Digital Debut

ASCA Names Four New Board Members

The officers start their terms in January 2026

BY SAHELY MUKERJI | AUGUST 5, 2025

From left, Brian Cohen, MD; Dare Underwood Meeks, RN, CASC; Raghu Reddy; Jessica Rodriguez, CASC.

The ASCA Board of Directors welcomed four new members: Brian Cohen, MD, administrative chief of Miami Anesthesia Services (MAS) in Aventura, Florida; Dare Underwood Meeks, RN, CASC, group vice president and chief nursing officer at SCA Health in Birmingham, Alabama; Jessica Rodriguez, CASC, executive director of OAM Surgery Center at MidTowne in Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Raghu Reddy, chief administrative officer of MiOrtho Surgery Center in Southfield, Michigan.

In his current role, Cohen, a physician with more than 20 years of experience, leads a team of 220-plus clinicians. He cofounded MAS in 2015, and the company signed its first surgery center contract in 2017. Today, MAS contracts 21 ASCs in south Florida, while managing anesthesia services at another 12 centers throughout the rest of the Southeast.

“In joining the ASCA Board, I am committed to helping ASCA become not just the operational voice of ASCs but the clinical compass as well,” Cohen says. “One area I feel strongly about is patient selection and preoperative assessment. As ASCs take on more complex cases, there has been a lag in evolving preop clearance standards to reflect the ambulatory setting. ASCA is uniquely positioned to lead this conversation.”

Cohen has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and an MD from the UMKC School of Medicine. He did his anesthesiology residency at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.

Meeks has 30 years’ experience in healthcare, including 25 years in the ASC space. In her current role, she is responsible for clinical strategic initiatives for SCA Health, including supporting a culture of patient safety, managing clinical processes and outcomes, developing clinical education and leadership, and supporting innovation and growth.

“ASC leaders are scrappy self-starters with a heart for delivering great patient care at a lower cost,” Meeks says. “They know how to make it happen for their patients, businesses and partners, even with significant headwinds. Their biggest hurdle is representation at decision-making tables. I would like to see ASCA continue to pursue seats at decision-making tables across the system. The service and resources delivered by ASCA to ASC leaders, who are running small businesses on lean margins, are irreplaceable, and I seek to be part of continuing and advancing this service that is critical to the long-term success of ASCs.”

Meeks has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, and a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rodriguez has 10 years’ experience in the ASC community. In her current role, she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of a four-operating-room orthopedic ASC with more than 70 team members.

“I am incredibly honored to serve on the ASCA Board,” Rodriguez says. “ASCA plays a critical role not only in representing our industry but in preparing the next generation of leaders to carry that advocacy forward. I am proud to be a part of that work.” Reimbursement inequities remain a top hurdle for ASCs, she says. “Too often, ASCs are excluded from payer networks or tiered in ways that burden patients financially. We must continue to advocate for reimbursement that reflects the high-quality, cost-effective care we provide. I believe in using data and patient stories together—quantifying our value and humanizing our impact—to create change at both the payer and policymaking levels.”

Rodriguez has a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from Davenport University in Caledonia, Michigan.

Reddy has spent more than 20 years in healthcare, 14 of which have been in the ASC community. In his current role, he is responsible for leading organizational efforts to optimize existing surgery centers and develop new centers aligned with strategic growth initiatives.

He agrees with Rodriguez that reimbursement pressure—particularly from Medicare and commercial payers—in the face of rising operational costs is the primary hurdle that the ASC community faces today. “To address this challenge, ASCs must take a multifaceted approach of stronger advocacy, operational efficiency, strategic partnerships and building collaborative relationships, and workforce investment,” he says. “The future is bright for ASCs based on the growth we are experiencing in different markets—but success will depend on adaptability, innovation and strong leadership.”

Reddy has a Bachelor of Science in Bio-Medical Engineering from Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Manipal, India, and a Master of Business Administration in Accounting and Management from Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland.

ASCA Board members serve three-year terms, and ASCA bylaws require that at least one-third of its board members be physicians. These members also serve on the ASCA Foundation Board. ASCA Board officers serve two-year terms.