MURRAY – The Murray-Calloway County Hospital Board of Trustees’ long, arduous search for the right person to lead the hospital after CEO Jerry Penner retires came to an end Wednesday. By roll-call vote, the board unanimously approved Reba Celsor for the position, which she accepted on a speaker call during the meeting.
When she takes the reins on April 28, Celsor will only be the sixth CEO to lead MCCH in the last 50 years and the first woman.
“(She has an) absolute superior personality, track record of success, proven leadership, champion of quality and patient safety, drives efficiency and financial security no matter where she goes,” Penner said. “(Her) references were off the scale. I think the vast impression here of the board was ‘Wow!’ Just three letters, that’s all you have to remember. … I think that’s a great choice on our part.”
Since 2020, Celsor has served as CEO of Spring View Hospital. The 75-bed hospital in Lebanon, Ky., is owned by Lifepoint Health, a healthcare system based out of Brentwood, Tn., that operates, among other facilities, 60 community hospitals across 31 states, including Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield.
According to Celsor’s resume, she spent the previous five years in Dyersburg, Tn., as CEO at West Tennessee Healthcare Dyersburg Hospital, which is not affiliated with LifePoint. From 2006 to 2015, she worked her way up the executive ladder for LifePoint-affiliated hospitals in Tennessee, Florida and West Virginia. She is a graduate of LifePoint’s CEO Development Program and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Celsor’s educational background shows a mix of healthcare and management degrees, starting with an associate’s degree in applied science of nursing from Hopkinsville Community College, a Bachelor of Arts in management and human resources from Trevecca Nazarene University, and a Master of Business Administration from Colorado Technical University.
“She’s very good,” said Board Secretary and CEO Search Committee Chair Amy Futrell in an interview. “Like Jerry said (in the meeting), she’ll ‘wow’ the community. She’s very involved in her community wherever she’s been. So, the community will love that, but more importantly, her resume speaks for itself.”
Penner, announced last summer that, after 14 years, he would retire at the end of March. Rather than hire a third-party firm to conduct the search, the board decided to form an internal search committee.
Last fall, after whittling a pool of more than 150 applicants, the committee brought in four finalists for extensive on-site interviews, which included meetings with the full board as well as hospital directors, executives and medical staff before culminating with a town hall to give the community a chance to “meet and greet” each candidate. Comment cards were available, and participants were encouraged to fill them out.
After considering all of the feedback, the board unanimously voted to offer the position to Tonda Haigler a special called meeting in early December, but she declined the offer a week later. At the board’s regular December meeting, Board Chair Steve Owens announced the board was still exploring options for how to proceed with the search, including the possibility of hiring an outside search firm.
In January, the board unanimously voted to re-open the application portal for two weeks. The search committee would consider new applications as well as any of the remaining top 10 candidates from the last search still interested in the position and interview select candidates via Zoom by Feb. 14. If the renewed effort failed to produce a suitable candidate, the board would consider hiring a third-party firm. Owens also advised that Penner agreed to stay on as CEO until his replacement is found.
The board did hold a special called meeting on Saturday, Feb. 15. The only agenda item was an executive session regarding personnel, and no action was taken. The search was not mentioned during February’s regular meeting.
“So, this has been approximately a 10-month process, believe it or not,” Penner recounted Wednesday during his leadership report. “(We had a total of) 180 applicants –150 came initially; we got another 30 when we opened up – (and conducted) 15 board interviews, including our screening interviews. That’s hundreds of personal hours of our physicians, our directors, our VPs, our townspeople who came out. Just a lot of things going on, let alone the board, themselves, having to go through multiple rounds of deliberations to figure out the best choice they possibly could.”
Even though their efforts last fall failed to bear fruit, Futrell said the committee learned a lot by virtue of going through the process. In addition, the committee was able to use the information gleaned from the previous on-site interviews to simplify the process the second time.
“You learn what you’re really looking for,” she explained. “We read every comment card, email; the people that came up to us – like, if someone came to me – we’d share it with the group. … We knew what people were looking for just from the comments and the questions.
“They want to see somebody that’s very involved; they want to see somebody that is invested in Murray and Calloway County… Everywhere Ms. Reba goes, every place that she’s been, she’s involved in her community. She jumps in feet first, whether it’s Chamber (of Commerce) or Rotary (Club) or the school systems, whatever, she partners with her community; and that spoke volumes to us, on top of her resume.”
“We did the community meetings the first time,” Cross said in an interview after the meeting. “Of course, things evolved over that period of time, and we decided it was time to make a decision and so the committee reconvened. We looked at resumes. We were given the charge to find the best person and we feel that’s how that turned out.”
Cross, who is a professor at Murray State University’s School of Nursing, said that she reached out to a former student who knew Celsor from a previous job.
“And she had nothing but wonderful things to say about (Celsor),” Cross said, adding, “She will be excellent. I’m super excited about her coming here and being part of this community and this hospital.”
“Everyone we called about her had nothing but glowing reviews for her,” Futrell said. “Then we all met her, and she (was) very charismatic, personable, and she knows her stuff – (for) every question we asked, she had an answer. She has vision. She has determination. She has drive. She’s solid. … She’ll be able to fill (Penner’s) shoes well, and she’ll be able to take us forward; and I think that the hospital staff, physicians, executive staff, I think, they’re really going to love her.”
