COURTESY ATRIUM HEALTH

Atrium Health CEO Gene Woods is The Charlotte Post Foundation’s 2022 Luminary.

He’s bringing a medical school to Charlotte, has initiated an innovation district where historic Brooklyn was razed and is forming one of the nation’s largest healthcare organizations.

Eugene Woods, Atrium Health’s president and CEO, is known for motivational leadership and a focus on eliminating health disparities and promoting upward mobility. The Charlotte Post Foundation’s 2022 Luminary award recipient will be honored Oct. 8 at the 25th annual Post Best banquet.

“Gene Woods earned his reputation for reducing disparities and enabling communities to achieve the highest health level,” said Gerald Johnson, Post Foundation president and publisher of The Charlotte Post. “Over an extended period, he has helped others obtain equal access, equity and inclusion in institutions that influence our lives.”

Woods said he is most proud of Atrium Health’s mission to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing for all. “It’s not about me,” he said, “but about the folks I’ve been privileged to work with and the communities we serve.”
The chairperson of Woods’ executive committee calls him a transformational leader.

“One of the things I appreciate most about him is his willingness to listen to feedback and suggestions,” said Angie Vincent-Hamacher, chairs of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority Board of Commissioners and partner at Robinson Bradshaw law firm. “It helps everyone rise to the occasion and be their best.”

Woods’ authenticity impresses Michael Lamach, chairman of the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council and retired executive chair and CEO of Trane Technologies.

“The old saying ‘a kind of friend a friend would like to have’ captures Gene,” Lamach said, “and I feel blessed to consider him a dear friend.”

Like many of his friends, Woods said, Lamach wants to lift up the most vulnerable, and that matches Atrium Health’s initiatives.

“We’ve made significant investments in affordable housing and food scarcity programs,” Woods said. Atrium Health also works with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Johnson C. Smith University to expose young people “to the wonderful opportunities in the healthcare field, whether it’s life sciences or innovation.”

“I’m blessed to call Gene a mentor and friend,” said Kieth Cockrell, president of Bank of America Charlotte. “He’s got a contagious smile and a very positive outlook. People run to that. He surrounds himself with really exceptional people.”

Before taking the Atrium Health job six years ago, Woods said, he shared with interviewers his belief that the health care provider needed to carve out a significantly different future. A huge step was forging a partnership to create a Wake Forest School of Medicine campus in Charlotte. Atrium Health and Wake Forest University executives “realized we were looking to do something magical,” he said.

The effort’s leaders decided to locate the medical school on 20 acres where the historic African American neighborhood of Brooklyn stood before urban renewal. Then they planned for it to anchor an innovation district called “The Pearl,” which will feature education, retail, apartments, a hotel and open community space. It will welcome entrepreneurial activity and spur research and development.

“This is an opportunity to create some healing,” Woods said. “We’re listening to the community and that community is going to be lifted up by what we’re doing.”

There is a strong commitment to supplier diversity and inclusion for construction of The Pearl.

“Ultimately, good jobs and good opportunities help drive economic mobility of vulnerable communities,” Woods said.

This spring, Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health announced plans to combine and form a healthcare footprint across Illinois, Wisconsin, the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. With Charlotte as headquarters, the new organization will serve 5.5 million patients and employ more than 7,600 physicians.

“We’re in conversations to build a national system with Advocate Aurora,” Woods said. “That takes a decade to build out and do it right.”  

At 58, Woods plans to stay on the job indefinitely.

“I don’t think there’s a better platform to reinvent healthcare, promote education and drive equity than Atrium Health,” he said.

The son of a Black Navy-career father and Spanish mother, Woods has two grown sons. He spends leisure time with his guitar and, for decades, he’s written original jazz, blues and rock tunes. He recently recorded a compact disc.

Lyrics in his compositions are a sort of diary for him, reflecting his feelings and attitudes as he progressed in his career. Listening to his songs, he feels: “I’m living my purpose.

I tell young people, ‘find your passion’. If you know what your passion is, you can outwork anybody. Chances are you’re going to be successful.”

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