Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Rachel Corbett-Alford of Atlanta | Jonesboro

We recently had the chance to connect with Rachel Corbett-Alford and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Going to the movies!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an experienced higher education professional with over thirteen years in student support, services and academic program support. a passionate wellness advocate and lifelong learner. I am committed to promoting mental and emotional well-being through comprehensive advising, personal development workshops and other creative engagement activities.

A first-generation college graduate, interested in people and our wellbeing, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Sociology in 2010 and began my career in higher education in 2012. My work as an academic advisor, addressing students’ basic needs inspired me to pursue a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. While I chose not to pursue licensure immediately, my graduate training profoundly shaped my professional path, allowing me to integrate wellness practices into both my vocational and entrepreneurial pursuits.

In 2018, I development and facilitated the workshops Self-Awareness Matters and The Conversation Party, which led to the founding of Girl, let’s talk.® LLC. in 2021. My goal is to destigmatize mental, emotional and spiritual health—particularly among Black women—by creating spaces for self-exploration, open dialogue, and holistic wellness education and practices. Girl, let’s talk. also highlights wellness practitioners, promotes self-awareness through storytelling, and shares educational content via social media. I want to arm as many as possible with the language necessary to articulate and rearticulate their experiences, by highlighting the dimensions of wellness and how they are all interconnected. I want to encourage radical self-love and acceptance while empowering myself and others with practices that can be embodied over time.

I have continued to expand Girl, let’s talk. offerings, incorporating participant feedback and developing new wellness initiatives. In May 2024, I co-hosted the inaugural Walk for Wellness in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, bringing together over 50 community members on Atlanta’s Beltline.

Since 2020, in my full time role as the Associate Director of Academic Programs in the Department of Behavioral, Social, and Health Education Sciences, at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, I : Established a peer mentoring program for Master of Public Health (MPH) students; Presented at the 2023 Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) Annual Meeting; Received the 2023 Staff DEI Leadership Award from the Rollins School of Public Health; Was nominated for the 2023 Outstanding Woman of Color Award by the Women of Color Initiative (WOCI) Atlanta Collaborative in Higher Education; Serve on the BSHES DEI Working Group; Was featured on the Educational Landscapes podcast, highlighting educational leaders across Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center. In addition to all of these amazing opportunities, I have consistently served on committees that support the enhancement of curricula, student experience outcomes and more.

Guided by my faith, I remain deeply committed to using my life experiences, skills in advising, counseling, and program development to positively impact the mental and emotional wellness of anyone who is wants to confront themselves with love, care and compassion.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I love this question. In hindsight, I was curious, inquisitive, outspoken and a little naive. I was loving, empathic, goofy and I loved to dance and sing. The world forced me to be serious. Forced me to question myself sometimes.

Despite the world coming in to wreck some of these traits in my late teens through my mid twenties, the core of who I am has remained the same.

As I’ve matured, I acknowledge the child that still is me and still lives within me. She is still present and now more than ever operating in partnership with me. Life has given me and is still giving many opportunities to operate in the fullness of my creativity and imagination.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
This is a deep question. Relationships with people will inevitably lead to some form of disappointment, disagreement or detachment, This is the nature of relationships. Some of the wounds that sting the most come from familial situations or close relationships that dissolved for various reasons. I can also say that in my naivety and ego, the most painful wounds were unconsciously self-inflicted. Rejection and abandonment that ultimately lead to self-rejection and-self abandonment. These were the most defining because there was no way to evolve past these wounding situations without centering myself. I had to turn inward. Years of therapy, shadow work, journaling, self-reflection. Connecting with what I know is a higher power. I don’t believe we ever truly “heal”. I believe the wisdom we gain from life’s wounds become apart of us. The pain is alchemized into encouraging words and changed behavior that make it impossible to not choose self first. This pain is further alchemized into discernment, boundaries and better more aligned choices. Healing requires you to take inventory of your personal definitions of self-love, wellness, and gratitude. Daily gratitude practices have really helped me stay balanced. Despite the parts of my story I wouldn’t want to relive, I choose to believe that where I am now, is directly and or in directly tied to those past circumstances and decisions. Healing requires me to acknowledge the humanity in the pruning parts of my story but still honor them along with the beauty light filled moments.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
Fredricka Marie Corbett. Sister from another mister. I’ve known Fredricka since I was a teenager. This woman is phenomenal. Her character has always been the same. Funny, welcoming and warm, can cook you a meal, braid your hair and give you inspiration all in one encounter. Her smile lights up any room but her energy, and aura precedes her. She will sing a hymnal with you but then rap Too Short with you if that’s the vibe. She is organized and meticulous can dance her ass off beat a face for professional pictures. I’m not sure why I have been gifted with her presence but I’m grateful that she is one of the people I get to experience through and with. She will hold you accountable, you can cry on her shoulder, she might cry too but by the end of it all there is laughter and warmth to balance things out.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
At this point in my life yes! My why is so much bigger than me. I don’t currently have a huge following and I don’t aspire to. I’m leaning into a calling that no one else truly understands but me and God. While I’ve shared my desires and goals with others over the years I have taken my time to not rush through the evolution of myself or my business. The work I’m doing with Girl, let’s talk. ® is heart work. It’s an open love letter to myself and other black women about self-love, self-acceptance, perseverance, purpose an so much more. It’s intellectual but it’s also spiritual and emotional and physical. I’m passionate about this work because I benefit from it and I know that others can and will too. I’m a part of larger whole of women who are creating spaces for us to evolve chaotically and eloquently without feeling the need to answer to critiques or old patterns of being that always want to pull us back into comfort or familiarity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.glltalk.com
• Instagram: @glltalk; @rach1908
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-alford-6a727593?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app