Yolanda Medina is a native of Waukesha, WI. She joined the Marine Corps out of high school and served as one of the first women to work on the environmental systems of the AV8A Harrier Jump Jet. After completing her military service, Yolanda and her family moved back to Wisconsin where she focused most of her volunteer energies on Veterans groups. Her passion for women veterans, and the Latinx community, has led Yolanda to serve on the boards of the Latino Veterans Legacy of Valor Organization, the American GI Forum for Hispanic Veterans, Forward Latino, as advisor to Latinx Veteran issues. Yolanda earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies at Carroll University and obtained a master’s degree in Adult, Community, and Professional Education from Carroll University.

Yolanda came to the Military and Veterans Resource Center (MAVRC) at UW-Milwaukee in 2018. She co-chairs the Veterans Advisory Council to the Chancellor, sits on the Chancellor’s Council for Hispanic Serving Initiatives at UWM, works with the UWM chapter of Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership (WWHEL), and is part of the Staff Engagement and Development Committee in Student Affairs. She is also a member of the Southeastern Wisconsin Taskforce on Veteran Suicide Prevention. Using funding from a military endowment at UWM, Yolanda promotes mental health and wellness in the student veteran population through programming in MAVRC.

Yolanda is also one of the first women in Wisconsin to be featured in the Department of Veterans Affairs “I Am Not Invisible” pictorial campaign to bring awareness and increase dialogue about women veterans throughout the United States. She is constantly working to expand this collection housed in the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, WI, as well as create a collection at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.