Orthopedic Surgeon; Chief of Sports Medicine, Northside Hospital Orthopedic Institute
Orthopedic Surgeon, Author, Speaker, and "The Mobility Doc," Dr. Vonda Wright, M.D. is an internationally recognized authority on active aging and sports medicine.
Dr. Vonda Wright, M.D. is an orthopedic surgeon and internationally recognized authority on active aging and mobility. She believes with mobility, smart nutrition, and building relationships, we can harness our own power to control 70 percent of our health and aging.
A specialist in sports medicine, Dr. Wright is one of only a few female orthopedic surgeons in the United States. She currently serves as the inaugural Chief of Sports Medicine at the Northside Hospital Orthopedic Institute in Atlanta.
An intrapreneur, Dr. Wright was the Inaugural Medical Director of the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex — a 158,000-square-foot integrated sports medicine and performance joint venture between UPMC and the 5x Stanley Cup Campion Pittsburg Penguins. She is also the founding director of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes (PRIMA). Her pioneering research in mobility and musculoskeletal aging is changing the way we view and treat the aging process.
Dr. Wright cares for athletes and active people of all ages and skill levels from Division I athletes of Georgia State University, the University of Pittsburgh, the Pens Elite developmental hockey teams, World Rugby 7’s and Olympic track and field athletes, players of the PGA Tour Championship and US Open, and the Atlanta Ballet.
In addition to her surgical practice, Dr. Wright is a media content expert and regularly appears on national TV shows including “Dr. Oz,” and “The Doctors.” She is frequently quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and U.S. News & World Report, as well as in magazines such as Maxim, Prevention, Fitness, MORE, Runner’s World, Best Life, and Arthritis Today, and numerous online publications. She proudly serves on the Sharecare Medical Advisory Board, the Lake Nona Impact board, the Atlanta Ballet board, and is President-elect of the American Heart Association Atlanta.
Dr. Wright is the CEO and Founder of Women’s Health Conversations a health education and innovation company reaching millions of women who make key health decisions via live events, a growing online community, and a millennial-focused B2C health innovations platform, “HOT for your health.”
Dr. Wright speaks worldwide and has authored five books: Fitness After 40: How to Stay Strong at Any Age; Guide to THRIVE: 4 steps to Body, Brains & Bliss — which inspired a complete line of fitness equipment sold exclusively in more than 500 Dick’s Sporting Goods stores nationwide; Younger in 8 weeks; A Parents Playbook for Raising Healthy Athletes; and Masterful Care of the Aging Athlete.
Originally from Chicago, Dr. Wright grew up on a farm in Kansas prior to earning her Bachelor’s Degree from Wheaton College, Masters of Science at Rush University, her medical degree from the University of Chicago, completing a residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, and a fellowship in sports and shoulder surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband, two-time Stanley Cup champion, Peter Taglianetti, and their blended family of six kids.
HOT for Your Health – Guide to Thrive: Dr. Vonda Wright
Of Mortals and Supermen: Optimizing Human Performance with Dr Vonda Wright
Dr. Vonda Wright – Keynote Speaker Reel
Vonda Wright’s Speech Topics
4 Steps to Body, Brains, and Bliss
As a scientist and physician, Dr. Vonda Wright explains how the best health is no accident — and instead requires purposeful strategic planning.
This customizable speech or workshop unfolds the four steps for:
Creating A Vision for your future
Taking Action via exercise and nutrition
Addressing Attitudes that create barriers to health and the amazing science between the body-brain connection
Measuring Achievement in short- and long-term health
Based on her book Guide to Thrive, Dr. Wright backs up each step with the latest science about the vital connections between the physical body, the mind, and emotional health, and equips readers to move, eat, think, and feel in order to thrive.
*Perfect for executive innovation seminars, university, or community groups. This program can also be modified for investment/financial groups as the strategic planning is couched in parallels to Physical Wealth, ROI, diversification, dividends, etc.
The New “Wonders of The World”: How Regenerative and Exponential Medicine is Changing How We Live
We live in an amazing age of medical discovery and innovation, says Dr. Vonda Wright. The future is here through exponential technology, where you can reach one billion users instantly and utilize artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, 3D printing, robotics, genomic sequencing, and more.
The imagination of science fiction epics is now a reality, she adds, as we harness the body’s potential for healing and regenerating itself, and we fuse the line between man and machine.
Drawing on her more than 20 years of research experience, Dr. Wright illuminates today’s “wonders of the world” in healthcare and medicine for non-science business and community audiences.
Productivity in Prime Time: Vitalizing the Aging Workforce
Board certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. Vonda Wright is an internationally recognized authority on active aging and mobility. Recently invited to present this topic before a U.S. Congressional Briefing, she discusses the strategies and challenges of maintaining the vitality of our aging workforce.
Many assume mental deterioration and physical frailty are inevitable as we grow older. But a growing body of newer science suggests that such decline may not be inexorable. With exercise, as studies show, it might be possible for adults to rewrite the future for their muscles.
“Business leaders recognize the acumen of this brain trust and must take action to stimulate continued productivity,” Dr. Wright says, of the aging workforce. Sharing her research on the aging athletes and their capacity to overcome the difficulties of growing older, she makes clear the impact of continued activity on capabilities at work.
Pivot to Resilience: How to Build Mental & Physical Strength
In these times we may feel like the safe option is to hunker down and wait for the normal that we recognize to return. As leaders and highly functioning people you are capable of a PIVOT to a forward facing approach of mental and physical resilience that builds a new kind of strength and moves us forward into our new world. Dr. Wright draws from 20 years of caring for high level athletes and executives to bring you tactics for building physical and mental resilience, to gird yourself against external stress, build strength in all areas of your life, bend but not break and make the best out of our new world.
Leading the Boys
As a sports doctor for nearly 20 years in the competitive male-dominated world of Orthopedic Surgery, Dr. Vonda Wright has learned a few things about succeeding in a “man’s” world — while not giving up the advantages of being a woman.
With a profession comprised of 97 percent male colleagues, leveling the playing field and optimizing performance were necessary strategies for surviving and thriving in her world of business and academia.
In this informative and entertaining presentation, Dr. Wright shows audiences how to create their own four-step plan for success – providing meaningful and actionable takeaways that can be applied in both work and life. She also details her “curb in/curb out” leadership approach to optimizing performance.
*This speech is perfect for female executives, women’s groups, and the university setting.
Live MORE: Rethinking What It Means to Live Long and Prosper
Aging is not an inevitable decline from the vitality of youth to the frailty of old age. And yet with the passing of each emotionally significant milestone — childhood, teens, 30-something — we reach middle age wondering … “Will my health last?”
Dr. Vonda Wright harnesses her research, the new science of aging, and 20 years as a surgeon to empower audiences to add high quality years to their life, take immediate charge of their health, and embrace a vital, active, and thriving future.
“I want to change the way we age in this country because I don’t believe that we’re destined to go from the vitality of youth to a state of frailty on this inevitable slope that we cannot do anything about,” Dr. Wright says. “That’s not true.” We can be healthy, vital, active, and joyful until the minute we drop off this earth if we purposefully try to make decisions that will put us on a pathway of health instead of a pathway of disease.”
*Ideally suited for the corporate or community associations seeking to energize employees/membership.