Joseph L. Wright, MD, MPH

Joseph L. Wright, MD, MPH is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Capital Region Health within the University of Maryland Medical System.

He previously served as Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at the Howard University College of Medicine, and as Senior Vice President within the Children's National Health System, where he provided strategic leadership for the organization's advocacy mission, public policy positions, and community partnership initiatives.

He maintains appointments as adjunct professor of emergency medicine and health policy at the George Washington University, and is adjunct professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. He served 17 years as the state pediatric medical director within the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, in addition to 8 years as principal investigator of the federally-funded EMS for Children National Resource Center.

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 100 publications to the scientific literature, served more than 20 visiting professorships, and was principal investigator of the NIH-funded DC-Baltimore Research Center on Child Health Disparities. Dr. Wright is an elected member of the Alpha Omega Alpha (medicine) and Delta Omega (public health) honor societies, the Academy of Medicine of Washington, and the American Pediatric Society for which he co-chairs the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.

Dr. Wright is immediate past chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine after having served as inaugural chair of the AAP Violence Prevention Subcommittee. He also chaired the AAP Task Force on Addressing Bias and Discrimination and is a newly elected member of the AAP Board of Directors. Dr. Wright has been recognized throughout his career for his advocacy work highlighted by receipt of two lifetime achievement awards from the AAP for distinguished contributions to the disciplines of injury prevention and emergency medicine, respectively. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Shining Star Award from the Los Angeles-based Starlight Foundation for outstanding service to communities of color and was recognized by the Washington Business Journal with its 2020 Minority Business Leader Award.

Dr. Wright provides national leadership through advisory and governance service to several organized medicine and health and human service entities including the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Hospital Association, the Aspen Institute, and the March of Dimes, and served as an Obama administration appointee to the Pediatric Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration. He regularly presents invited testimony before Congress, state and municipal legislative bodies, has made numerous media appearances, and lectures widely to both professional and lay audiences.

Dr. Wright earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, his M.D. from Rutgers University, and a Master of Public Health in Administrative Medicine and Management from George Washington University.