Around Town: Stacey Corley

By Julie Milton | Photo by Nancy Guth | January 2024

With just over a year in her current position as president of the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation, Stacey is leading an organization whose critically important mission is to help Sarasota Memorial Health Care System bring world-class healthcare to our community. How is she doing you ask?

Just look around. There’s the new Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute. The expanding Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Venice. The Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion, future Research and Education Institute…and more. 

We would say Stacey Corley is doing a great job for and with our community. Working with her team and a board of directors that reads like a who’s who in Sarasota, she is wasting no time building on the organization’s past achievements and current initiatives. 

So how will this philanthropic dynamo further the impact of the Healthcare Foundation and Sarasota Memorial Health Care System?  Let’s find out!

You’ve been in your role as president of the Foundation since September 2022. Tell us about your focus and accomplishments during this time.

From a fundraising perspective, major initiatives include the recently opened Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion, the Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute and the expansion of SMH-Venice. The latter two are currently under construction. Also, SMH recently celebrated the groundbreaking for the outpatient Cancer Pavilion on the SMH-Sarasota Campus. We have a lot of momentum with those projects where donor support has been instrumental in their creation.

We’ve been growing and are also planning for future growth. We’ve already begun adding new staff so we can continue providing our donors with our superior level of service.

Describe your and the Foundation’s partnership and collaboration with David Verinder, the president of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, who is also a Foundation board member?

The Healthcare Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. Our partnership is strong and successful largely due to our collaboration with David Verinder and many other SMH leaders. We work together to identify areas of greatest need, many that are not funded by Medicare and private insurers. That includes programs, services and clinical research that are critically important to maintaining the level of healthcare excellence we’ve all grown to expect from SMH.

The Foundation has helped bring world-class healthcare to our community in several aspects of healthcare for over four and a half decades. What have been its most important research and technology funding accomplishments? 

SMH’s research and graduate medical education programs have tripled in size in recent years. It is with donor support that we were able to break ground last June on the new Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute. On the tech side, we are perpetually funding everything from the most advanced surgical equipment and cath lab upgrades, to high tech Giraffe beds for NICU babies.

In the area of patient care, how does the Foundation assist the SMH Health Care System in achieving top scores?

Some of the most important areas where donor support makes a significant impact are staff education, residency programs, clinical research and nursing.

What does the opening of the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Center mean to the community?

The Jellison Institute has innumerable benefits to the community. The vision for the institute was to provide comprehensive, patient-centered cancer care so that no one has to leave home to get the best cancer care. It is a state-of-the-art facility, with some of the nation’s top oncologists, highly trained oncology nurse navigators, nurses, and the latest technology. We love hearing patients share what a difference it has made for them.

Please address the concern about nursing shortages and how the Foundation assists in the SMH Health Care System to ensure proper staffing. 

The Healthcare Foundation assists SMH by funding areas such as continuing education and scholarships for nurses, and resiliency programs that help retain its nursing workforce.

Mental illness is front and center nationwide and depression is on the rise.  Please tell our readers about the Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion and how it will help.

The need for more behavioral health services was great and our health system, with philanthropic support, was able to create the state-of-the-art Cornell Pavilion for people struggling with mental health issues. Philanthropy played a critical role by supporting new programs such as in- and outpatient programs that were unavailable as well as enhancing previous services. The new facility puts everything under one roof and now serves patients of all ages.

Now for the fun side of the Foundation’s work—the fundraising events.  The Foundation hosts several signature events each year and recently wowed over 750 people when it brought back Rock the Roof.  This month The Hospital Gala will be a sell-out event.  Then there’s Women & Medicine and the golf tournament. Tell us about the work behind the scenes, and what these events mean for the Foundation. 

Hosting four major, sold-out events is only possible through the close collaboration of the entire Foundation team, hospital leadership, staff and vendors who understand and are committed to our mission. Everything behind-the-scenes and front-facing focuses on creating an exceptional guest experience that promotes SMH initiatives and garners community support for critical needs at the health system. Events are also “friend raisers” which connect us to new prospective donors who want to learn more about our work.

In a growing community like ours, what are the long-term Foundation goals?

We are truly at a remarkable time in history.  Unlike some places around the country, people are moving here rather than moving away.  Many are interested in supporting their new community and often share that one of the factors in moving to our area was our excellent health system.   Fortunately, SMH is growing to keep up with the population’s healthcare needs.  Our goal is to continue connecting donors and prospective donors with the opportunities that positively impact healthcare at SMH and in our community. 

The Foundation website states: TOGETHER WE STRENGHTEN HEALTHCARE. Please tell our readers the various ways they can help the Foundation do just that.

We try to make supporting the health system as easy as possible, and it’s important to note that any gift amount makes an impact. Readers can donate to a specific department, initiative or to where support is most needed. Another way to make an impact is as a grateful patient. Honoring a caregiver who provided exceptional care at the hospital is a personal and greatly appreciated way to make a gift. Attending an event is another way to help. Our website, smhf.org is full of information about ways to give. Of course, we’re happy to meet in person, too, just give us a call at 941-917-1286.

What does Stacey Corley do to unwind and what are some of your favorite places around town?

Going on a walk or bike ride after work —especially on the weekend— is lots of fun. I also enjoy cooking or reading. We recently moved closer to downtown and have had fun exploring restaurants, parks and trails that are new to us.