A longtime healthcare administration and operations executive with deep ties to Northeast Pennsylvania will serve as The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education’s new vice president and chief operating officer.

JR Vought will oversee all business operations within The Wright Center, working closely with clinical and administrative leadership. He will play a key role in developing and implementing enhanced clinical delivery models supporting innovative care redesign in the communities served by The Wright Center.

He earned a Master of Health Administration degree from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in athletic training and exercise science from the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining The Wright Center, Vought served as executive director of PAK Pediatrics of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties and is a former operations manager for Geisinger Health System and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center’s specialty clinics in Wilkes-Barre.

A board-certified fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Vought has served on the steering committees for The Wright Center for Community Health’s Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support Program and the Luzerne County Breastfeeding Coalition, as well as the health advisory committee of Luzerne County’s Head Start. He’s the past president of the Healthcare Management Forum of Northeast Pennsylvania, former adjunct faculty member of the graduate program of healthcare administration at King’s College, a past member of the King’s College Healthcare Administration Advisory Board, and the Northeast Pennsylvania Healthcare Reform Task Force chaired by state Representative Eddie Day Pashinsky.

In 2006, he received the American College of Healthcare Executives Reagents’ Leadership Award - Early Careerist.

Vought lives in Larksville with his wife and family.

The Wright Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026. Founded in 1976, The Wright Centers for Community Health, Graduate Medical Education, and Patient & Community Engagement are a physician-led, community-owned nonprofit and a cornerstone of healthcare in the region. The enterprise employs nearly 680 professionals – including nearly 200 resident and fellow physicians – and trains more than 200 interprofessional healthcare learners each year.

In fiscal year 2025-26, The Wright Center served more than 39,000 unique patients across all care settings. As a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center and safety-net provider, The Wright Center serves all patients, from pediatrics through geriatrics, at 18 health centers across Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Wyoming counties.

Learn more at TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.