My Story

Selma Alford serves as the Language Access Coordinator for the Mississippi State Department of Health's Office of Preventive Health and Health Equity. Born in Puerto Cortez, Honduras, Ms. Alford moved to Mississippi in 2010, where she found a passion for working with minority and disparity communities. Ms. Alford holds a Bachelor's degree in The Arts of Social Service and a Master's in Public Administration from Belhaven University.

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She has worked actively with the Office of Health Equity and Health Disparity Response Unit during the pandemic addressing the impact of COVID-19 in the African Americans and other minority groups such as the Hispanic/Latin and the Vietnamese community as of March 2020. Prevention efforts have included conducting interpretation for the

COVID-19 hotline, and follow-up teams, travel across the state of Mississippi to assist with COVID-19 efforts within the Hispanic/Latin, African Americans, and the Vietnamese community. Successfully organized five different townhalls for the Latinx community and one town hall for the Vietnamese community where the state Health Officer addressed spoke to the community on COVID-19. Alford organized, promoted, coordinated, and served as a moderator during the Hispanic Town Halls. In the Vietnamese town halls. Alford also served as an organizer, coordinator, and technical support.

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Presently she continues to lead the COVID-19 Vietnamese and Hispanic Task Force, which continues to identify and addresses COVID-19 challenges within the communities and finds ways to assist the minority community, and provide access to resources needed in order to fight this pandemic; finding innovating ways to educate the community throughout the pandemic, by partnering with organizations to assist the community with providing COVID-19 testing, educational material, PPE, and access to COVID-19 vaccination.