THE VALUED VOICE

Mary Starmann-Harrison, president and CEO of Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS), has announced her plan to retire in 2021 after 10 years at the system’s helm.

Under Starmann-Harrison’s leadership, HSHS has grown to 15 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin, including the addition of HSHS St. Claire Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls to the system’s service area in 2014. Before joining HSHS in 2011, Starmann-Harrison served for 12 years as regional president and CEO of SSM Health Care. She also played an instrumental role in establishing Prevea360 health insurance in Wisconsin.

“It has been an honor and privilege to serve HSHS for the past decade,” said Starmann-Harrison. “As I reflect on my long career in health care, there have been so many learnings, especially in the most challenging years such as 2020. I am so grateful for the incredible colleagues I have worked with over the years.”

The Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) also benefitted from Starmann-Harrison’s leadership. Participating in numerous annual WHA events and contributing to prominent committees, task forces and councils for more than 15 years, Starmann-Harrison, who served as a WHA board member from 2007 and as board chair in 2006, has left a wide wake of influence on health care in Wisconsin, noted WHA President and CEO Eric Borgerding. “I am grateful to Mary for the help, support and counsel she has provided over the years,” said Borgerding. “Her dedication to her colleagues and the patients and communities she serves is truly inspirational. Because of Mary’s leadership, many more people in Wisconsin today have access to high-quality health care.”

Starmann-Harrison will assist in transitioning her successor prior to her retirement in the second half of 2021, after which she and her husband Greg plan to move to Arizona.