanced practice providers and trainees.
"Dr. Drewry is simply one of the most impactful leaders at WashU Medicine today," said Michael S. Avidan, MBBCh, the Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology and head of the Department of Anesthesiology. "In every role that she has held, she has made the people around her better and the systems she leads stronger. Importantly, she has championed the team-based model of critical care and played a seminal role in making WashU Medicine a national leader in training advanced practice clinicians in critical care."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Drewry displayed extraordinary leadership, directing the critical care clinical activities of several BJC HealthCare community hospitals as well as the surgical and cardiothoracic ICUs at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. In response to the surge of critically ill patients, she helped expand the ICU footprint at BJC hospitals by 40% by arranging for additional physician coverage and helping to convert non-ICU spaces into functional ICU spaces. She also chaired BJC's COVID-19 Taskforce, helping to coordinate the critical care response to COVID-19 and standardize care and resources across ICUs. For her leadership during the pandemic, she received a COVETED award in 2021 from the anesthesiology department and a Dean's Impact Award in 2023.
Drewry also was instrumental in coordinating the tele-critical care response to the pandemic, working closely with the BJC Transfer Center to help ensure patients were placed in hospitals best suited to their medical needs. She expanded tele-ICU staffing early in the pandemic, enabling remote monitoring and consultation across sites. Throughout this period, she also prioritized the well-being of the nurse practitioners, physician assistants, residents and physicians as they navigated the demands of caring for numerous critically ill patients.
Drewry also is a leader deeply committed to knowledge generation, focusing her scholarly work on the interplay between body temperature, immune response and outcomes in sepsis. She has served as site principal investigator on several studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Drewry earned her undergraduate degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from Yale University and her medical degree from WashU Medicine. She completed residency training in anesthesiology and critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital. She returned to WashU Medicine for a fellowship in critical care medicine and later earned a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation.
About Necita Llorin-Roa
Necita Llorin-Roa, MD, was a renowned educator, clinician and beloved colleague who specialized in pediatric anesthesiology. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of the Philippines in 1964 and a medical degree from its School of Medicine in 1969. Llorin-Roa completed an internship and residency at Philippine General Hospital in Manila. She came to WashU Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 1971, where she completed an anesthesia residency and fellowship.
Beginning in 2014, Llorin-Roa served as president of the Philippine Medical Association of Greater St. Louis Mission Foundation, leading medical and surgical missions to underprivileged communities in her home country of the Philippines. Llorin-Roa was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the International Anesthesia Research Society, the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and the Society for Education in Anesthesia.
Llorin-Roa, who died in 2018, generously endowed the Necita L. Roa, M.D. Award in Anesthesiology for a graduating WashU Medicine anesthesiology resident, as well as a fund to support global health programs for anesthesiology trainees. She made a commitment in 2011 to establish and endow the Llorin-Roa Professorship in Anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine.
