James Wright is President Emeritus and Eleazar Wheelock Professor of History Emeritus at Dartmouth College. The son of a WW II veteran, he joined the Marine Corps in 1957, at age 17. He served for three years before entering Wisconsin State University-Platteville for his bachelor's degree, and a masters and doctoral degree in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He joined the Dartmouth College History Department in 1969 and from 1998 to 2009, served as the college's 16th president.

President Wright has worked with veterans since 2005 when he began visiting wounded Marines and soldiers in Washington, D.C. hospitals. In over thirty visits since then, he has encouraged the injured servicemen and women to continue their education. Wright was involved in the planning for the Yellow Ribbon Program that provided for private institutions to be included in the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, and he worked with the American Council on Education (ACE) to create a new educational counseling program for wounded U.S. veterans. This program still continues at Walter Reed Hospital.

He serves on the Board of the Semper Fi Fund/America's Fund, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the Advisory Board of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, and the Campaign Leadership Committee for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Education Center.

For his work with veterans, Wright was featured as “Person of the Week” on ABC World News and was recognized as New Englander of the Year by the New England Council. In 2009 he received a special Daniel Webster Award from the Dartmouth Club of Washington and the Veterans of Foreign Wars honored him with the Commander-in-Chief’s Gold Medal of Merit Award. The New England Board of Higher Education recognized him in 2010 for his leadership on behalf of higher education and the advancement of educational opportunity.