Our Leadership
We are privileged to be entrusted with an incredible legacy, and the mission that called our Sisters so many years ago is now in our hands.


HSHS Executive Leadership Team

Damond W. Boatwright, MHA, MHS, FACHE
President and CEO
Some of Damond’s accomplishments at SSM 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 Wisconsin’s first advisory council on inclusion, diversity and equity.
Prior to SSM, Damond served in various leadership roles at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) from 2001 to 2013. His career at HCA took him to hospitals in Virginia, Florida, Missouri and Kansas, serving in executive leadership roles with increasing responsibilities.
Damond is originally from Charleston, South Carolina. Though he once aspired to become a physician, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at The Citadel in Charleston in 1994. Damond worked full-time at HCA while completing his Master of Health Administration and Health Sciences (MHA, MHS) at Medical University of South Carolina. After finishing graduate school, Damond worked as an administrative fellow for Duke University Health System in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Damond has served as a board member at the Catholic Health Association and is the immediate past chair of the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA). 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, Damond 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.
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Kathy Donovan, MSN, BSN, RN, NE-BC
Senior Vice President, Chief Operations Officer
Kathy has more than three decades of experience in healthcare. She started her nursing career at St. Louis Children’s Hospital (BJC) and has worked in recent years as the COO and CNO at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis. Kathy served as the COO at Sunrise Children’s Hospital (HCA) in Las Vegas from 2016-2018; she was the incident commander and administrator on call during the largest mass casualty shooting in US history that occurred in 2017 on the Las Vegas Strip. Kathy’s work history also includes leadership roles in emergency and patient care services.
Kathy received her Master of Science in Nursing from Barnes Jewish College and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Missouri Baptist College.
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Kevin L. Lewis, MD, CPE, FAASM
Senior Vice President, Chief Clinical Officer
As a proven leader with a track record of success spanning two decades, Dr. Lewis brought an ideal mix of health care leadership experience and passion for the HSHS mission and the legacy established by the Hospital Sisters.
Dr. Lewis previously served as the Regional President and CEO of SSM Health Medical Group as well as the Regional Chief Clinical Officer of SSM Health – Oklahoma, based in Oklahoma City, Okla. Before fully focusing on his journey as a health care executive, he practiced pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine for 15 years.
Dr. Lewis is a graduate of Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Okla, and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio for Medical School. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine-Tulsa and Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine fellowship at the University of Kentucky.
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Kelley Kostich, PhD, RN, NE-BC
Senior Vice President, Chief Nursing Executive
Kelley came to HSHS from Detroit Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, Michigan, where she served as Chief Nursing Officer. During her time there, she advanced quality, operational, and growth initiatives and metrics, supporting a team of 900 nurses and eight directors. Her prior experience also includes Administrative Director of Nursing Operations (Neonatal Services) for SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital; Director of the Orthopedic Center and Sports Medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital; and Program Manager at Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
She has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Missouri, and a Master of Science in healthcare and nursing administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She received her Bachelor of Science in nursing from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
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Michael Scialdone
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
He has over three decades of health care finance and operational leadership experience along with a faith-based mindset that supports our Mission. In this role, he oversees the system financial services.
Prior to joining HSHS, Mike was Executive Vice President and CFO at Health-First, Inc., in Brevard, Florida. He has also served in CFO roles as well as in Chief Executive Leadership roles at large health care entities, including Memorial Hospital-University of Colorado Health and Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, both located in Colorado Springs, Colo., and at Osceola Regional Medical Center, Northwest Medical Center and Pembroke Pines Hospital in Florida.
Mike is a graduate of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama and received his Master of Business Administration in health administration from the University of Colorado in Denver.
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Thomas Ahr
Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer
Thomas has nearly 30 years of human resource and talent management experience and has served throughout the Midwest in various healthcare human resource roles with both BJC and SSM Health. Serving as System Vice President of HR and Talent Management with SSM, he achieved an 8% increase in employee engagement and an 11% reduction in turnover. He developed leader programs and implemented key safety and culture initiatives. Thomas also led major restructures and managed HR for a 14,000-employee workforce, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thomas started his career in consulting before transitioning full-time into healthcare.
He is also an adjunct faculty member at Webster University and holds a Doctorate in Management from Webster University, along with several HR and healthcare certifications.
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Amy Bulpitt, JD, MBA
Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer
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Rachelle Barina, PhD, HEC-C
Senior Vice President, Chief Mission Officer
Rachelle holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Health Care Ethics from Saint Louis University, a Master of Theological Studies Degree from Vanderbilt University, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theology and Religious Studies from Saint Norbert College and is a certified healthcare ethics consultant. She also serves as a faculty member at the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University.
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Peter Kung, MBA, MS, FACHE
Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer
Peter Kung, MBA, MS, FACHE accepted to serve HSHS as senior vice president and chief strategy officer in October 2020. In this role, Peter leads the development and implementation of HSHS’s strategic plan and identifies and executes strategic and growth initiatives to enhance long-term sustainability of the ministry.
Peter came to HSHS after serving as the VP and chief innovation officer at SCL Health (now Intermountain) in Denver, Colorado. His position entailed developing innovation and virtual health services across the entire care continuum, creating consumer-oriented solutions to improve access and experience, and forming new avenues for system growth. Prior to SCL Health, Peter worked at UCLA Health and Health Sciences in Los Angeles for 14 years.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine; a master’s degree from Claremont Graduate University; an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA; and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
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Christine Woolsey
Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
Christine (Chris) Woolsey began serving as senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for HSHS in July 2023 and leads brand strategy, marketing, communications, media relations and digital experience for the system.
Chris spent more than a decade leading system marketing, communications and digital experience for SCL Health (now Intermountain Health). She was instrumental in building the system’s first shared service marketing and communications function and led the development of a unified branding and marketing strategy for 14 hospitals in four states. Chris also managed crisis communications, state advocacy and transformed the system’s online presence to increase consumer engagement and improve digital experience. Chris received her Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and spent the first half of her career as a health care and business journalist in Chicago.
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