Russ Johnson
President & Chief Executive Officer 
LMH Health

Johnson joined LMH Health as President and Chief Executive Officer on August 1, 2016. His 37-year career in healthcare includes senior leadership in hospitals and health systems from large cities to rural communities. He came to LMH Health from Denver, Colorado, where he served as Senior Vice President at Centura Health, a 13+ hospital system based in Denver, Colorado.

Russ grew up just 30 miles east of Lawrence in Merriam, Kansas and still has strong family ties to the area. He has found Lawrence to be a wonderful community to live in and LMH Health to be a remarkable community hospital. He feels so fortunate to work with the Board of Trustees and excellent employees, physicians and providers at the hospital.

He began his healthcare career in 1984 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, working with a newly developed network of 12 hospitals. He then returned to the Kansas City area in 1989 to be the assistant administrator of operations for Saint Luke’s Northland, a member of Saint Luke’s Health System. After eight years, he became a Chief Operating Officer for Edinburg Regional Medical Center, a 169-bed hospital in Edinburg, Texas, from 1997 to 2000. He then served as the CEO for San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center in Alamosa, Colorado, for 13 years.

Johnson is active in many professional, civic and community organizations. He served 12 years on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Hospital Association and was a board member for the American Hospital Association for three years. In 2007 he received the American Hospital Association’s national recognition for his accomplishments as a small or rural hospital leader. He also received the Rural Healthcare Excellence Award from the Colorado Rural Health Center in 2007.

Russ received a bachelor’s degree in management and economics from the University of Tulsa, and a master’s degree in health care administration from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. He and Isabel have been married for 37 years and have three children.