Tracy Wood serves as president and CEO for Alleo Health System, a regional nonprofit hospice and senior care service provider based in Chattanooga. In this role, she is responsible for upholding the mission and values of the organization while successfully managing change in a dynamic and fast-paced landscape for the hospice and palliative care industry. Before coming to Chattanooga in 2016, Wood spent most of her career in finance, accounting and corporate compliance for privately owned nursing homes and hospice programs in New York, Virginia and Georgia. She earned a finance degree from Fordham University, and has worked at a variety of hospice programs including six years at a hospice business she started and grew in Atlanta before selling it in 2012.
What book have you read and recommended to others that influenced your career and leadership style?
"Dare to Lead" by Brene Brown is a wonderful book that offers an all-encompassing understanding of what it means to be a true leader.
Brown details why courage and vulnerability are essential traits for leadership, and she brings in years of research, relatable stories, and concrete examples to help the reader step up and apply what they've learned.
What book have you recently read for pleasure that you're recommending to others?
A book I'm currently reading for pleasure is "A Promised Land" by President Barack Obama.
Part one of President Obama's memoir explores his early political career up to 2011. There are personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout that help the reader to understand the former president beyond his office and political accomplishments.
What's on your to-read list?
Next on my to-read list is "Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You" by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss.
The authors focus on building others up and empowering them as the most important task of a leader. Frei and Morriss pose that leadership is not about you and the characteristics you possess, but the impact you can have on others. I am eager to read every page of this book and apply its principles at Alleo Health.