WellSpan CEO Roxanna Gapstur announces retirement, national search begins

Roxanna Gapstur, Ph.D., R.N., who led WellSpan Health as president and chief executive officer since January 2019, announced her planned retirement in an April 6, 2026 system statement, and the WellSpan board has retained Korn Ferry to conduct a national search for her successor; Gapstur will remain in place until a transition is complete. Board chair Joe Crosswhite framed the move as a planned leadership transition and emphasized continuity while the search proceeds.

Gapstur’s tenure oversaw rapid growth: WellSpan expanded from roughly an $2.5 billion system to about $4.7 billion, grew from eight hospitals to 12 hospitals, and increased its employed and affiliated providers from about 1,500 to more than 2,700; team members now number roughly 23,000 and the patient base rose from about 630,000 to over one million. The system under Gapstur also secured national recognitions including the John M. Eisenberg National Patient Safety Award, the AHA Quest for Quality Prize, and a Magnet designation for its Surgery and Rehabilitation Hospital.

The leadership change draws local attention because Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg formally joined WellSpan on July 8, 2024 and now operates as WellSpan Evangelical Community Hospital, employing about 1,900 people, staffing more than 170 employed and non-employed physicians and holding a license for 131 beds. Those specifics matter in Union County because system-level strategy can shape capital equipment spending, facility upgrades, recruitment of specialists and the mix of services offered in Lewisburg and the Central Susquehanna Valley.

Financial context behind the 2024 affiliation remains salient: local reporting at the time noted Evangelical had lost roughly $29 million in a prior year and hospital leaders cited rising costs, shrinking Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and higher labor expenses as drivers for affiliating with a larger system. That fiscal backdrop is a key reason many local clinicians and administrators track who sits in the system CEO role when capital-allocation decisions or service-line prioritization are discussed.

Evangelical’s local leadership already underwent a recent change: longtime president Kendra Aucker retired in early January 2026 and Allen Fasnacht, formerly vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, was named president with an effective transition beginning December 15, 2025 and completing in early 2026. That recent local succession suggests continuity at WellSpan Evangelical even as system leadership transitions are underway.

WellSpan’s broader expansion work under Gapstur included a small-format hospital strategy in partnership with Emerus, with WellSpan Newberry Hospital opening March 10, 2026 as the first micro-hospital including an emergency department and about 10 inpatient beds. The board’s engagement of Korn Ferry signals a national, several-month recruitment process; local stakeholders will be watching announcements about any changes to planned investments, service lines or regional staffing priorities tied to that search.

Hospital administrators in Lewisburg have indicated routine operations will continue while the system search proceeds, and Union County health partners can expect any material changes to local services or capital projects to come through formal WellSpan notices and community outreach during the transition.