Hospital Sisters Health System has announced that Mary Starmann-Harrison, president and CEO of HSHS, will retire in the second half of 2021. Starmann-Harrison has led the system for almost 10 years and will assist in transitioning her successor prior to her retirement in 2021. Korn Ferry has been retained to begin a national search for her replacement.

“Mary’s contributions to the HSHS ministry over the past decade have far exceeded the usual measures for success,” said Sister Jomary Trstensky, OSF, chair of Hospital Sisters Ministries. “In everything she undertook, she acted with passion and with a personal investment in the underlying HSHS mission. She maintained an absolute vigilance for the religious values of the organization even while she searched for new and contemporary ways of serving those entrusted to our care.”

Starmann-Harrison was born and raised in the Chicago area. She graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and began her career as a registered nurse in the emergency department, later receiving a master’s in health service administration. Prior to accepting her current role with HSHS, she served as regional president and CEO of SSM Health Care in Wisconsin for 12 years.

During Starmann-Harrison’s tenure as HSHS president and CEO, HSHS has grown to 15 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin, adding HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls, Wisconsin, HSHS Holy Family Hospital in Greenville, Illinois, and HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital in Shelbyville, Illinois to the system. Also in Illinois, HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Highland and HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Belleville both relocated after the construction of new hospitals in Highland and O’Fallon.

“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 will always remember the inspiration from St. Francis which has guided me for many years, ‘Start with doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.’”

The search for the next HSHS president and CEO will begin immediately. It is expected to take approximately six months to identify a successful candidate who will work closely with Starmann-Harrison prior to her retirement.

Starmann-Harrison and her husband, Greg, plan to retire in Arizona.