Carolyn Allison says she acquired the discipline to prepare for a career in health care from the formal, often strict, environment of the Catholic school she attended in her native New Jersey. Armed with that discipline, her mother’s encouragement and the hard-work ethic imparted by her father, a research biochemist, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology from Rutgers University and a master’s in public health from the University of Illinois. After working as a research biochemist in The University of Chicago’s pathology department, she moved into leadership roles in health care. Among them: senior associate director of Queens Hospital Center in New York City; executive director for the Northern New York Rural Health Care Alliance in Watertown, N.Y.; and medical office administrator at Kaiser Permanente in Charlotte, S.C.

Today, Allison is the chief executive officer of Metrolina Comprehensive Health Care Center in Charlotte, the only health care center of its kind in the city, and she is determined to make it the premier health-care provider in the central Carolinas. Allison wholeheartedly believes in the center’s mission to provide quality health care to any individual, regardless of the individual’s ability to pay. True to that mission, the center provides comprehensive primary care and OB/GYN services mainly to the underserved and uninsured of Charlotte-Meckleberg County.

Allison has lived in Charlotte with her husband and two children since 1995. A firm advocate and believer in the practice of volunteerism, she serves on numerous health-care advisory boards and committees, including those of the Shelter Health Clinic, Salvation Army, University of North Carolina and Junior League. She also participated in the “Leadership Charlotte” program aimed at developing and enhancing volunteer community leadership through service on the boards of local nonprofit organizations. Her implementation of a successful clinical program for the homeless in Charlotte recently earned her an award from The Homeless Health Care Network.

In her work for the betterment of the community, Allison says, she is guided by words from the biblical book of Proverbs: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”