Deleso A. Alford

Deleso A. Alford is Professor and Rachel Emanuel Endowed Chair at Southern University Law Center. Her research examines healthcare disparities through critical race feminism, focusing on medical experimentation ethics, reproductive justice, and cultural competency. She directs SULC's Health Equity Law & Policy Institute and the North Louisiana instructional site.

Education includes B.S. magna cum laude (Southern University A&M), J.D. (SULC), LL.M. (Georgetown), and Clinical Bioethics certification (Medical College of Wisconsin). Her landmark scholarship on Henrietta Lacks informed Thermo Fisher litigation and was cited in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Professor Alford teaches cultural competency modules at LSU Health Sciences Center and develops curricula on medical racism. Her publications analyze historical injustices like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study through reproductive justice frameworks. Current research documents women's roles in the USPHS Syphilis Study for her forthcoming book.