Michele Wright, Ph.D. is the Co-Founder and Board Chair of the National Organization of African Americans with Cystic Fibrosis (NOAACF), a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to engage, educate, and raise cystic fibrosis (CF) awareness in the African American community and to help bring valuable resources, tools, knowledge, empowerment, and support to CF patients, families, healthcare professionals, and the community through its national platform and focus on health equity for Blacks, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
Dr. Wright is the 2022 USA TODAY Woman of the Year for Arkansas and a 2022-2023 AARP Purpose Prize Fellow in recognition of her global impact and nationally recognized contributions to diversity, inclusion, and health equity. In 2022, she and her husband, NOAACF Co-Founder Terry Wright, also made history as the first persons of color to receive the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) Arkansas Chapter’s annual “Breath of Life Award”, CFF’s Highest Award bestowed.
She is the writer, director, and executive producer of the 2022 Black Reels Awards “Outstanding Short” nominated film, 54 YEARS LATE. She is the recipient of the Nations of Women Change Makers 2021 Global Leadership Award and a nominee of the EveryLife Foundation of Rare Diseases’ RareVoice 2021 Award for Diversity Empowerment.
Dr. Wright co-founded and co-chairs the annual BIOMERGD (Blacks, Indigenous, and Other Minority Ethnicities with Rare and Genetic Diseases) 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.
She is a multi-dimensional Senior Executive with experience providing dynamic leadership in diverse roles, including pharmaceutical/biotechnology sales, healthcare administration, and business development to Fortune 100 companies and an international non-profit organization. She is also the CEO and Founder of My Water Buddy® and My Learning Buddy® edutainment corporations.
With advanced degrees in engineering and public policy, she is fully committed to diversity and inclusion with a special emphasis on health equity. She has championed a diverse range of health equity initiatives in her role as NOAACF’s Board Chair and Senior Executive Director.
Through widespread involvement, partnerships, engagement, and outreach, under her leadership, NOAACF has strategically helped to ensure that BIPOC communities and beyond are well informed of cystic fibrosis (CF)’s existence, prevalence, and impact on underrepresented communities.
Dr. Wright and her husband Terry led the development of The Wright Cystic Fibrosis Screening Tool© (in coordination with Jennifer Taylor-Cousar, M.D., M.S.C.S (Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics) – in both patient and provider versions and English and Spanish translations – to help people self-identify symptoms that could be related to CF as well as help medical providers identify people who may have CF, especially those who are BIPOC.
Simultaneously, she developed and launched the Advocating for Health Equity and Addressing Disparities© (AHEAD) Initiative with a mission to increase awareness of health disparities in minority and underserved communities and to introduce a successful roadmap and advancement strategies toward achieving health equity in healthcare, clinical treatment, medical diagnosis, and clinical trials across a multitude of disadvantaged populations.
She also wrote, directed, and produced the multiple award-winning 2021 docudrama short that tells the gut-wrenching true-life story of her 62-year old husband Terry Wright’s late diagnosis of cystic fibrosis at the age of 54 despite being seen by an array of medical practitioners, enduring countless hospitalizations and surgeries, and having all the classic symptoms of CF – a progressive and genetic disease that’s often perceived to affect only the Caucasian population. This film has received more than 70 accolades from various film festivals and competitions.
In her various health equity roles, Dr. Wright helps to highlight and drive diversity, inclusion, and equity and remains fully committed to increasing awareness of health disparities in minoritized people, underserved communities, and disadvantaged populations while helping to bring valuable resources, knowledge, empowerment, and support to patients, families, healthcare professionals, and the community.
Her life mantra is “The Best Is Yet to Come,” which she plans to extend towards helping and positively impacting children, women, and underrepresented populations worldwide. Dr. Wright and her husband Terry Gene Wright reside in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES/EVENTS:
Tuskegee Native and Alumna, Dr. Michele Wise Wright, Ph.D., served as the Spring 2022 Tuskegee University Graduate and Professional Schools Commencement Speaker on April 30, 2022 at Tuskegee University’s General Daniel “Chappie” James Arena.
Commencement Speaker: Michele Wise Wright, Ph.D. TU ‘90 [read speaker bio]
Tuskegee News Feature: Michele Wise Wright, Ph.D., April 21, 2022 [download news article]
Commencement Program: [download the Spring 2022 Commencement Program for viewing offline]
Commencement Video: Guest Speaker Michele Wise Wright, April 30, 2022 [watch video]
Tuskegee News Feature: Speaker Michele Wise Wright, Ph.D., May 26, 2022 [download news article]
Changemaker Michele Wright, Ph.D. was selected as the 2022 USA TODAY WOMAN OF THE YEAR for Arkansas.
USA TODAY’s Woman of the Year for Arkansas: Michele Wise Wright
Dr. Wright joins this year’s other honorees across our country including Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, Melinda French Gates, Rosalind Brewer, Simone Biles, Kizzmekia Corbett, Cheryl Horn, Janet Murguia, Linda Zhang, and numerous other trailblazers!
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Watch Dr. Michele Wright’s Woman of the Year honoree video clip
Dr. Michele Wright, Ph.D. was invited by Kansas University Medical Center Women in Medicine and Science, KU Medical Center Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, The University of Kansas Health System; and Moderators Dr. Jerrihlyn McGee and Dr. Deepika Polineni Veeramacheneni; as a featured speaker on “WOMEN WHO ARE CHANGING THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE”, alongside Dr. Joycelyn Elders, MD, the First African American Surgeon General, and Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Cousar, MD, the First Black person at National Jewish Health to be President of the medical staff at National Jewish Health, on Monday, March 21, 2022.
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Michele Wright won the “Best Actress” in a Short Film Award for the docudrama “54 YEARS LATE”, which she also wrote and directed, during the 13th Annual World Music & Independent Film Festival (WMIFF).
Dr. Wright also presented the “Best Supporting Actress” in a Short Film Award to Shawna Linzy. Started in 2009, by June Daguiso, WMIFF Red Carpet Awards Gala took place on Friday, March 11, 2022, at the Crystal City Hilton in Arlington, VA.
Dr. Michele Wright, Ph.D., Co-Founder, National Organization of African Americans with Cystic Fibrosis, Moderates the Forbes School of Business and Technology® Center for Women’s Leadership Panel Discussion “Leading Change in Healthcare Inequities: Illuminating Issues & Strategies to Empower You, Your Family & Your Community”, with esteemed Panelists: Dr. Joycelyn Elders, M.D., Former US Attorney General; Linda Goler Blount, President and CEO, Black Women Health Imperative (BWHI); and Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Cousar, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine sponsored by the University of Arizona Global Campus on February 10, 2022.
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Dr. Michele Wright is featured in the December 28, 2021 Edition of AUTHORITY MAGAZINE in an article titled: Changemaker Michele Wright is Making Her Unique Mark On the World and Says “With Synergy, the Sky Is the Limit!”, written by Debra Wallace.
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Michele Wright, Ph.D. is a 2021 Rare Voice Nominee for Diversity Empowerment – Patient/Organization. The event took place virtually on December 15, 2021 and marked the 10th year of the Rare Voice Awards hosted by Rare Disease Legislative Advocates (RDLA). This celebration honors advocates who give rare disease patients a voice in state and federal policy on Capitol Hill.
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Dr. Michele Wright is featured in the July 2021 Edition of INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE MAGAZINE in an article titled “Michele R. Wright, Ph.D., Recipient of the Nations of Women Change Makers 2021 Global Leadership Award”, written by Jules Lavallee.
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Dr. Michele Wright is featured (pgs. 14-17) in the May/June 2021 issue of HUAMI MAGAZINE ARKANSAS written by Ayana Bryant.
