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HSHS announces next CEO

By Michelle Mitchell Mar 18, 2021 | 12:58 PM

March 18, 2021 – HSHS announced that Damond W. Boatwright has accepted an offer to serve as president and CEO of Hospital Sisters Health System.

He will start in this role in June 2021, succeeding the current president and CEO of HSHS, Mary Starmann-Harrison, who retires in July after serving in this role for the past decade. “Damond is a bright, talented, and innovative leader with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry,” Sister Jomary Trstensky, OSF, chair of Hospital Sisters Ministries. “His passion for working in Catholic healthcare was profoundly evident throughout the interview process. We are excited to welcome him to HSHS.”

Boatwright will be relocating to the Springfield area from Madison, Wisconsin. He currently serves as regional president for SSM Health Wisconsin, a role he has served in since 2014. Some of Boatwright’s accomplishments at SSM Health Wisconsin include achieving growth in several key service lines; successfully integrating one of the largest independent multispecialty groups in Wisconsin; maintaining top decile patient satisfaction and quality scores; and developing and chairing SSM Health Wisconsin’s first advisory council on inclusion, diversity, and equity. Prior to SSM Health Wisconsin, Boatwright served in various leadership roles at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) from 2001 to 2013.

He received Modern Healthcare’s Up and Comer Award in 2009, and in 2010, he was featured in Becker’s Hospital Review’s Hospital and Health System Leaders to Know. In 2020, Boatwright was named as a WHA Distinguished Leader. He was also recently honored as In Business magazine’s 2021 Executive of the Year in Madison, Wisconsin. Boatwright has been involved in a number of interesting extracurricular activities throughout his life. He was a college football player who served as varsity football captain at The Citadel, and he is proud to be a certified judge with the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Boatwright has also been involved in the Knights of Columbus as a 4th-degree knight and honor guard member. Boatwright and his wife, Makeba Williams, MD, have two children named Damond Jeremiah (DJ), 9, and Shelby Ruth, 7. Makeba is a physician who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology.