Voices Editor Azia Wiggins, a Jackson, Miss., native, graduated from Terry High School in 2007 and graduated with a B.S. in forensic science with a chemistry/biochemistry emphasis and a minor in psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2013. During her undergraduate years, her set dream was to become a medical doctor and she worked full-time, sometimes multiple jobs to make ends meet, and volunteered with the Schafer Center, Red Cross and Merit Health Wesley in Hattiesburg, Miss. 

In 2014, she moved back to Jackson and worked full-time at the University of Mississippi Medical Center as a physician scheduler in the psychiatry department for three years. Azia earned a master’s in biological sciences in summer 2018. Azia continued to work full-time as a direct care provider and completed the Health Careers Development Program and Summer MCAT Prep Course at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2019. After finishing the prep course, Azia saw an ad for an editorial assistant position at the Jackson Free Press and decided to spread her creative wings, learn new skills and master her neglected craft of writing. 

First as executive assistant and, as of January 2021, as assistant editor of the Mississippi Free Press and now as Voices editor, Azia uses her experiences as a perpetual student, intellectual, hard worker, creative, and relationship builder to unite Mississippians through story telling by shedding light on what’s happening on the ground with everyday citizens. Azia is a proud advocate for her Black community as well as all other marginalized cultural groups who need their voices to be heard and will continue to work to forge needed relationships through organizing and community engagement.  

Azia is passionate about maintaining her relationships with God, family and friends, reading, writing, singing, dancing, and is a proud foodie and dog lover. She currently lives in downtown Jackson with her puppy Khloe.

Please send story tips to Azia at azia@mississippifreepress.org, including MFP Voices essay ideas or submissions up to 1,200 words.

Azia is also coordinating editor of the “Equity and Resilience: Black Women and COVID-19” collaboration between the Mississippi Free Press and the Jackson Advocate, a project funded by the Solutions Journalism Network. Please write her directly about the project and related solutions circles, and tell her if you’d like to sign on as a sponsor of the project.

Read Azia’s Mississippi Free Press pieces here.