Selene Gifford

Selene Gifford (May 30, 1901 – July 21, 1979) was an American social worker, and an international and federal government official.

In 1936, she was assistant regional social worker with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in West Virginia.

[2] By 1940 she was chief regional supervisor of the WPA in the deep South, and spoke to the Mississippi Conference of Social Workers.

[3] In 1943 Gifford was a public welfare consultant at the War Relocation Authority, tasked with visiting Japanese internment camps.

[7] After World War II, she was based overseas: she served as deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy in Cairo, was Director of Displaced Persons at the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in London,[8] and worked in Geneva with the International Refugee Organization on relief, resettlement and rehabilitation programs.

President Lyndon B. Johnson poses in the Oval Office with six white women, all winners of the 1964 Federal Woman's Award; from left to right: Elizabeth Messer, Evelyn Anderson, Gertrude Blanch, President Johnson, Patricia van Delden, Margaret Schwartz, and Selene Gifford
President Lyndon B. Johnson poses in the Oval Office with six winners of the 1964 Federal Woman's Award; from left to right: Elizabeth Messer, Evelyn M. Anderson , Gertrude Blanch , President Johnson, Patricia van Delden , Margaret Schwartz, and Selene Gifford