Joseph L. Wright, MD, MPH is Chief Health Equity Officer of the 12-campus University of Maryland Medical System and the incoming Chief Health Equity Officer of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). He previously served as Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at the Howard University College of Medicine, and as Senior Vice President at the Children's National Hospital. Dr. Wright maintains appointments as adjunct professor of emergency medicine and health policy at George Washington University, and teaches as professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of 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 and was principal investigator of the NIH-funded DC-Baltimore Research Center on Child Health Disparities. Dr. Wright chaired the AAP Task Force on Addressing Bias and Discrimination, the Board Committee on Equity and was lead author of the AAP’s Eliminating Race-Based Medicine policy statement. He is recipient of the Academy’s inaugural Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Award. Dr. Wright earned a BA from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, MD from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and a Master of Public Health in Administrative Medicine and Management from George Washington University.