Rickquel “Rikki” Tripp, MD MPH FAEMS is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, EMS faculty, and EMS Medical Director of 4 different EMS agencies: Penn Hills, Lower Burrell, SouthEast Regional, and Foxwall and Assistant Medical Director for City of Pittsburgh EMS. She is Board Certified in Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Services (EMS). She has chaired the Networking Committee of the Physician Inclusion Council of Pitt and UPMC (PICUP) since 2017 and now serves as the first Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) of UPMC Graduate Medical Education (GME) since 2020 and first Vice Chair Diversity, Inclusion, & Health Equity (DIHE) of Department of Emergency Medicine since 2021. She also is the Co-Chair of UPP EM DEI Committee and former founding Vice Chair of National Association EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) DEI Committee from 2020-2022.
She has created and promoted many initiatives to include UPSTANDER & Allyship training workshop; EMS Implicit Bias training; UPMC GME and NAEMSP Townhalls addressing systemic racism, cultivating healing, & health disparities; Virtual URiM Recruitment Diversity Brunches; Rainbow Recruitment for LGBTQIA+ communities; and antiracism curriculum FOREM (Framework of Race Equity medicine); and creating a Department Diversity Champions list for better networking and communication. She is also the co-founder for Akoma United, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating life-saving skills like CPR, Narcan use, and Stop the Bleed training to underserved communities.
Dr. Tripp received numerous awards for her outstanding accomplishments and dedication to DEI including the UPMC Award for Commitment and Excellence in Service (ACES) in 2019, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Social Justice Educator Award in 2023, Onyx Woman Leadership Award in 2023, YWCA Bridge Builder Award in 2023, Gateway Medical Society’s Healthcare Policy & Advocacy Champion Award in 2024, and Iota Phi Foundation’s Exemplary Service Award for Medicine in 2024. She was raised in Upper St. Clair, PA and began her academic journey across the East coast and Midwest after high school. She completed her MD at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, emergency medicine residency at the University of Chicago, and her EMS Fellowship at UPMC in 2017. In addition to Dr. Tripp being a Commander in the US Navy Reserves and her previous service as a flight surgeon while on active duty, she is an exceptional leader, mentor, and educator within the UPMC/Pitt community and nationally. Her mission to improve health equity extends to international initiatives to improve global care for underserved populations.
