Centra Health President George W. Dawson led the merger of Virginia Baptist and Lynchburg General hospitals in 1987 to form Centra Health.

Today Centra Health has grown to a regional health care system with more than 3,000 employees and 300 affiliated medical staff physicians.

Dawson is former chairman and director of the Virginia Hospital Association, and led the association's task force on developing health reform strategy. He is a former director of the Voluntary Hospitals of America Central Atlantic Region. He also serves as delegate to the House of Delegates of the American Hospital Association.

Dawson holds a master's of hospital administration degree from the Medical College of Virginia and a bachelor's degree from Wofford College. Dawson served in the United States Army Medical Corps for four years. Before moving to central Virginia in 1980, Dawson was associate executive director of the Holston Valley Community Hospital in Kingsport, Tenn.