Mount Carmel Health System President and CEO Tauana McDonald to Retire
September 1, 2026
Columbus, Ohio. September 1, 2026 – Mount Carmel Health System announced today that President and Chief Executive Officer Tauana McDonald, FACHE, will retire at the end of 2026. McDonald has served Mount Carmel for nearly a decade, capping a 23-year career with Trinity Health, Mount Carmel’s parent system.
McDonald joined Mount Carmel in 2017 as its first chief administrative officer. She took an expanded role in 2020 as president and chief operating officer of Mount Carmel Grove City. In 2024, she stepped into the system’s top role and became the first African American woman to lead Mount Carmel in its more than 140-year history.
“Tauana has always led with strength, grace and a deep commitment to serving others, and the people around her feel it,” said Rob Casalou, executive vice president and associate chief operating officer of Trinity Health. “She is a trusted partner for many of us, and I am grateful to have worked with her.”
Her record at Mount Carmel is one of steadying the organization. She guided the system’s response through the COVID-19 pandemic. At Grove City, she took on a new hospital that was falling short of expectations and delivered a financial, quality and cultural turnaround in four years. The hospital posted double-digit gains in productivity, volume, and experience, plus $34 million in operating income.
That same focus shaped her time as CEO, as Mount Carmel expanded care and services to reach more people. Mount Carmel Dublin opened as the system’s fifth hospital and New Albany added emergency services. A partnership with the Community Shelter Board connected unhoused patients to resources for housing and shelter. The system also took on the health care staffing shortage, expanding training for allied health professionals through Mount Carmel College of Nursing and building new programs with the HealthCare Collaborative for Central Ohio. National recognition for quality, safety and patient experience followed throughout her tenure from U.S. News & World Report, Leapfrog and Healthgrades, and Forbes named the system one of Ohio’s best employers.
“Serving at Mount Carmel has been one of the greatest honors of my career,” McDonald said. “I have seen firsthand the care and comfort Mount Carmel gives thousands of people on their hardest days. I have never taken for granted the responsibility of the legacy that the Sisters of the Holy Cross left us. My job was to carry it a little further down the road, and I hope my service honored the strong women who started it.”
McDonald’s mark on Trinity Health reaches well beyond Central Ohio. Before joining Mount Carmel, she championed the introduction of Meaningful Use and made Trinity Health the largest health system to reach compliance in year one. That early work strengthened the system’s finances and set a standard for other health systems.
McDonald’s leadership has drawn regional and national recognition. In 2026, YWCA Columbus named her a Woman of Achievement; Columbus Business First named her an Executive of the Year honoree and added her to its Power 125; Who’s Who in Black Columbus named her its Woman of the Year and Modern Healthcare recognized her among its top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare.
Trinity Health leadership is working with Mount Carmel’s Board of Trustees to begin the search for Mount Carmel’s next president and CEO as part of a thoughtful transition plan.
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About Mount Carmel Health System
Mount Carmel Health System, a member of Trinity Health, has provided high-quality, comprehensive healthcare services in central Ohio for 140 years. Our team of more than 9,000 colleagues, 2,041 physicians and 507 volunteers provide compassionate, people-centered primary and specialty care at its five hospitals — Mount Carmel Dublin, Mount Carmel East, Mount Carmel Grove City, Mount Carmel New Albany, Mount Carmel St. Ann’s and Diley Ridge Medical Center, an affiliation of Mount Carmel and Fairfield Medical Center. The health system is also comprised of the Mount Carmel Health Plan, Mount Carmel College of Nursing, Mount Carmel Medical Group and Mount Carmel Health Partners, along with surgery centers, emergency and ambulatory care centers, and hospice and home care services throughout the region.