Mark Sechrist joined Bariatric Partners in May 2008, as Vice President of Operations. He has over 20 years of experience in healthcare operations. Prior to joining Bariatric Partners, Mr. Sechrist was Vice President of Operations with Surgical Care Affiliates holding overall responsibility for 13 multispecialty surgery centers in 6 states. Previous positions included Omnicare where he developed a nursing home based dialysis program; MediSphere Health Partners managing physician practices; Gambro Healthcare operating outpatient dialysis programs in New England; and, Ball Memorial Hospital where he reorganized outpatient services including an outpatient ambulatory surgery center. Mr. Sechrist earned a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s of Health Administration from Indiana University.

John Fetch joined Bariatric Partners, Inc. in April 2008. Mr. Fetch has over 20 years of healthcare experience on both the payer and provider side of the industry. Prior to joining Bariatric Partners, Inc., Mr. Fetch was employed by a national hospital management company overseeing business development and managed care contracting. He has also held executive level positions with national managed care companies, primarily in the provider contracting area. Mr. Fetch is responsible for all managed care contracting and business development activities with Bariatric Partners, Inc. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Youngstown State University.

Gaston Wilson is Vice President of Finance and Controller for Bariatric Partners, Inc. where he contributes his 20 years of finance and accounting experience to the management team. Prior to joining Bariatric Partners, Gaston was the founder and President of Gaston D. Wilson, CPA, PA, a consulting practice providing financial consulting, guidance and support functions to finance departments and corporate management teams. His previous positions prior to the establishment of his firm included four years as the Director of Finance for a wireless service provider, four years in managing the financial reporting at MedCath, Inc. and five years with Ernst and Young in that professional services firms’ Business Assurance practice.

Lisa Thomas joined Bariatric Partners, Inc. as Director of Clinical Services in July 2007.  She has over 30 years of healthcare experience in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASC).  Her extensive background includes patient care activities and management responsibilities in the ASC, with a focus on development and operations. This includes compliance requirements associated with federal statutes, state regulations and accreditation standards.  

In 1993, Ms Thomas became the Director of an ambulatory surgery center in Kansas.  The surgery center was the second ASC for a Nashville-based corporate partner which eventually became one of the premier ASC corporations in the United States.  Within a year, she joined the AmSurg Nashville operations division and successfully guided other corporate ambulatory surgery centers to accreditation status. Ms. Thomas transferred to the AmSurg development team, and, in 1999, co-founded her own consulting business, Accreditation Plus.  Under her leadership, thirteen ASCs were developed and 31 ASCs received accreditation.

Immediately after relocating to Florida in 2001, Ms. Thomas became active with local professional organizations, including a board position with the Florida Society of Ambulatory Surgery Centers.  In addition, she held a full-time position as director of a physician-owned ASC which performed more than 10,000 procedures annually.  

Ms. Thomas maintains memberships with AORN, SGNA, and FASA, and is the author of an article which appeared in Outpatient Surgery Magazine in 2004.  She was a past presenter at the SGNA National Nurses' Convention addressing the attendees on the preparedness requirements for seeking accreditation.

Ms. Thomas oversees the clinical services for Bariatric Partners, Inc. and its outpatient surgery centers operating under the brand name JourneyLite on a regional basis. 

Ellen Bell joined Bariatric Partners, Inc. in January 2007 as our Manager of Billing Operations for Journey Lite. With over 17 years' experience in the medical field, Ms. Bell's most recent focus has been on streamlining the insurance approval process for bariatric patients. Most recently, she served as Bariatric Insurance Specialist at Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro, TN, and Director of Insurance & Finance for Dr. John Husted's practice at Cumberland Center for Obesity Surgery in Nashville, TN. Ellen’s expertise and knowledge working with bariatric patients and improving the approval process makes her a great asset to our team.

Ellen is member in good standing with the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (www.asmbs.org) and IFSO (www.ifso.com), and has been a featured keynote speaker for the organization. She has consulted with surgeons across the country to educate and streamline their practices to increase the surgery approval rate, and she is an accomplished writer for WLS Lifestyles magazine (www.wlslifestyles.com), where she writes an on-going series regarding insurance issues within the bariatric medical field. Ellen works diligently with patients, office staff and insurance personnel to assist patients with surgical approvals, and she feels that persuasiveness and determination are necessary to complete the process. Ellen's overall commitment and empathetic nature is due, in part, to her own personal experience as a successful bariatric patient.

Joshua R. Blackson joined Bariatric Partners, Inc. as Director of Regional Operations in May 2006.  Mr. Blackson has over five years of bariatric industry experience.  Prior to joining Bariatric Partners, he served as Assistant Vice President of Administration at Forest Health Services, a company that owned and managed two biotechnology companies and seven specialty hospitals across the nation which operated under the brand name, Barix Clinics. While at Forest Health Services, Mr. Blackson was selected by the CEO to participate in their executive management training program.  He held a variety of management positions in customer service, sales, marketing, product development, facilities, and operations.  In addition, Mr. Blackson spent two years as part of a team acquiring and managing one of Forest Health’s private biotechnology companies. 

Mr. Blackson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Chemistry from Spring Arbor University in Michigan.