Dr. Wheeler is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), where he treats infectious diseases and manages children with allergic and immunologic diseases, including chronic respiratory disease such as asthma. His experiences with childhood asthma led him to join the movement against tobacco exposure and use in children. He is Co-Director of the Center for Health Promotion in the Department of Pediatrics, which promotes preventive health efforts in childhood injury prevention, nutrition, tobacco control and other projects. He is also immediate past Chair of the Arkansas Coalition for Tobacco Free Arkansas. Through its work with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Coalition has provided educational effort for several state anti-tobacco initiatives: the CHART (Coalition for a Healthy Arkansas Today) campaign, which fully funded a tobacco control program in Arkansas that began July 1, 2001; a tobacco tax initiative; the Restaurant Smoking Ban; and tobacco sales taxes.