SSM Health in southern Illinois has announced that Centralia native Damon Harbison is the new President of SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital-Centralia.

Harbison’s official tenure as President was made effective June 3 after serving as Interim President since February 26, 2018, upon the retirement of John Sigsbury.

Harbison a graduate of Centralia High School and one of his earliest jobs in life was as a food service worker at St. Mary’s Hospital.

In addition to his executive leadership responsibilities at St. Mary’s Hospital, Harbison’s return to the Centralia community has led to his participation as a board member of the Greater Centralia Chamber of Commerce and serving as chairman of the Centralia Image Committee.

Harbison is not new to SSM Health. Prior to his arrival at St. Mary’s Hospital, Harbison  served as a senior leader for more than seven years at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital (St. Louis, MO) where he most recently served as Chief Operating Officer/Vice President of Operations since March 2012. During his tenure at Cardinal Glennon going back to 2010, Damon also led operations and strategic initiatives for the hospital’s inpatient and ambulatory care services.

He is a graduate of Kaskaskia College, Washington University (St. Louis), and SIU Edwardsville where he received his MBA in May 2004.