Meet the AAES Officers

Dr. Shaikh earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine also at Baylor College of Medicine. Following his residency, Dr. Shaikh then completed a full, dedicated year in Echocardiography at The Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston, Texas. He subsequently completed a fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute in Detroit, Michigan. And finally, Dr. Shaikh completed his advanced cardiovascular imaging training with a full, dedicated year in Cardiovascular MRI, again, at The Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston, Texas. He has a special interest in advanced cardiovascular imaging, specifically the relatively new technology of cardiovascular MRI and believes in its ability to significantly impact and improve patient care.

Dr. Shaikh is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Nuclear Cardiology, and Echocardiography. He is a member of American College of Cardiology, American Society of Echocardiography, and Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, as well as the Texas Medical Association and the Travis County Medical Society. He also has also been very active in cardiovascular imaging research and has been published in several peer review journals.

Dr. Shaikh currently serves as the Director of Cardiovascular MRI of the Seton Healthcare System, as well as, the Director of the Non-Invasive Laboratory at Seton-Medical Center Hays in Kyle, Texas.

In his free time, Dr. Shaikh enjoys exercising, painting, playing piano and guitar, and spending time with his wife and two children.

Ashley Wells, RDCS, RVT graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. in Biology in 2006. She immediately became a high school physics and chemistry teacher, then realized that she wanted to do something that she had more of a passion for.

Ashley discovered sonography and fell in love with the field because it merged science, technology and people. She graduated from the Austin Community College Diagnostic Cardiac Sonography (DCS) program and worked at the Cedar Park Regional Medical Center echo lab for 5 years. She now travels, working in echo labs across the country. Traveling gives her the opportunity to learn from physicians and technicians in the field on trending technologies and techniques prominent in cardiovascular ultrasound. She frequently returns to central Texas and brings back stories and case studies from her travels. 

My Cardiac Sonog­raphy pro­fes­sion be­gan at the Denver VA Medical Center in 1993. I obtained my Registry shortly after. We moved to Texas in 1999 and I continued my career at Austin Heart. I achieved many goals during my 9½ year endeavor at this fac­il­ity. These included perfecting Adult and Stress Echo, obtaining Lead Sono­grapher and Technical Director titles and completing the ICAEL Ac­cred­itation for the facility. From 2000 to 2010, I assisted at Austin Community College as Adjunct Faculty in the Diagnostic Cardiac Sonog­raphy Program. In May 2010, I joined the ACC full-time Faculty as an As­so­ciate Pro­fes­sor and Clinical Co­or­di­na­tor in the DCS Program.

In the last decade, working in the field of Echo­car­dio­graphy has brought me closer to the Austin Com­mu­nity. I have assisted in the Cham­pi­on­ship Hearts Foun­dation Screen­ings of young athletes, the Cardiac Screenings at the University of Texas Athletics Department and the American Heart Association Heart Walks. Most recently I have had the privilege of being a founding member of the Austin Area Echo Society, serving as past President and Treasurer, and current Vice President.

Amy Bankowski, AAS, RDCS, attended Texas State University, focusing on natural sciences, but left school to begin a career in business management. After an SVT diagnosis and subsequent echocardiogram several years later, she developed an interest in cardiology, and eventually returned to school and graduated from the Austin Community College Diagnostic Cardiac Sonography program.

Amy has worked at Cedar Park Regional Medical Center since then. She serves on ACC's Advisory Committee for the Cardiac and Vascular Sonography programs and as a clinical instructor in the hospital setting. Her outside interests include singing, working out, and learning (and teaching others) about nutrition and meal-planning. She lives in Round Rock with her husband, daughter, and a multitude of fur-babies.

I graduated from Austin Community College in December of 2010. After graduation I worked at multiple facilities as PRN before being able to obtain a full time position. During this time I had the opportunity to work with many different cardiologists and expand my skills in performing echoes, stress echoes, and TEEs due to the guidance given to me by these doctors. In August of 2012 I obtained a full-time position with Capital Cardiovascular Specialists. I enjoyed the one-on-one time I got with my doctors to go over studies and become more knowledgeable in how important my scans were to our patients. In 2014 they worked with my schedule so I could go back to ACC and attend their vascular program.

I graduated and become registered as a Vascular Technologist in May of 2015. The following year in 2016 I had the opportunity to join St. David's Healthcare and become full-time employed with North Austin Medical Center after being a PRN employee since 2011. In May of 2016 I began my journey learning pediatric echocardiography. Since learning pedis I feel I have discovered a new love for cardiac sonography and I plan to continue to expand my skills and soon begin working towards becoming registered in pediatric cardiac sonography. I've heard that you're not successful at what you do unless you love it. I can truly say I love what I do and look forward to what everyday has waiting on me when it comes to caring for my patients of all ages!

Man of Mystery...