Andrea Calo had a problem, and she didn’t know how to fix it. The grant and proposal developer at the Summa Foundation discovered that her team and two other Akron-area organizations were writing a proposal for the same minority health initiative, a situation that might cost all organizations the funding.
Calo didn’t want to anger anyone in the other organizations, so she sought the advice of her mentor Tracy Carter, system director for government affairs and health policy.
“She’s just so good at, OK, let’s not freak out about it. We can fix it,” Calo says.
Carter advised her to talk with her counterparts. The message was simple: “We have the same goals,” Carter says. “Let’s leverage our resources together and come up with a better quality grant.”
So they worked together and, though the final decision is still pending, they’re hopeful about the funding — $141,000 of which would go to Summa.
When Calo and Carter met in November 2008, the two connected immediately. Carter saw a spunk in the 29-year-old attorney that she admired, the qualities of a leader — someone who wasn’t afraid to challenge the norm and present alternate ideas. “What I want to do is build her confidence, expose her to new horizons and opportunities for leadership,” Carter says. “And if I’m able to do that, I will be very overjoyed because that’s what I enjoy is helping others succeed.”
Carter’s mother set that same example for her at an early age. Tanya Carter worked two jobs, raised five kids and still found time to nurture young Tracy. “Always take care of others, and your needs will always be met,” her mother would say.
At 9, Carter joined Girl Scouts and learned the importance of leadership and public service. “Troop leaders encouraged girls to take leadership on different tasks or assignments,” she says. “From that you start to build your esteem, your confidence, and that’s just something that’s in my mind, embedded. It’s part of who I am.”
Carter became interested in health care in middle school even though she couldn’t stand the sight of blood. After hearing a hospital administrator talk about the business, she realized there might be a place for her.
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LIFE LESSONS
⊲ Public service is an essential part of leadership.
⊲ Leadership is a gift that needs to be handled with care because a lot of people have leadership and power. But if it’s ill-used or not managed properly, all hell breaks loose.
⊲ We shake the world.
⊲ There is great joy in giving the best of you to someone else so that they can thrive, so that they can fly on their own.
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“With the exception of education, there is no greater sector that transforms a person’s life,” she says. “You’re dealing with birth, death and everything in between. To me, it’s a ministry that I’m involved with.”
While working on her bachelor’s at Ohio University, Carter interned at Summa during her summers. Albert Gilbert, former president and CEO of Summa Health System, showed her the ways of health care administration. “He’s the one who encouraged me to go to the top schools for health care,” says Carter, who earned her master’s in health services administration from the University of Michigan.
Carter spent seven years as director of community relations, where she initiated a prostate awareness and screening program for minorities that benefited more than 5,000 men.
Five years ago Carter moved into her current position, working with clinical and political leaders to deal with health care reform. “We’re having dialogues about what we all can live with to make things work for better access, better coverage, better quality for all Americans,” she says. For Carter, who facilitates these dialogues, it’s about relationships.
“She has the ability to work with a lot of different groups of people,” Calo says.
She sees that firsthand. “I always call her my biggest champion in life,” Calo says. “She’s always bringing me places or introducing me to people.”
Because of Carter, Calo became involved in the Women’s Endowment Fund, where Carter serves as board president. Carter is working to leave a legacy by raising the endowment from $1 million to $3 million by the group’s 20th anniversary in 2013. “It’s been the idea of the previous president, but I consider myself to be the implementation president, to take us across the finish line,” Carter says.
It’s not easy balancing family, work and service, but Carter is proving her mother right. “Because I’ve always taken care of others, I’ve never had a need for anything,” she says.