Bio
Dr Oakes is a Clinical Professor at Stanford School of Medicine with over 17 years of clinical experience in cardiothoracic anesthesiology. Dr. Oakes is Associate Dean of Post Graduate Medical Education and the Stanford Center of CME and Vice Chair of Clinical Educator Affairs in the Department of Anesthesiology.
The focus of her academic work has been the education and training of anesthesiologists at all levels of practice. In 2007 developed an education pathway for Stanford anesthesiology residents to learn perioperative echocardiography, one of the first programs of its kind nationally. She has since taught echocardiography to medical students, residents and fellows and lectures nationally on a range of topics related to transesophageal echocardiography, cardiothoracic anesthesiology, and medical education. In 2017, she was appointed Program Director of the Stanford Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship, and, under her 6 years of leadership, the program expanded from 4 fellows to 8 fellows and became widely recognized as one of the highest quality and most sought after programs nationally, consistently attracting a highly diverse group of fellowship candidates.
In 2018 Dr. Oakes was appointed Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education and took over leadership of the Stanford Center of Continue Medical Education. Under her leadership the center has greatly expanded its programming and impact and Stanford CME is now universally regarded as the academic leader in continuing medical education. In addition to providing traditional meeting services and program accreditation, the office has taken the lead on several innovative educational programs including a statewide effort to that provided training to providers in over 1000 nursing homes on protecting their elderly residents from COVID, a virtual digital conference AI + Health reaching over 1000 participants, and several programs addressing health care disparities and justice, equity, diversity and inclusion efforts.
Dr. Oakes is a passionate mentor to both trainees and colleagues and has created multiple programs to support physician professional development including most recently, the Stanford CME Physician Leadership Certificate Program, a 6-month cohort-based leadership training for aspiring and developing physician leaders. She also co-founded and chairs the SCA Women in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology (WICTA) Special Interest Group and has been recognized for her work supporting women medical professionals with the 2021Women in Medicine (WIM) #SheForShe Award and the 2023 WICTA “SHE LEADS” Award. Dr. Oakes is a recognized leader in her field and elected member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists (AUA).
