Ashley Casad, vice president of clinical services, has been promoted to president of Springfield hospitals and senior vice president, system operations, at CoxHealth.

Casad joined CoxHealth in January 2020, and in her current position, she has responsibility for oncology, neurosciences, cardiovascular services, laboratory and radiology. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, Casad took on a key leadership role in CoxHealth’s response.

“Throughout the pandemic and beyond, Ashley has demonstrated an extraordinary work ethic and passion for creating positive change for her hospital and community,” says Amanda Hedgpeth, CoxHealth’s chief operating officer. “Ashley is a remarkable leader who brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to this role.”

Casad served as deputy incident commander for CoxHealth’s COVID-19 planning and response. She built CoxHealth’s COVID-19 census projection model, secured equipment for testing and portable imaging, developed our monoclonal antibody infusion center, and led CoxHealth’s vaccination efforts, which resulted in 100,000 vaccinations in three months.

Casad came to CoxHealth with five years of experience from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md.

Her career at Johns Hopkins began with a two-year administrative fellowship, followed by serving as assistant administrator of neurosciences. She served in the neurosciences role for three years, with responsibility for inpatient operations, financial planning and management, performance improvement, patient safety and service excellence. The department included more than 180 physicians and APPs, and approximately 1,000 employees.

In addition to her administrative and leadership work, Casad is committed to involvement in the Springfield community. She serves on the boards of the American Cancer Society of Southwest Missouri and Ozarks Food Harvest, as well as the executive committee of the Cattle Baron’s Ball. She is currently a member of Leadership Springfield Class 44.

She earned her Master of Health Administration and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Missouri, Columbia. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in History at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She also completed a corporate internship at CoxHealth in 2013.

In her new role, Casad will report to Hedgpeth, who previously served as president of Springfield hospitals before being named chief operating officer and executive vice president in December 2022.

The leadership change will be effective Jan. 30.

Ashley Casad named president of Springfield hospitals