News & Events

Wilma Alvarado-Little Attends Event at The White House for National Minority Health Month

Wilma Alvarado-Little, Director of the Community Outreach/Engagement Core at the University's Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities, joined senior leaders from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other invited experts at the White House Indian Treaty Room on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 in honor of National Minority Health Month. This year, the month has been themed Advance Health Equity Now: Uniting Our Communities to Bring Health Care Coverage to All as a call to action to unite toward a common goal of improving the health of our communities and increasing access to quality, affordable health care. Attendees shared opportunities to advance health equity and reduce health disparities via the Affordable Care Act. HHS leaders also unveiled the updated National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care.

Ms. Alvarado-Little received a grant from the National Institutes of Health in May 2009 as part of an award to the CEMHD to support research to identify access and barriers to health care for populations in smaller cities. As Director of CEMHD's Community Engagement/Outreach Core, Ms. Alvarado-Little is responsible for carrying out her group's mission to improve the lines of communication about health information and research for the minority communities of the Capiral region and their healthcare providers.

She is a medical  interpreter, trainer and language access advocate with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare field. Ms. Alvarado-Little has provided guidance for the implementation of hospital and clinic based language access programs and educates healthcare institutions on the importance of language access services. She serves on the Board of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC)  and is the Chair of the NCIHC Policy and Research Committee.  She is a member of the National Project Advisory Committee for the Review of the CLAS Standards, HHS Office of Minority Health, the Institute of Medicine Health Literacy Roundtable, New York State Office of Mental Health Multicultural Advisory Committee and also serves on boards at the state and local levels. 

She has a Master of Arts degree in Social Work from UAlbany in addition to Masters of Arts in Spanish Literature and Bachelor Degrees in Spanish and Psychology.

The Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities is a multidisciplinary community-engaged research center within the College of Arts and Sciences. The Center focuses on minority and under-served populations in smaller cities and towns in Upstate New York. Relatively little is known about the distinct causes of poorer health among minorities in smaller cities as most existing research on minority health disparities focuses on large urban areas. CEMHD aims to fill that gap in research and test appropriate solutions to the benefit of the population in the areas of interest.

April 2013