Christopher Howard
President/CEO
SSM Health Care-St. Louis
Christopher Howard began his duties as the President/CEO of SSM Health Care – St. Louis in January 2012. He oversees the mission, vision and strategic focus for an integrated health care network of seven hospitals, 2,500 physicians, more than 11,200 employees with a net revenue base that exceeds $1 billion. Howard also is a Regional President/System Vice President for SSM Health Care-St. Louis.
Howard, formerly served as Regional President/System Vice President of SSM Health Care of Oklahoma. He has been in health care for 23 years, specializing in physician relations. He has been with SSM Health Care for 17 years.
Howard began his career with SSM Health Care as Vice President, Physician Development and Acquisition at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. In 1995, he became Executive Vice President of SSM Health Care of Oklahoma, and in 2005 he moved to Regional President/System Vice President of SSM Health Care of Oklahoma.
Howard earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organizational communication from the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He also has a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Public Health. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and served on the Oklahoma Hospital Association Board of Directors. He is also on the Missouri Hospital Association board and the St. Louis Regional Health Commission.
Lee Bernstein
Regional Executive Vice President of Hospital Operations/Chief Operating Officer
SSM Health Care-St. Louis
Bernstein has been with SSM Health Care - St. Louis since 2007, initially as the interim executive vice president/chief operating officer for SSM St. Joseph Hospital West and then leading the network’s North Operating Group as executive vice president/chief operating officer.
Prior to joining SSM Health Care – St. Louis, Bernstein spent 20 years as a vice president for BJC Health Care in various operating capacities. He was a principal in the design and activation of The Center for Advanced Medicine, the development of 48 new operating rooms for Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the opening of The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis.
Bernstein holds master’s degrees in both health and business administration from Washington University in St. Louis.
Lynn Lenker, RN, MS, ONC
Chief Nursing Officer, SSM Health Care - St. Louis
Nurse Champion, Project Beacon
Lenker has been a nurse since 1977 and began her work with SSM Health Care 12 years ago at St. Mary’s Good Samaritan in Southern Illinois. Her work with the electronic health record (EHR) began in 2006 when she began serving as Nurse Champion for the Epic implementation. As part of this role, she also chaired Nursing Informatics – a team of multi-specialty nurses that develop nursing policy for clinical information systems. The Nursing Informatics team made significant contributions to the recent Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) recognition of SSM Health Care’s Stage 6 EHR adoption. The team members also supported the standardized build and development of the documentation for the Epic implementation; a program that will be rolled out at all 16 SSM hospitals.
In her current role as the Chief Nursing Officer for SSM Health Care-St. Louis, she has championed the Relationship Based Care program, designed to return the nurse’s focus to the bedside and the patient by working as teams to deliver the care and outcomes all patients deserve. This, combined with her role with EHR, has allowed her to introduce new and innovative workflow changes to the nursing practice.
Lenker holds a Bachelor’s of Nursing from the University of Evansville and a Master’s of Nursing from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She is a current member of NAON, AONE, and HIMSS.
Robert G. Porter
President, Programs & Services/Chief Strategy Officer
SSM Health Care-St. Louis
Robert G. Porter, JD, MBA, is responsible for developing the overall strategy for SSM Health Care-St. Louis, and individual service lines across the network. He also oversees the SSM Physicians' Organization and ambulatory services.
Prior to his position as President, Programs & Services/Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Porter served as Executive Vice President, Strategy and Business Development for SSM Health Care - St. Louis. In that role, he was responsible for the network's managed care organization, behavioral health services, and public policy initiatives. His current role includes responsibility to lead the development of a replacement hospital for one of SSM’s older facilities, with the goal to design the “hospital of the future.”
As former President and Chief Executive Officer of SSM DePaul Health Center from 1995 until 2002, Mr. Porter's focus on mission centered leadership and quality improvement, combined with his passion for collaboration with physicians, employees, and the community, led to DePaul's resurgence as the fastest growing hospital in the St. Louis area during that period.
Mr. Porter holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a Juris Doctorate from Stanford University and received a Bachelor of Industrial Administration degree (summa cum laude) from the General Motors Institute (GMI) in Flint, Michigan. He has been extensively involved in the community, including membership on the boards of several St. Louis area charitable organizations. In recognition of his service to the St. Louis community, Mr. Porter received the 2002 Archbishop John L. May Award for Distinguished Health Care Ministry. He is a frequent writer and speaker on leadership and organizational culture, with specific focus on the unique elements of faith based health care.
Karen Rewerts
Regional VP, Finance/CFO Karen Rewerts serves as the SSM Health Care – St. Louis network’s vice president of finance and as its chief financial officer. She oversees the network’s financial functions, including accounting, finance and patient financial services.
Rewerts most recently was SSM Health Care – St. Louis’ vice president/planning and decision support. She has been with SSM Health Care for 18 years, starting as director of financial planning at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, where she also served as director of strategy and business development.
A certified public accountant (CPA), Rewerts earned her master of business administration from Saint Louis University and a bachelor of science in accountancy from the University of Illinois.
Debbie Walkenhorst
Regional Vice President-Human Resources
SSM Health Care-St. Louis
As regional vice president of human resources, Debbie Walkenhorst provides strategic direction in aligning talent to organizational needs. She began her career with SSM Health Care – St. Louis in 2003 in a position to enhance a regional nursing resource pool to meet the daily staffing needs. Walkenhorst progressed within SSM Health Care – St. Louis Human Resources into her current position of regional vice president of human resources.
Beginning her career as an RN provided Walkenhorst with a strong sense of health care operations and an understanding of providing exceptional direct patient care. She has 20 years of health care human resource experience, specifically in developing strategic partnerships between the function of HR and operational leaders; HR administration; recruitment; employee relations; and assuring the support of organizational change through leadership development and skill building. In her role of regional vice president, Walkenhorst has realigned Human Resources as a regional function and to support consistency, as well as to support the enhancement of the partnership with the operational leaders to assure effective talent management and employee engagement.
As a non-traditional student in the St. Louis metropolitan area, Walkenhorst advanced her education from associate degree at East Central College to an RN diploma graduate of Jewish Hospital School of Nursing. While working full-time, Walkenhorst earned her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from University of Missouri, St. Louis, and her Master’s degree in Nursing Administration from Saint Louis University.
Debbie currently serves on the Nursing Advisory Board of Saint Louis University, as a director on the St. Louis County Workforce Investment Board, and as a director for the foundation of St. Louis Community College.