Cornell P. Wright, MPA
Health Equity & JEDI Consultant
BIOGRAPHY
Professional
info
Cornell P. Wright, MPA is a prominent internationally renowned leader and subject-matter expert in the area of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, health equity, minority health, historically marginalized populations, outreach, and comm engagement. Wright currently serves as the Health Equity Advisor for General Dynamics Information Technology. Most recently, Wright served the Alliance for a Healthier Generation as their first -ever Chief Health Equity Officer, while helping to pave the way to accelerate their mission and impact in whole child health equity.
For seven years, Wright also served as Executive Director of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, where he led programs. provided guidance, policy development, budget management, and provided statewide leadership to address health disparities. In addition, he provided leadership to NC Health Systems to ensure minority health priorities, policies, and initiatives were addressed in a systematic way and on a statewide basis.
Wright has been lauded by the North Carolina Governor and other State leaders, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, for his rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic: co-creating and co-leading the NC Historically Marginalized Populations Workgroup to ensure that the inequities and disparities that we see in specialized communities were addressed through statewide response and recovery efforts.
As an active member in the health community, Wright serves and has served on various groups, organizations and boards including the Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute where he served as chair on the Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science Advisory Panel, the North Carolina Governor-appointed Andrea Harris Social, Economic, Environmental and Health Equity Task Force where he served as chair to the Patient Engagement Subcommittee, and the Southeastern Health Equity Council, as part of the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities, serving as the Co-Chair to the Social Determinants of Health Committee.
Due to his many contributions in the health arena, Wright has received awards and recognitions from such entities as the National Institutes of Health, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, North Carolina Central University, the National Minority Quality Forum, and was recognized as a former Spectacular Magazine Man of the Year in Health. Wright has also presenter during TED X UNC, offering his gifts to explore and define “Sexual Health Equity” in his talk “#ColorPurpleRain” and recently published an invited commentary entitled “In Search of Equity” in the North Carolina Medical Journal.
Always willing to serve, Wright is passionate about his work and assisting others.
Skills
Project Management
Contract/ Grant/ Cooperative Agreement Management
Focus Group Facilitation
Logic Modeling
Evaluation
Budget Evaluation
Team Building
Health Literacy
Languages
HTML/CSS
French (intermediate)
Work
experience
October 2023 - present: General Dynamics Information Technology
Health Equity Advisor
April 2022 - September 2023: Alliance for a Healthier Generation
Chief Health Equity Officer
March 2015 - April 2022: North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities
Executive Director
October 2013 - February 2015: Duke University, Duke Cancer Institute, Office of Health Equity and Disparities
Outreach and Screening Patient Navigation Coordinator
August 2013 - October 2013: American Heart Association, Mid-Atlantic Affiliate
Interim Director, Community and Multicultural Health Initiatives
June 2013 - February 2015: University of North Carolina Healthcare System, 6 East – Lower GI Surgery
Health Unit Coordinator
August 2009 - October 2013: Center for Health and Healing, Inc. (a non-profit affiliate of the General Baptist State Convention of NC, Inc.)
Agency Programs Manager
August 2005 - August 2009: Center for Health and Healing, Inc. (a non-profit affiliate of the General Baptist State Convention of NC, Inc.),
Minority Health Careers Initiative Project Coordinator
September 2004 - August 2005: Center for Health and Healing, Inc. (a non-profit affiliate of the General Baptist State Convention of NC, Inc.) Picture Me Tobacco Free Project
Project Assistant/ AmeriCorps Fellow
January 2003 - May 2004: American Legacy Foundation, Historically Black Colleges, Universities Tobacco Control Advocacy Project
Graduate Assistant, Lead Evaluator
Education
North Carolina Central University.
Master's of Art, Public Administration (MPA)
2002 - 2005
North Carolina Central University.
Bachelor's of Art, Political Science
1997 - 2002