About Dr. Pellegrino
A 20 year resident and physician in Garland County, Dr. Pellegrino has been a doctor, small business owner, and community leader in Hot Springs. A practicing physician, he has the knowledge that we need to make sure healthcare in Garland County and across Arkansas is made a priority in Little Rock.
Experience:
Dr. Pellegrino is qualified to be your representative.
- Education - Dr. Pellegrino attended Yale University and The Albert Einstein College of Medicine on full scholarships, winning both the National Research Award and the Medical Scientist Training Program scholarship.
- Clinical practice and research - Dr. Pellegrino has spent his twenty years in Garland County caring for people. He founded a private neurology practice and still sees patients at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Neuroscience. In addition, Pellegrino is founder and is president of Central Arkansas Research, a clinical research company that seeks to find new treatments for debilitating diseases. He has served as founding medical director for numerous non-profit organizations in the county and founded INNResearch, a non-profit organization dedicated to making senior citizens in Garland County aware of clinical research.
- Other small business - Pellegrino's 20 years of small business experience in Arkansas is not limited to medicine. He currently runs his own excavation company, Earthmovers.
- Politics - Dr. Pellegrino is presently on the Board of the Arkansas Medical Society and has been an active member of the Boards of several national research organizations.
Caring:
Dr. Pellegrino cares about people.
- Using the Arts to help Patients - In 2002, Pellegrino embarked on a project designed to create a book and documentary that would make it easier for multiple sclerosis patients to let their loved ones know what they are going through. The idea was to express this through an entertaining book and documentary. Talking about your problems may sound like complaining, but talking about the trials and tribulations of characters in a book or movie makes it easier to broach the subject. This project resulted in a novel, Point Source, (see a review by noted journalist, John Williams) and a documentary, Taking back the future. In addition to being the topic of several newspaper articles, the works received national acclaim, and were written up in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet.
- Patient care - Dr. Pellegrino has been in medical research for 33 years and has been taking care of patients for 31 years.
Leadership:
Dr.Pellegrino likes to get things done.
In 1995, Dr. Pellegrino was recognized nationally for his leadership in patient advocacy when he won the Ten Outstanding Young Americans Award. He has founded four successful small businesses, including an excavation company, Earthmovers. In addition to for-profit companies, Dr. Pellegrino brought the American Parkinson's Disease Information and Referral Center to Arkansas, and was it's founding Medical Director for over 15 years. He was also founding medical director of the National Park Rehabilitation Unit, serving for 14 years, and was Committee Chair and founding medical Director of the Alzheimer's disease Respite Center for 5 years.
Personal:
Garland County for his famly and community.
Dr. Pellegrino was born in the Bronx, and educated in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Twenty years ago, when he was ready to strike out on his own, he chose to come to Arkansas with his wife, Rita. Rita and Richard have been sweethearts since they were 16 years old and have been married for 28 years. They have two lovely children, Rachael, 17 and Richard, 13. The entire family is active in their church and in many community organizations.
What his colleagues have to say- A profile from the Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society