Dr. Tawfik is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine. She received her BSc in Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She then moved south of the border to pursue her MD and PhD in Neuroscience, with a focus on basic pain mechanisms, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. After a year of surgical internship at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Dr. Tawfik moved to California to pursue her residency training in Anesthesiology as part of the Fellowship in Anesthesia Research and Medicine (FARM) program, of which she now serves as the Director. After completion of her subspecialty fellowship training in Pain Medicine, Dr. Tawfik joined the faculty at Stanford and continues to research the immune contribution to persistent pain while treating patients suffering from chronic pain. In addition to pursuing exciting scientific questions in a clinically-informed way, Dr. Tawfik enjoys mentoring students and other trainees. She is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), founded in 1922 to advance and support scientific research related to anesthesia.