Speaker: Tracy Carter, President & CEO, Trailhead Community Health Foundation of Greater Akron (Signature 15)
Moderator: Marty Hauser, Board President, Trailhead Community Health Foundation of Greater Akron (Signature 11)

Tracy Carter is a distinguished healthcare executive and public policy leader whose career has focused on expanding access to care, advancing community health, and forging strategic partnerships that improve outcomes. She currently serves as President of the Trailhead Community Health Foundation of Greater Akron. The Foundation will advance regional health and wellness through philanthropic investment and grantmaking, and serve as the public monitor for the Health Assurance Transformation Company, helping to ensure compliance with its state purchase agreement.

Carter began her healthcare career in 1989 as an INROADS college intern at Summa Akron City Hospital. Following the completion of her undergraduate business degree and graduate training in health services administration, she returned to the organization as an administrative fellow and subsequently advanced into leadership positions spanning corporate projects, external affairs, government relations, and health policy.

In 2015, Carter joined The MetroHealth System, where she helped align public policy strategy with organizational priorities to advance health coverage, access, and strategic growth. She returned to Summa in 2019 to lead the organization’s government affairs and health policy portfolio.

Among her most notable accomplishments, she co-chaired a regional collaboration that helped 60,000 Akron-Canton residents obtain Medicaid coverage and partnered with Ohio health systems and clinical leaders to advance state policy requiring insurance coverage for dense breast screening, supporting earlier detection and treatment for patients across the state.

Carter has also demonstrated a longstanding commitment to higher education and civic leadership, including service as co-founder and inaugural president of The Ohio University Ebony Bobcat Network Akron/Canton Affiliate.

Appointed twice by Governor Mike DeWine, she serves as a trustee of Stark State College and currently holds the role of second vice chair.

Her community leadership includes service as a former trustee of the Akron Community Foundation, where she also served as president of The Women’s Endowment Fund Advisory Board. She is a co-founder and current chair of the Black Giving Collective Affiliate Fund.

She has also served as chair of The Well Community Development Corporation board of trustees and co-chair of the Greater Akron Chamber Government Affairs Committee.

Her public service includes appointments to the Akron Civil Service Commission and the Summit County Nonpartisan Fair District Commission, and she was named co-chair of the Gun Violence Response Fund Advisory Committee.

Tracy is a member of The Akron Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and a graduate of the Leadership Akron and Leadership Cleveland programs.

Carter’s leadership has been recognized through numerous professional and civic honors, including designation as one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Minority Executives and recognition from the Akron Community Foundation, the Ohio University Ebony Bobcat Network, and Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Among her many professional and civic accomplishments, Carter considers her role as mother to Jaylen and Brianna Johnson to be her most meaningful.

Breakfast is included, compliments of the Akron RubberDucks

Join us as we bring in Akron’s changemakers for leadership conversations. Get to know the current class and engage with alumni through this open forum.