The Quiet Architecture of Care
How Joy Powell is strengthening the heartbeat of health care through equity, collaboration and trust
By Dr. Justine Williams Roper / Photos by Kate Treick Photography
Joy Powell has a way of making systems feel human.
In a role that spans boardrooms and community rooms, policy conversations and bedside realities, Powell’s work comes down to one essential question: Do people feel seen, supported, and able to choose what’s best for their health? It is a question she has been living inside for decades, long before she carried the title of chief health equity officer at Baptist Health Care.
“I have been working in the intersection of faith and health for the past 30 years,” Powell expressed. As a Memphis native, she has engulfed her life’s work in the selfless work of community health. This intersection is more than a theme in her career. It is her method, her philosophy, and, in many ways, her calling.
Her first encounter with Pensacola came in 2015, when she was invited to speak about community work that required something many people never consider: permission.
However, she did not expect to return. As fate would have it, she moved to Pensacola from Memphis in October 2017. Since then, she has been helping create a culture of change that invites healing, restores trust and moves our community toward wholeness.
The faith and health connection
When Powell arrived in Pensacola, she did not arrive as chief health equity officer. She arrived as director of community health and programming, drawn to Baptist because she saw an opportunity to reach people at scale in the most trusted places in their lives.
“One of the best ways to do it is through faith-based organizations,” she said.
Powell is candid about why. For Powell, the faith and health movement is not marketing. It is infrastructure. By partnering with pastors who desired to be a more integral part of an individual’s healing process, the point was never to replace medicine. It was to extend care into the realities that shape health after discharge. Faith networks allow systems to address what Powell called social treatment plans, the real-life supports that determine whether care plans succeed.
For Powell, the spiritual and the physical are not competitors.
“A lot of people see it as a cross, but a lot of people also see it as an intersection … to the higher power that I believe in, as well as my physical health. They go together.”
She even named a source that shaped her thinking.
“There was a book by Gary Gunderson called “Deeply Woven Roots,” and it really talks about the roots of a church and how they’re so deeply woven into the community that you almost can’t do any community work without involving the faith leaders.”
Equity, trust and the question of “why”
Powell does not talk about equity as a slogan. She talks about it as a set of values and behaviors that she stands by.
She named compassion first. “Number one is compassion,” she said. “I try to make sure that I prioritize empathy and understanding with all individuals, so that they feel valued and cared for.”
Then integrity. “Because if people can’t trust you, they’re not gonna believe anything you say.”
And then the heart of her work.
“Equity and justice,” she said. “I believe in fairness. I also believe in and will always advocate for removing barriers that prevent people from being their best selves.” Powell is also clear that equity work requires humility and listening.
Even the way she thinks about data is deeply human.
“I do have a strong data background, and I believe that data is important. However, when you tie the story and life to the data … it evokes change.” Trust, she believes, is not mysterious. “Trust, we make it bigger than what it is,” she said. “It’s saying what you mean and meaning what you say.”
Community care and silent barriers
For Powell, health care does not begin or end with an individual patient. It lives in the community itself. She speaks often about “community care,” a concept rooted in the reality that people are shaped by the environments they return to after leaving a clinic or hospital.
Zip codes, transportation routes, housing stability and food access all influence whether care plans succeed or fail. Powell points to barriers that often go unnoticed but carry enormous weight, including attainable housing, unreliable transportation and what she describes as food swamps — places where food is plentiful but nutritious options are scarce.
Language, medical jargon and a lack of explanation around the “why” behind health decisions further widen gaps — especially when people feel directed rather than included. In her work, these barriers are not abstract problems to be studied from a distance. They are daily realities that require systems to listen more closely, communicate more clearly and design care that meets people where they are, not where institutions assume they should be.
Meaningful shifts
When I asked Powell what meaningful shifts she has witnessed over the course of her career in Pensacola, she didn’t hesitate.
“COVID taught us a lot,” she said. “Watching our health system partner with other health entities to make sure that people were educated and they knew how to navigate. We were also advocating on the state level.”
The word that mattered most was “together.”
“Seeing all these entities come together and say, ‘Hey, we have to come up with a plan. Our community deserves a plan.’”
She also pointed to a second shift that felt like the future.
“Achieve Healthy EscaRosa is a collective impact around health,” she said. “You have all the hospital systems at the table … everybody in one place with a huge health improvement plan for our two counties.”
And she named it as rare.
“I’ve never in all of my years seen hospital systems that are competitors work together.”
Heart, soul and
the right to choose
When asked what heart and soul mean to her, Powell did not hesitate. “The heart represents compassion,” she said. “It’s the emotional core that drives me to support other individuals.” The soul, she explained, reflects purpose, identity and resilience, the spirit that gives a community its strength and uniqueness. What unites it all is the human element behind progress, the shared values and stories that make communities whole.
Powell describes her calling with three simple verbs. “I’m called to do three things,” she said. “I’m called to educate, navigate and advocate.” For her, equity work is often translation, explaining complex systems, reducing friction and connecting people to the right support at the right moment.
It is work grounded in relationship and reinforced through structure, supported by navigators who help ensure no one has to find their way alone. At its core, her approach is about informed choice, making sure people understand their options and feel supported in deciding what is right for them.
When asked about legacy, Powell shares that she desires to be known as the “connector.”
That is the quiet architecture of care. Not a headline. Not a slogan. A bridge. A connector. A steady presence doing the unglamorous work of helping people move forward safely, with dignity, and with the right to choose.
