Gaps in collaboration exist between healthcare organizations and the communities they serve. How do we bridge that gap? With a Community Champion! This week we are talking with Selena McCord, the Community Program Manager for the National Rural Health Resource Center. Selena will be discussing how she incorporated community champions into rural communities through the delta program and how other leaders can implement similar programs.

“You may not have a community champion that's funded, but I can guarantee that there is somebody or someone in your community that's already doing a lot of the work of a community champion.”

-Selena McCord

Selena McCord joined the National Rural Health Resource Center in June 2018.  As a Community Program Manager with the Center’s Delta Region Community Health Systems Development Program, Selena is responsible for providing leadership and directing community care coordination program goals.  This involves managing the delivery of technical assistance (TA) services to support participating healthcare organizations (HCOs) and their communities in adopting best practices to improve health outcomes. 

 One critical TA service encompasses the identification, onboarding, and training of the facilities’ Community Champion. The Champion is trained to serve as a community liaison and is essential to the foundation of care coordination planning and capacity building to sustain post-project gains.

Prior to joining The Center, Selena worked with local and nationally recognized organizations to identify and address the needs of underserved and disaster-affected populations, to develop and implement training curricula and professional development workshops, and to recruit over 200 health workers from the Northern Gulf Coast region to serve as program participants. 

Selena has a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Bachelor of Science degree from The University of Alabama with a concentration in Healthcare Management.

Selena enjoys spending time with her husband and two boys.