Joseph L. Wright, MD, MPH

Joseph L. Wright, MD, MPH is Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). With more than 30 years of experience in academic health systems, Dr. Wright previously served as a Chief Medical Officer within the University of Maryland Medical System, as tenured Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at the Howard University College of Medicine and spent two decades in senior leadership at Children's National Hospital where he provided strategic direction for community partnerships, public policy positions and launched the Child Health Advocacy Institute. He contemporaneously served 17 years as the State EMS Medical Director for Pediatrics within the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, and currently maintains appointments as adjunct professor of emergency medicine, pediatrics and health policy at the George Washington University Schools of Medicine and Public Health.

Academically, Dr. Wright is among the nation’s original cohort of board-certified pediatric emergency physicians with scholarly interests that include injury prevention and the needs of underserved communities. He has contributed over 120 publications to the scientific literature (H-index=45) including as lead author of policy statements on The Role of Pediatricians in Youth Violence Prevention, Ensuring the Health of Children in Disasters, and Eliminating Race-Based Medicine. He was a principal investigator of the NIH-funded DC-Baltimore Research Center on Child Health Disparities, is an elected member of Alpha Omega Alpha and Delta Omega, the nation’s medical and public health honor societies, and the Academy of Medicine of Washington.

Dr. Wright has chaired the AAP’s Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Task Force on Addressing Bias and Discrimination, Board of Director’s Committee on Equity and has been recognized for long-standing leadership as recipient of career achievement awards for humanitarianism, injury prevention and emergency medicine. He is also the inaugural recipient of the AAP’s Equity Excellence Award. the Academic Pediatric Association’s George Armstrong Award, the Safe Kids Worldwide C. Everett Koop Medal of Distinction, the University of Maryland Distinguished Terrapin Award, and the George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award all the most prestigious honors bestowed by those organizations. Eponymous awards honoring his legacy of leadership have been established by Children’s National and the AAP.

Dr. Wright provides national leadership through advisory and governance service to several health and human service entities including the Association of American Medical Colleges, the National Academy of Medicine and Safe Kids Worldwide. He previously served as an Obama administration appointee to the Food and Drug Administration’s Pediatric Advisory Committee and regularly presents invited testimony before Congress, and state and municipal legislative bodies. Dr. Wright has made numerous national media appearances, and lectures widely to both professional and lay audiences.

Dr. Wright earned a BA as a two-sport athlete from Wesleyan University, an MD from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and a Master of Public Health in Administrative Medicine and Management from George Washington University. He is the son of New York City civil servants and a proud descendant of the South Carolina sea islands’ Gullah community.