Michele Wright, PhD, and Terry Wright, NOAACF Co-Founders
Throughout their life journey as husband and wife since wedding on November 4, 2000, Dr. Michele Wright, Ph.D. and Terry Gene Wright have led an array of initiatives, campaigns, and organizations focused on improving visibility, access, and opportunity for underrepresented communities, with a particular emphasis on health equity.
As the co-founders of the National Organization of African Americans with Cystic Fibrosis (NOAACF) – with Terry serving as NOAACF President and Michele serving as Board Chair and Senior Executive Director – the Wrights have championed a diverse range of health equity initiatives. Through widespread involvement, partnerships, engagement, and outreach, under their leadership, NOAACF has strategically helped to ensure that communities of people who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are well informed of the existence, prevalence, and impact of CF on underrepresented communities.
They also co-founded and co-chair the annual Blacks, Indigenous, and Other Minority Ethnicities with Rare and Genetic Diseases (BIOMERGD) Conference, an annual event hosted by NOAACF that coincides with Rare Disease Day and Black History Month, with a mission to help increase awareness of rare diseases in BIPOC communities by focusing on one genetic disease and one rare disease each year.
Additionally, they created and led the development of The Wright Cystic Fibrosis Screening Tool, in both patient and provider versions, in English and Spanish translations, to help people self-identify symptoms that could be related to CF as well as help medical providers identify people — and particularly people of color — who may have CF.
Simultaneously, the Wrights developed and launched the Advocating for Health Equity and Addressing Disparities (AHEAD) Initiative, in conjunction with the Coalition of Healthcare Advocates for Narrowing the Gap in Equity (CHANGE) Campaign, with a mission to increase awareness of health disparities in minority and underserved communities and to introduce a successful roadmap and advancement strategies for achieving health equity in healthcare, clinical treatment, medical diagnosis, and clinical trials across disadvantaged populations.
Using their rare voice within the rare disease space, they continue to advocate for “Terry Wright’s Law,” which will require that all known CF-causing gene variants (also called mutations) be used for newborn screening and diagnostic testing for CF. This will markedly improve equity in newborn screening for BIPOC individuals while benefiting all people with CF who may have delayed or missed diagnosis due to the presence of rare CFTR variants.
The Wrights are both 2023 AARP Purpose Prize Fellows — the first from Arkansas to receive this honor — in recognition of their global impact and nationally recognized contributions to diversity, inclusion, and health equity. And, in 2022, they historically became the first people of color to receive the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) Arkansas Chapter’s annual Breath of Life Award, CFF’s highest award.
Michele and Terry Wright reside in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
