Joel Wernick is President and Chief Executive Officer of Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany, Georgia.

Since assuming the leadership of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in July 1988, Mr. Wernick has led several expansions to benefit the health status of all Southwest Georgians. Under his leadership, Phoebe has doubled its employee ranks to more than 3,800 today and is now the region's largest employer. With net revenues of more than $380 million, Phoebe has also invested more than $250 million in facilities and equipment improvements - $20 to $40 million annually over the past 14 years. In addition to main campus improvements, off-site expansions include an award-winning Physical Medicine facility, urgent care centers and, most recently, the first phase of a medical and physician center in the high-growth area of the county. His breakthrough thinking has introduced a new order in health care for Southwest Georgia. Phoebe also owns Phoebe Worth Hospital in Sylvester, a 49-bed facility with critical access status from the state of Georgia, and manages a second critical access hospital in Cuthbert, Georgia. The System owns a home health agency, community hospice and rural health clinics in five counties. As a result of these innovative and prudent investments, last year Phoebe gained the highest rating available to health care organizations from both Standard and Poor's and Moody's.

Mr. Wernick is a skilled communicator whose passion for Southwest Georgia is undisguised. He likes to quip that Albany is a "place where thousands live and millions wish they could." And to illustrate his point, he has committed resources and hard work to build a health care environment that embraces all vectors of health - medicine, education, economics, and cultural opportunities. His keen understanding of not just what extends life, but what in fact improves life, has changed the face of this community.

Mr. Wernick's health care vision rests on a philosophy of upstream investment - addressing issues in the community before they become serious health problems in the hospital. As a result of these upstream initiatives, Phoebe has moved out the fences, so to speak, by going outside the walls of the hospital to help shape proactive solutions. He has been the architect for an extensive community health improvements program, embracing and supporting a Community Health Institute, a Ph.D.-led research arm that is able to collect real-time data through surveys, focus groups and community dialogues. A Phoebe Community Visions program invests up to $1 million annually to bring Phoebe's resources into partnership with organizations, agencies and people who share a common goal to improve health status and build community connectedness. These projects have included car seats for toddlers, the revitalization of an inner city neighborhood, the planting of hundreds of trees on Arbor Day, a ramp building program for those without access, school/community nurses, and welfare-to- work programs.

These efforts and his leadership have garnered attention in the state and nation. In May 2004, Phoebe was awarded the Foster G. McGaw Prize for excellence in community service, one of the health care industry's most prestigious honors, bestowed by the American Hospital Association (AHA), the Baxter Alliance and Cardinal Health Foundation. The State of Georgia's Extension Service has recognized him for his involvement in child safety restraint. Phoebe was the first and one of only two hospitals among 2100 members to win three of four prestigious awards granted by the Volunteer Hospitals of America. Phoebe's investment in designing a national model for teen pregnancy, called the Network of Trust, has earned the AHA NOVA award. Network of Trust continues to impact the incidence of repeat teen pregnancies in Dougherty and surrounding counties and has grown to include a Teen Dads component.

Last year Mr. Wernick was called on to lead the Southwest Georgia Alliance, a community collaborative to prepare for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission for Albany and Southwest Georgia. While Albany's Marine Base is now marked for growth, the Alliance continues to study local and regional economic development issues so that Southwest Georgia offers positive and compelling support not only to the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, but also to other business and industry.

Mr. Wernick came to Albany from Pensacola, Fla., where for seven years he served as the vice president of operations for Baptist Regional Health Services. He served as president of BCI Health Ventures, Inc., of Pensacola, a taxable diversified health care corporation; as president and chief executive officer of Gulf Coast Health Cooperative of Pensacola, a taxable cooperative with 11 non-profit hospitals in Florida and Alabama; and as president of Baptist Manor, Inc., a 110-bed free-standing nursing home licensed by the State of Florida.

Mr. Wernick received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Arkansas and a master's degree in hospital administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Mr. Wernick serves as Board member of various health related organizations including VHA of Georgia, the Alliance of Georgia Not-for-Profit Hospitals, former Chairman of the Southwest district of the Georgia Hospital Association and Chairman of the Medical Resource Network, a statewide managed care network. He was named CEO of the Year by the Alliance of Community Hospitals in 2000.

He serves on the board of directors of the SunTrust Company Bank of South Georgia, the Albany United Way, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and as Honorary Chairman of the Mothers' March of Dimes WalkAmerica. He was also March of Dimes' Man of the Year in 1994 and in January 2006 he was named to the Georgia Trends Magazine's 100 Most Influential Georgians list.

Mr. Wernick is also a member of the Albany Chamber of Commerce, the Albany Rotary Club, the Albany Chapter of Ducks Unlimited, and a 1994 graduate of Leadership Georgia.