About ENT Specialty Partners

We are a growing community of quality ear, nose, and throat practitioners and audiologists dedicated to harnessing the power of TOGETHER.

ENT Specialty Partners is building a practice community dedicated to excellence. Our growth is based on bringing TOGETHER world-class physicians, best practices, and innovation with the goal of unsurpassed patient care.

ESP preserves independence for our partner doctors while giving them access to best-in-class resources, collaborative opportunities, and expertise.

Our Leadership

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Anthony Natale, MD

Executive Chairman

Tony, our Executive Chairman, is a healthcare leader and visionary with a track record of building successful organizations. He has over 20 years of experience as a physician, inventor, founder, operator, and investor. He has worked closely with his companies across the med-tech, life sciences, and health care services industries to devise strategy and rapidly scale operations. Given his related clinical background, he has been particularly active in the ENT sector, with involvement with companies including Mako Surgical, Inspire Medical, Spirox, Entrigue Surgical, Otonomy, XII Medical, Cortica, XLumena, Channel Medsystems and Avedro.

Tony trained in General Surgery and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Connecticut/Hartford Hospital and holds a BA from the University of Virginia, an MD from the University of Florida, and an MBA from Yale. 

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Ron Kuppersmith, MD

Chief Executive Officer

Ron is the CEO and co-founder of ENT Specialty Partners. He also is one of the co-founders of Texas ENT and Allergy, a multi-site and full-service private practice in Central Texas. He is a proven leader within the specialty, having served as the President of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, President of the Texas Association of Otolaryngology, and as a Professor of Surgery at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

Ron has extensive experience working closely with management of health service, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, non-profit organizations, and investors in a variety of capacities including board member, founder, investor, advisor and in operational roles.

Ron trained in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He has a BA in Economics and MD from the University of Michigan and an MBA from University of Washington.

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Tom Lazenby

Chief Operating Officer

Tom has over 20 years experience in the healthcare industry, working as a multi-site leader and strategic advisor. Tom has served in Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Operations roles with multiple high growth healthcare companies. He has deep experience scaling regional healthcare brands through denovo build and acquisitions. As an advisor with several top management consulting companies, he assisted healthcare clients with strategy, operations and finance. 

Tom received an MHA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania with a Healthcare Management concentration equivalent from the Wharton School. 

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Chris Watt

Chief Financial Officer

Chris is a leader in finance with extensive experience in the health care industry, supporting growth and emerging companies. He has proven success in joint ventures, mergers, acquisition, and monetizing owner goodwill in divestitures. Prior to serving as the Chief Financial Officer of ENT Specialty Partners, Chris was the Chief Accounting Officer at US Acute Care Solutions, a leading national provider of emergency medicine and physician services with more than 4,000 clinicians at 220+ hospital systems in the US. He also served as the CFO for a large physician practice and clinical trials research center in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area. Chris has served as advisor to a startup telemedicine enterprise and a medical education company.

Previously Chris worked as a Controller and a Director of Financial Operations for global Fortune 500 companies: Gentiva Health Care, Sodexo, and Marriott International. During his time at Gentiva he led the division finance team with growth from $60M to $750M in annual managed volume within five years.

Chris earned his CPA while at Ernst & Young, specializing in health care and banking. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at Vanderbilt and MBA from Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Marc Dubin, MD

Chief Medical Officer and Managing Partner, CAdENT

Dr. Dubin is an Otolaryngologist who has additional advanced training in the medical and surgical management of diseases of the nose and sinuses.

Originally from New Jersey, he went to college at the University of Pennsylvania. After college, he remained in Philadelphia and at PENN where he attended the School of Medicine.

Dr. Dubin trained in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

His advanced fellowship training in Rhinology (Nose) and Sinus Surgery was done at the Georgia Nasal and Sinus Institute in Savannah, Georgia. In Savannah, Dr. Dubin spent a year studying under Frederick A. Kuhn, M.D., FACS, FARS, a world renowned sinus specialist who is a pioneer in the field of endoscopic sinus surgery. During his fellowship training, Dr. Dubin had the opportunity to participate in the first clinical trial in the United States on Balloon Sinuplasty.

After completing his advanced training in minimally invasive endoscopic approaches to the nose and sinusitis, Dr. Dubin was recruited to join the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a sinus specialist where he practiced full time until August 2006. He maintained a part-time faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins through March 2020 at which point his focus shifted to running the Centers for Advanced ENT Care.

In 2006, Dr. Dubin joined Ear Nose and Throat Associates at GBMC where he continues to practice. ENT Associates at GBMC in 2017 became a division of the largest provider of ENT services in the mid-Atlantic, the Centers for Advanced ENT Care. He is the Managing Partner of the Centers for Advanced ENT Care, LLC which in 2023 became an operating unit of ENT Specialty Partners.

Dr. Dubin is the Co-Director of the Minimally Invasive Pituitary and Skull Base Center at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and was the Medical Director of the Sherwood Surgical Center at GBMC until January 2014.

Dr. Dubin has published over 27 articles in peer reviewed journals and has authored several textbook chapters (Dr. Dubin’s Articles). He has instructed other physicians in advanced sinus surgery at national and international courses. Because of his expertise in his field, Dr. Dubin has been asked by numerous medical technology companies to consult. He was the co-director (2017-2022) of one of the largest national sinus courses in the world, the American Rhinologic’s Summer Sinus Symposium and serves on the Board of the American Academy of Otolaryngology (2022-2026).

Dr. Dubin is certified by American Board of Otolaryngology and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, American Academy of Otolaryngology and the American Rhinologic Society.


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Drew Franklin

Strategic Advisor

Drew was previously the Chief Strategy Officer for ENT and Allergy Associates, the largest ear, nose, throat, and allergy practice in the country. During his tenure, the practice had unprecedented success in expansion, recruitment, and contract negotiation and was consolidated as the premier practice in the competitive New York City market.

Drew was responsible for the creation, management, and oversight of several divisions within the practice. He played a key role in the optimization of physician workflow and billing to streamline and maximize revenue. His expertise lies in business process re-engineering, managed care contracting, clinical affiliations, provider analytics, practice development, and marketing.

Prior to entering the field of health care administration, Drew completed a two-year tour of duty as a staff sergeant in the Israel Defense Forces. He is a Fellow of the America College of Medical Practice Executives and holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BA from Franklin and Marshall College.

Jill Nichols

Vice President of Operations

Jill is an accomplished healthcare executive whose expertise lies within multi-site operations, performance optimization, and financial stewardship.  She is particularly enthusiastic about conceiving and implementing new initiatives that drive performance excellence and fuel bottom-line profitability, which she’s had the opportunity to do across multiple specialties and business functions.

Prior to joining ENT Specialty Partners, Jill served as Regional Operations Director for DaVita Dialysis, where she provided operational leadership for 12 dialysis centers and 200 teammates, while maintaining accountability for $30M P&L.  In this role, she was also responsible for identifying and developing strategic growth opportunities, driving operational and clinical outcomes, and establishing/overseeing a centralized COVID unit to serve the broader Dallas-Fort Worth Division.  Earlier in her career, Jill served as Regional Operations Director for True Results/USPI and as Executive Director for Legacy Physicians Group.

Jill holds a Masters in Healthcare Administration from Trinity University and received her BBA in Finance and BBA in Economics from Texas Tech University.

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Ken Idicula

Vice President of Operations

Ken is Vice President of Operations for ENT Specialty Partners. He has over 15 years of experience in the operations field and has held senior leadership positions in several companies such as DaVita, HCA, and CVS/Caremark. Throughout his career he has proven to be a versatile leader known for his ability to drive results, build high-performing teams, and create a culture of continuous improvement. Ken holds a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration with a focus in Clinical Informatics and obtained a certification from Cornell’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management in Executive Leadership for Healthcare Professionals. He and his wife Mimi, son, daughter, and 3 dogs live in Rockwall, TX and are active members of Lakeshore Church. 

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Sandy Gapsky

Vice President of Operations

Leslie Calkins
Leslie Calkins

Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management

Leslie is a results-oriented, strategic leader with over 16 years’ experience in Revenue Cycle Management (RCM). She has a diverse background working in various specialties such as DME, dialysis, complex biologic infusion care, urgent care, pharmaceutical (compounding pharmacy) and asthma/allergy. 

Leslie has held leadership positions over the past 13 years in several companies including DaVita, DispatchHealth, and AIS Healthcare. She has a strong passion for building high performing, scalable RCM teams and has been responsible for teams ranging up to 80 employees. Leslie has been responsible for front-end and back-end RCM functions, managing books of business from $60M to $250M in annual revenue. She has also been responsible for other functions in Customer Service/Contact Center, Field Reimbursement Management, credentialing, payer contracting, and patient access. 

Leslie obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver. 

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Marissa Walker

Senior Director of Communications

Marissa is a strategic communications leader with nearly 15 years of experience in developing and spearheading thoughtful, effective, and measurable campaigns in public relations, corporate communications, public policy, and marketing.

She recently served as Senior Communications Program Manager for Southwest Transplant Alliance, where she led community outreach, media relations and data-driven initiatives for the health care nonprofit. She has dedicated much of her career to the nonprofit and health care industries, identifying opportunities to affect change through storytelling and comprehensive communications programs. She led the marketing, communications, and legislative affairs initiatives for a number of professional membership associations and serves as volunteer and advisory board member for community nonprofits.

Marissa has a Master of Public Policy and Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from The University of Texas at Dallas and a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Texas Christian University.

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Brooke Montoya

Senior Director of Human Resources

Brooke Montoya is a dynamic Human Resources Practitioner with over ten years of experience in healthcare human resources management. She has proven success in fostering cultures of collaboration, creativity, and commitment.

Prior to joining ENT Specialty Partners, she served as the Director of Human Resources for Monticello Health Services, leading her team to be named one of Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work™ in 2022. Earlier in her career, Brooke served as the Director of Human Resources at Lake Granbury Medical Center where she was responsible for overseeing all aspects of HR operations for the 73-bed hospital as well as the physician practices. 

Brooke possesses experience in several aspects of human resources, including employee engagement, performance management, HRIS implementation, strategic planning, and operational efficiency. She believes that building relationships, leadership development, mentorship, and collaboration are key to creating healthy and successful workplace cultures. Brooke has a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management and her PHR certification. She is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Management at Tarleton State University. 

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Jeff Endermann

Director of Financial Planning and Analysis

Jeff is a strategic finance leader with more than 18 years of experience across multiple facets of the health care industry, including large post-acute (home health/hospice/personal care), urgent care, and DME delivery organizations. He has proven success in operational finance, corporate development, strategic budgeting and forecasting, and revenue cycle management.

 

Prior to joining ENT Specialty Partners as the Director of Financial Planning & Analysis, he served as Director of Finance-Hospice for AccentCare, the nation’s 4th largest post-acute organization, where he oversaw the operational finance and FP&A functions for the hospice division of the organization. During his tenure at AccentCare, he was able to see and assist in the orchestration of tremendous growth within the hospice division, where patient census grew from 400 to over 7500 patients through acquisitions and de novos.

 

In addition to AccentCare, he has worked at multiple other large healthcare service organizations, including a publicly-traded home health, hospice, and personal care organization, a national urgent care and occupational health organization, and a publicly- traded oxygen DME equipment provider, where he led the revenue cycle function.

 

Jeff has a B.S. in Accounting from Southeastern Louisiana University.

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Jennifer Owens

Director, Project Management

Jennifer has more than 25 years of experience as a highly accomplished manager with the ability to develop and implement effective business strategies.

Jennifer’s career has spanned specialty medicine in private medical practices that include Oncology, Hospice, Orthopedic Spine Surgery, OB/Gyn, and then joining a North Dallas ENT group in 2008, where she managed their practice until joining ENT Specialty Partners. 

 

Along with running a busy practice, Jennifer simultaneously worked with one of her ENT physicians on a consulting business where she managed a fellow ENT practice and staff and worked on other business ventures during her ENT tenure.

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Matthew Schweyer

Director of Compliance

Matt has amassed thirty-five years in health care. He has worked both in the USA and internationally. Over the last decade Matt has focused on Compliance and Regulatory oversight and has a knack to bringing together all stakeholders to ensure a clear, strategic direction for regulatory compliance, quality and reimbursement are met. Prior to accepting the position as Director of Compliance with ESP, Matt worked with SerenaGroup as Compliance and Chief Quality Officer, and a senior executive.

Matt is recognized as a thought leader; frequently an invited speaker both nationally and internationally on matters of compliance, quality, clinical documentation and reimbursement. Matt is a veteran of the U.S. Army and holds a degree in Health Care Administration from Concordia University. Is a Certified Professional Compliance Officer (CPCO™) through the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), holds dual certification in Hyperbaric Medicine through the National Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Technology (NBDHMT) and the American Board of Wound Healing (ABWH) and Wound Care Certification through the American Board of Wound Healing (ABWH). He has served on multiple boards, including the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society.

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Louise Springer

Director of Revenue Cycle

Louise Springer joined ENT Specialty Partners in January 2022.  As Director, Louise supports the financial operations of the group to achieve company goals and objectives and is responsible for coordinating and oversight of the overall policies, initiatives, and objectives of ESP’s revenue cycle activities. 

Louise brings more than thirty years of managerial, analytical, and administrative experience to ESP.  She has an extensive background in medical billing and an understanding of the entire revenue cycle. 

Prior to joining ESP, Louise was the Director of Revenue Cycle Management at specialty practices that include GI, Emergency Care, Pediatric, and Orthopedics. She also has nine years of experience working as the practice administrator at a Dallas-based ENT group.  She started her career in medical billing in Central Florida where she completed her Bachelor of Business Administration degree.  

Connie Edwards
Connie Edwards

Controller

Connie has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare finance and accounting. Her role as Controller at ESP will include leading the accounting team and generating monthly financial reports and annual audited financials. Connie is a leader in process improvement, team development and mentoring, multi-entity accounting and reporting. Prior to joining ESP, she worked for a number of large healthcare systems in the DFW area.

Practice Leaders

Marc Dubin, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Richard Thrasher, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Ken Idicula
Practice Administrator
Andrew de Jong, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Mary Whitmire
Practice Administrator
Jed Grisel, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Mary Twyford
Practice Administrator
Mary Ashmead, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Jennifer Jordan, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Thomas C. Bramhall, MD
M. Bradley Evans, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Sara Gagui
Practice Administrator
John Burgoyne, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Shawn Pitrucha
Practice Manager

Our team is growing! Learn more about joining our practice community:

At ESP, we’re physicians building toward the future TOGETHER.