Richard A. Vinroot, Jr. MD MPH FACOEM is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. He obtained his undergraduate degree in history, as well as a joint MD/MPH, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  At UNC/Gillings School of Global Health his focus was global health, prevention, and public health leadership. Following his time in Chapel Hill he completed an Emergency Medicine residency at Louisiana State University School of Medicine/Charity Hospital in New Orleans, where he served as Chief Resident. Following training, he immediately moved to Nairobi, Kenya where he served as an HIV/TB Field Physician with Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Professionally, he has worked extensively as a community and academic emergency medicine physician in rural, acute access and inner-city emergency rooms, as well as Level 1 Trauma Centers. He has also practiced disaster medicine during both Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian Earthquake. In 2013, he joined the United States Navy and volunteered to serve in both in Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. Following several years serving with the military, he practiced international emergency medicine in the Saudi Arabian oil fields with Johns Hopkins Aramco/International SOS and at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Along with his academic appointment to the University of Arizona School of Medicine, he has held additional appointments at both Case Western University and University of Queensland/Ochsner Schools of Medicine. Lastly, he is credentialed with the Indian Health Service and works clinically on Arizona’s San Carlos Apache Reservation, as an emergency medicine physician.

Currently, he is serving as Vice President/Global Medical Director of Freeport-McMoRan, which is a multi-national mining, manufacturing, and oil and gas company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Along with corporate medical duties, he was charged to head the company’s medical and public health response to the Coronavirus/COVID pandemic. He continues to work extensively as a physician in austere, international, and low resource environments.