Pre-Health Director to Lead National Group

Dr. J. Scott Wright, associate dean and director of the UT Dallas Health Professions Advising Center (HPAC), was recently elected president-elect of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NAAHP).

He will serve a six-year term, with two years each in the role of president-elect, president and immediate past president. His duties will include chairing the NAAHP executive committee, working with the NAAHP staff and providing a vision to extend the organization’s activities to additional advisers and other health education professionals.

“Scott Wright has risen in the NAAHP leadership over the past few years,” said NAAHP Executive Director Susan Maxwell. “Selected as the 2010 national meeting program chair, he has demonstrated a commitment to the association which led to his identification as a potential presidential candidate.

“He is passionate about advising and has been a fine spokesperson for the profession. We are very pleased that he will serve the association as an officer from 2010 to 2016.”

Wright currently serves NAAHP as program committee chair for the 2010 19th NAAHP national meeting to be held in June in Atlanta. He also serves on the board of directors of the Texas (TAAHP) and Southeastern (SAAHP) adviser associations.

“I was both humbled and elated when I was notified of my election,” said Wright. “The association does so much for the health advising profession. I hope to continue the excellent leadership that NAAHP has had over the years and work to extend opportunities for professional development for advisers during my time serving as its leader.”

The NAAHP, an organization of approximately 1,400 health professions advisers, graduate programs and their associations from colleges and universities across the U.S., was established in 1974. Its purpose is to serve as a resource for health professions advisers and to give them a means to speak collectively to stakeholders.

As the healthcare field has grown, so has the role of the health professions adviser. Once narrowly known as a pre-medical students, pre-health students may wish to attend medical, dental, optometry, osteopathic, pharmacy, physical therapy or physician assistant schools. Health professions advisers provide guidance to students who aspire to careers in any of these professions.

Wright earned a doctorate of education in higher education from the University of North Texas in 1999. He also received master’s and bachelor’s degrees in history from The University of Texas at Arlington in 1991 and 1987. In addition, he attended the Harvard University Graduate School of Education Institutes for Higher Education in 1998 and Alumni Seminar on Leadership issues in 1999 and 2004.

Wright joined UT Dallas in 2006, with a dual appointment as associate dean of undergraduate education and director of the HPAC. Before that, he was director of admissions at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

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