Eugene A. Woods

Eugene A. Woods, MBA, MHA, FACHE, is Chief Executive Officer of Advocate Health, the nation’s third‑largest nonprofit integrated health system. Advocate Health serves nearly six million patients in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Illinois, and Wisconsin across 69 hospitals and more than 1,000 care sites, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine as the academic core. Woods has made expanding access, enhancing affordability, achieving clinical excellence, and driving leading-edge innovation the centerpieces of Advocate Health’s strategy – with a mission to redefine care, from discovery to everyday moments. Since 2022, Advocate Health has delivered over $12 billion in community benefit—while launching initiatives such as a $1 billion investment to help narrow the 30‑year life‑expectancy gap in Chicago’s South Side. Advocate Health also serves more than one million people in rural communities and is investing to bring more services closer to rural patients. To enhance affordability, Woods introduced one of the nation’s most generous financial‑assistance policies, covering families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. System‑wide clinical excellence initiatives have reduced patient‑mortality rates by 14 percent and quadrupled the number of Leapfrog “A” safety grades in just two years. To drive future breakthroughs, Woods is leading the development of The Pearl, a multi-billion dollar medical‑innovation district opening in Charlotte in Summer 2025 that will focus on advanced medical technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Before the combination in 2022 with Advocate Aurora Health, Woods served as president and CEO of Atrium Health from 2016 to 2022, steering the organization through the COVID‑19 pandemic while Atrium earned national recognition for clinical quality and inclusion on multiple Forbes “Best Employers” lists. An author and widely respected thought leader, Woods wrote Health, Hope, and Healing for All: Toward More Equitable and Affordable Healthcare. He has chaired both the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Board. Woods’ leadership has been acknowledged with nine appearances on Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare,” Becker’s “Great Leaders in Healthcare,” and more. Woods holds a bachelor’s degree in health planning and administration, as well as MBA and MHA degrees, from The Pennsylvania State University.