Joel Allison is president and chief executive officer of Baylor Health Care System (BHCS) in Dallas.
His primary responsibility is to help Baylor attain its vision “to be trusted as the best place to give and
receive safe, compassionate, quality health care”.
To do so, Allison continues developing Baylor as a patient-focused health care delivery system and clinical enterprise that offers prevention and wellness, physician, outpatient, acute hospital and other services that are geographically dispersed yet efficient and fully-coordinated. He maintains a focus on providing quality, safe patient care that can be measured and reported. He also places a renewed focus on medical education and health care research and continues to collaborate with physicians in the design and development of BHCS.
Allison’s career includes almost three decades in health care management. He joined Baylor Health Care System in 1993, and served as Baylor’s senior executive vice president and chief operating officer before being promoted to president and CEO in 2000.
Allison received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and religion at Baylor University in 1970 and attended Trinity University's health care administration program where he earned a master's degree in
1973. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and in 2004 he received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Dallas Baptist University.
Allison is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Nationally, he serves on the Healthcare Leadership Council and the National Quality Forum, and he also is a member of the United Surgical Partners, International board. In addition, he serves on numerous state and local boards; including VHA Texas, Texas Association of Voluntary Hospitals, Dallas Citizens Council, Dallas Education Foundation and the Dallas Regional Chamber.
Allison has been honored by Modern Healthcare each year from 2004 to 2008 as one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare”. He also received the 2005 Modern Healthcare/HIMSS “CEO IT Achievement Award” for his leadership and commitment to healthcare technology. Other honors
include being selected in 2004 as the Baylor University “Distinguished Alumnus” and he received the Trinity University Healthcare Alumni Association “Leonard A. Duce Award” in 1999 for outstanding leadership and significant contribution to the healthcare field. In addition, he was honored in 2005 by the Dallas Historical Society with the “Excellence in Healthcare” award and in 2008 by the Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council with the Boone Powell, Sr. Award for Excellence.
Today, through his leadership role with BHCS, Allison continues to fulfill his life-long mission to help lead an organization that combines ministry and health care in its mission statement and day-to-day operations.
Joel and his wife Diane have a daughter, two sons and three grandchildren.