About us

Wayne S. DeVeydt is a managing director at Bain Capital and has served as the Executive Chairman of the Board of Surgery Partners, Inc. since January 2020. He previously held the title of Chief Executive Officer and Director since January 2018. Mr. DeVeydt previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Anthem, Inc. for nearly a decade, overseeing the financial operations associated with the company’s over $82 billion in annual revenues. During his tenure at Anthem, he also held numerous other leadership roles, including Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, and Chief of Staff to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Anthem, Mr. DeVeydt was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, the multinational accounting and consulting firm, with a focus on the managed care and healthcare sector across the United States. Mr. DeVeydt currently serves on the Board of Directors of Centene Corporation and Zelis.

Eric Evans has served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Surgery Partners, Inc. since January 2020. He previously held the title of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since April 2019. Mr. Evans has nearly 20 years of experience in a range of operating and strategic roles in healthcare services. Mr. Evans previously served as President of Hospital Operations for Tenet Healthcare. In his role, he was responsible for 68 acute care hospitals, 161 hospital-affiliated facilities, more than 2,200 employed providers and other related healthcare services and functions within the company. His early career at Tenet consisted of various positions, including CEO of Tenet's Texas Region and market leadership roles as well as Chief of Staff to the CEO. Mr. Evans also serves as Director for Teladoc Health, QuVa Pharma, the Nashville Health Care Council, the American Heart Association of Middle Tennessee, and the SPOON Foundation. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management from Purdue University.

Dave Doherty was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Surgery Partners, Inc. in February 2022. Prior to this, Mr. Doherty was Surgery Partners’ Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance and Controller. Prior to joining Surgery Partners in 2018, Mr. Doherty held various senior financial management roles at Aetna Inc., including leading Aetna’s internal audit organization, planning and risk management, and serving as Aetna’s assistant controller. Mr. Doherty earned his CPA while working at Arthur Andersen, LLP.

Jennifer Baldock has served as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative & Development Officer since February 2019. She had served as EVP and General Counsel of Surgery Partners since its acquisition of Symbion in 2014, serving as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer prior to that. She formerly served as Assistant General Counsel for both Ambulatory Services of America and Renal Care Group, and practiced law with Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis.

Marissa Brittenham was appointed Chief Strategy Officer of Surgery Partners, Inc. in January 2022. Previously, Ms. Brittenham led Growth at Cityblock Health and Medicaid Partnerships at Evolent Health and was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. She received a bachelor’s degree in Ethics, Politics and Economics from Yale University and earned her JD/ MBA from University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the Wharton School.

Harry Bane serves as President of the National Group at Surgery Partners. He joined Surgery Partners in September of 2022 as the American Group President and assumed leadership of National Group in September of 2024. Prior to joining Surgery Partners, Harry served as president for Steward Health Care’s North Region, encompassing 14 acute care hospitals, a large multispecialty physician group, and an ACO with nearly 500,000 lives. Before his tenure at Steward, he led the system wide integration of value-based care at fourteen skilled nursing facilities, three adult day health centers and two assisted living facilities for a private, for-profit system. Harry is a graduate of Middlebury College, and earned his master’s from the Tuck School of Business and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Tony Taparo has served as Chief Growth Officer for Surgery Partners since August 2019 and as President of Surgery Partners’ Eastern Group since its acquisition of Symbion in 2014. He served as RVP for Symbion from 1999 to 2006 and previously served as COO of Columbia Physician Services.

Trent currently serves as the American Group President at Surgery Partners. Over his 15-year career with the Company, Trent has served in various roles in both the Operations and Finance departments, most recently as the Senior Vice President, Operations for the Central Region. Prior to joining Surgery Partners, Trent spent 7 years in the Nashville office of Ernst & Young, LLP primarily focused on acute care healthcare clients. Trent earned both his bachelor’s degree in business administration and his Masters in Accounting from the University of Tennessee.

Danielle Burkhalter has served as Chief Human Resources Officer since February 2023. Prior to this role, Mrs. Burkhalter was Surgery Partners’ Vice President of Talent leading talent initiatives across the Surgery Partners’ enterprise. Prior to joining Surgery Partners in 2018, Mrs. Burkhalter held various Human Resources roles at UnityPoint Health, one of the nation’s most integrated health systems with numerous clinics, hospitals and home care areas of service in metropolitan and rural communities throughout Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Danielle graduated from Simpson College and earned her master’s from The University of Alabama.

Brent Jacobs currently serves as Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Development at Surgery Partners, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, including transactional due diligence and financial analysis. Prior to joining Surgery Partners in 2012, Mr. Jacobs spent six years in the Assurance practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. Mr. Jacobs also serves on the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Advisory Board. Mr. Jacobs is a graduate of Samford University, where he received a BA degree in Business Administration and earned a MAcc from the Brock School of Business. He also holds an MBA from the University of Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business.

Dawn Castro has served as Chief Revenue Cycle Officer since April 2023. Prior to joining Surgery Partners in 2023, Mrs. Castro held various Revenue Cycle Enterprise Leadership roles managing a Global Workforce within Tenet Health & Conifer Health for over 30 years. In her role at Conifer, she served over 800+ clients with numerous Acute Care hospitals, outpatient centers, physician partners in 40+ states with a focus on Organizational Change Management, Mergers and Acquisitions and Transformation. Dawn earned a master’s in finance from Columbus State University and is also a Certified Change Management Specialist.

Jaclyn Wright has served as Chief Procurement Officer since April 2023. Prior to joining Surgery Partners in 2023, Mrs. Wright held various Procurement Leadership in both acute and ambulatory surgery centers at both USPI/Tenet Healthcare (Dallas, Tx) and Trinity Health (Novi, MI). With an M.B.A. from Walsh College and a B.B.A. from Western Michigan University, Jaclyn has over 20 years’ experience of delivering exceptional results and driving significant improvements in supply chain process and performance.

Kelly Whelan has served as Senior Vice President & General Counsel, American Group since March 2024. She previously served in the roles of Vice President and General Counsel, American Group, Senior Legal Counsel, American Group and Corporate Counsel. She began her legal career in 2006 with Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP. She received her bachelor’s degree and JD from the University of Michigan.

Neil Zieselman has served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance and Controller since May 2022.  Previously, Mr. Zieselman held various leadership roles at Stryker Corporation, including Vice President, Finance Operations and their Orthopaedics Group Controller. Prior to Stryker, Mr. Zieselman served as Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer for Covanta Holding Corporation.  Prior to joining Covanta, he held accounting and finance positions with Cendant Corporation and Avaya Inc. He began his career as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Mr. Zieselman is a licensed CPA and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Accounting from Rider University.

Roxanne Womack has served as Chief Compliance Officer of Surgery Partners since November 2018. Previously, Roxanne served as a Medical Center Compliance Officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and as the Privacy Officer for Ascension St. Vincent’s Health System in Birmingham, Ala. Roxanne also has extensive experience in health information management.

Shannon Yarrow joined Surgery Partners at SVP, Managed Care in October 2019.  She has more than 27 years experience in managed care contracting between payors and providers.  Prior to joining SP, Shannon provided contracting services to major health systems, hospitals, ASCs, physician groups and multiple other ancillary providers throughout the United States.  Early in her career she worked for Tufts Health Plan, Pacificare, and CIGNA ultimately rising to AVP level at CIGNA in the Arizona market.  Shannon has a Masters Degree in Health Administration and MBA from the University of Colorado, and a BA from University of California Santa Barbara. 

J. Spencer Clark has served as SVP and General Counsel - National Group of Surgery Partners since March 2024 where he oversees the provision of legal services to the hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, physician group practices, and ancillary businesses situated in the National Group markets. Mr. Clark brings more than a decade of company experience into his current role having previously served as VP and General Counsel – National Group of Surgery Partners since January 2023, VP and Senior Legal Counsel since 2018; and legal counsel with National Surgical Hospitals from 2014 until its merger with Surgery Partners in 2017. Mr. Clark formerly practiced law with Roetzel & Andress. Mr. Clark is a graduate of Brigham Young University and earned his Juris Doctorate from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Dr. Norris-McJunkins most recently served as the Vice President of Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Officer supporting USPI’s nursing operations, clinical practice, quality, and safety. As a clinician, she worked as a frontline nurse and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. After leaving the bedside, she served as a hospital then system leader of Quality, Patient Safety, Patient Advocacy, Risk Management, and Regulatory Operations with Texas Health Resources. Tamala holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from South University and a Doctorate in Healthcare Administration from Walden University where she published her research on workplace violence.

Varun Gadhok has served as Chief Information Officer of Surgery Partners since July 2021. Prior to joining Surgery Partners, Mr. Gadhok spent nine years at Tenet Healthcare where he progressively took on more responsibilities and most recently, served as Senior Director over IT Architecture and Corporate Portfolio. His early career consisted of IS leadership roles at Cerner Corporation and Dell Services. Mr. Gadhok earned his Executive MBA at The University of Texas at Dallas and an undergraduate degree in Management Information Systems from University of Iowa.

Alex Reynolds serves as SVP for Surgery Partners’ Emerging Markets, which includes partnerships with Intermountain Healthcare, Methodist Health System (Dallas), and Ohio Health.  Alex also currently supports a portion of facilities acquired through the recent ValueHealth partnership. Alex comes to us from Christus Health where he served as President of their New Braunfels market which included an acute care hospital, Freestanding ER, multi-specialty physician practice, and two urgent care locations. Alex also served in several operational leadership roles at Surgical Care Affiliates (SCA) where he led new growth initiatives and facility acquisitions across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Southeast. Alex earned his Bachelor of Science in Political Science and History from Southern Illinois University and his MBA & MHA from University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Fran joined Surgery Partners in 2017 with the acquisition of National Surgical Healthcare. During his tenure at Surgery Partners, he has overseen various hospitals’ operations and supported the portfolio with the implementation of various acquisitions; as well as ambulatory surgery center operations to ensure growth in revenue and market share. Prior to joining Surgery Partners, Fran was the COO of QuadMed, a Health and Wellness company. Fran has also held Operations and Finance roles at Surgical Care Affiliates, DaVita, Premier Inc., and GE Healthcare that spans over 33 years.

Kristi Jensen is the Senior Vice President of Operations for the Central Region at Surgery Partners, a role she was recently promoted to after joining the company as Regional Vice President in January 2020. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Grand Canyon University, Kristi started her career as an operating room registered nurse and later advanced into leadership positions across different ambulatory surgical centers and management firms. Her experience spans consulting on de novos and acquisitions, as well as serving as Senior Clinical Director at Amsurg and Director of Clinical Services at Alliance Health Care Services. Kristi’s extensive background in clinical and operational management underscores her commitment to enhancing surgical care and driving strategic organizational growth.

Maridel Acosta has served as Senior Vice President of Operations since August 2023. She had served as CEO to Lubbock Heart Hospital since 2019. Prior to joining Surgery Partners, Maridel held the role of Senior VP of Operations at Adeptus Health covering TX and AZ where she built and managed hospitals, free-standing and HOPDs emergency rooms. Earlier in her career Maridel worked with Community Health Systems as CEO for 8 years and with Tenet Healthcare for 11 years. Maridel earned her MBA at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Mike Maley has served as Senior Vice Present of Surgery Partners’ West Region since July 2023. Before joining Surgery Partners, Mike led in-home primary care provider Heal’s Northeast region as SVP, before its acquisition by Humana’s CenterWell division. Prior to Heal, Mike served as VP & General Manager for value-based, multi-specialty care providers CareMore Health and HealthCare Partners (now OptumCare) in Southern California. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his Bachelor of Science in Business from Miami University of Ohio.

Patrick joined Surgery Partners in February 2023. Prior to joining Surgery Partners, Patrick served as the Vice President, Chief Operating Officer for two hospitals in the Methodist Health System located in Dallas, TX. Prior to working at Methodist Health System, he held executive leadership positions at Texas Health Resources and Tenet Healthcare. While serving in those roles, Patrick’s responsibilities included business strategy, service line development, physician recruitment, and ACO enhancement. In 2022, he was named the Young Healthcare Executive of the Year by the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council. Patrick earned his bachelor’s degree in business management from Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, FL and an MBA from Mercer University in Macon, GA. He is a Fellow and board certified in healthcare management by the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Philip joined Surgery Partners from Premier where he led the growth in their physician enterprise collaborative from five health system members to thirty-eight. He also provided traditional advisory engagements with particular emphasis on oncology and surgical specialties. Prior to that Philip ran a cancer center (Med Onc, Rad Onc, Gyn Onc, Infusion, Pharmacy, and Radiation Therapy) where he directed the operations team through a successful turnaround. Philip received his MHA from the University of Alabama Birmingham and undergraduate degree in accounting from The Citadel before working in investment banking and private equity.

Sid Soonasra joined Surgery Partners in July 2023, as Senior Vice President of the Florida & Louisiana Region. Prior to joining Surgery Partners, Sid served as Vice President of Operations, Florida Region for US Anesthesia Partners (USAP), where he was responsible for a $300M Operating budget, spanning over 70+ facilities and 600+ FTEs, including Physicians, CRNAs/CAAs, and MSO staff. Prior to USAP, Sid held various senior leadership roles with Alliance Healthcare Services and AdventHealth. Sid earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Penn State University, and earned his MBA, with a focus in Healthcare Systems Management from DeSales University.