TaLana Hughes, MPH started her journey with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Illinois (SCDAI) as an intern, while completing her last year of college at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL where she graduated and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health. Upon graduating in June 2003, TaLana began her career with SCDAI as the Case Manager and Sickle Cell Educator for the Newborn Screening Program, which focuses on the education and counseling of parents of infants born in IL who test positive for Sickle Cell Disease or Sickle Cell Trait. TaLana received the hemoglobinopathy educator certification in 2003 and again in 2007.
TaLana has worked effortlessly at SCDAI for the past 20 years managing the HRSA federally funded Newborn Screening Program and as an advocate for improved health care and patient services for sickle cell disease patients, ensuring that they receive the comprehensive care that they deserve, as well as the supportive services to maintain a quality of life in the state of Illinois. In April 2009, TaLana achieved a Master of Public Health degree from Walden University in Minneapolis, MN and became the Executive Director of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Illinois (SCDAI) in 2010 providing overall leadership and organizational direction for SCDAI. Mrs. Hughes is an active participant on many advisory boards and has national and regional leadership roles in political advocacy and community engagement.
TaLana is a wife and mother to a twenty-year-old daughter with Sickle Cell Disease, SS who is the immediate past youth ambassador for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA); a twenty-six-year-old daughter with Sickle Cell Trait; and an eighteen-year-old son with Sickle Cell Trait.