Wilma Alvarado-Little focuses on racial and health equity issues from a linguistic and cultural perspective in addition to her interests in public policy, research, health literacy, and health disparities prevention. Joining the NYS Department of Health as the associate commissioner and director of the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities Prevention, she focuses on Health Literacy and Language Access Initiatives.

She has been instrumental in the development and implementation of hospital and clinic-based programs and policy. She is the former co-chair of the Board of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), serves as a member of the National Project Advisory Committee for the Review of the CLAS Standards, HHS Office of Minority Health, serves as a board member for the Institute for Healthcare Advancement, and has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy initiative and as chair of the New York State Office of Mental Health Multicultural Advisory Committee.