CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System announced today that Dr. T. Steen Trawick will become CEO, effective Aug. 12, 2019. This announcement comes after Isaac Palmer announced his departure in April.
“We are very fortunate at CHRISTUS to have enjoyed Isaac’s strong and faithful leadership for so many years,” said Chris Karam, senior vice president of Group Operations, CHRISTUS Health. “And we are blessed today to have found a well-respected leader to continue this tradition who has the experience to lead our ministry into the future and who knows and is committed to the Shreveport-Bossier communities.”
Dr. Trawick has been associated with CHRISTUS in Shreveport since 2005, when he joined CHRISTUS as a Pediatric Hospitalist. He currently serves as Associate Chief Medical Officer for Sound Physicians, which employees more than 3,000 physicians. Dr. Trawick has primary responsibility for Hospitalist and Emergency Medicine programs across CHRISTUS Health and other facilities in Texas and Louisiana. For nearly six years, Dr. Trawick has overseen the hospitalists, Emergency Medicine programs and Intensive Medicine programs across 14 hospitals with oversight of over 347 physicians and advance practice providers.
“I am humbled to have this new role as CEO of CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier,” said Dr. Trawick. “After 18 years of being on the medical staff and most recently working in a physician leadership role, I feel like I am coming back home. I am thankful to serve at CHRISTUS where my values align with the organization’s core values, and I look forward to the exciting things to come for our patients, Associates, physicians and volunteers as CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier continues to grow and provide faith-based personalized care for our community.”
“After interviewing a number of candidates, we feel that Dr. Trawick perfectly blends vital local knowledge and commitment to our Shreveport -Bossier communities with an intimate knowledge of health care that we were searching for in a leader,” Karam said. “He has experience providing care in the hospital, as a physician leader and he has and he is also an experienced Chief of Staff, Associate Chief Medical Officer, Medical Executive Committee leader, and board member with experience on the CHRISTUS Louisiana state board and the CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Foundation board. Not only that, but Dr. Trawick also has experience in regulatory preparedness, credentials committee issues, health care compliance oversight and has unique business experience that will transfer well to our CEO role.”
A native of Monroe, La. and graduate of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., Dr. Trawick has lived in Shreveport since attending and graduating Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, where he also completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He began his career as a private practice as a physician at Highland Clinic and has been on medical staff at CHRISTUS Highland since 2001.
He left private practice in 2005 to become a Pediatric Hospitalist at CHRISTUS, and he helped start the first adult hospitalist program at CHRISTUS Highland in Shreveport, where he also served as Chief of Staff from 2014-2015.
Active in local and state medical politics, Dr. Trawick has served as past President of Shreveport Medical Society and currently serves as a member of the Governor’s advisory board for Physician Assistants and Vice Speaker of the House of Delegates for the Louisiana State Medical Society. He is a former member of LSU Board of Supervisors and Louisiana State Board of Regents.
Dr. Trawick serves the community at large as well and is a part of the Shreveport-Bossier Committee of One Hundred, which is a committee of community leaders assembled to work toward common solutions and reduce redundancies and silos to address select issues by creating one voice for Northwest Louisiana to achieve a greater impact. He is also a Scoutmaster for Troop 18, a Sunday school teacher and member of the Finance Committee at Summer Grove Baptist Church. He and his wife Ronda Free have two children, Allison Grace and Graham.
Palmer’s last day with CHRISTUS is July 1, 2019, and Chris Karam will oversee the CHRISTUS facilities in Shreveport on an interim basis until Dr. Trawick officially assumes his new role on Aug. 12.
“We are sad to see Isaac go, but are excited about Dr. Trawick’s ability to build on the strong foundation he leaves,” Karam said. “I know Dr. Trawick will continue the commitment to our mission of extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, and I’m confident that our ministry in Shreveport will benefit from his strong experience and local knowledge.”