Yvette McDonnell is an educator with over 17 years experience working in various areas of Student Affairs, in Higher Education. Continue reading
Most recently Yvette has served as Dean of Community at Sterling College. Over the years, Yvette has developed a unique way to approach the conversation regarding equity, access, privilege and inclusion that allows for self-reflection, community building and trust to be established even before speaking about race, class, religion and/or gender. “I have taught comprehensive cultural sensitivity/inclusive awareness classes and workshops that approaches the conversation of diversity, multiculturalism and inclusivity in a safe manner. This allows participants to dive deep, look within and be more productive as change agents, not only in their respective working system settings but as human beings in general”.
Most recently, Yvette worked with the Institute of Justice and New Hampshire State Representatives to get hair braiding deregulated in New Hampshire. The bill was passed into law during the summer of 2017. “Working on this social action endeavor has given the opportunity for many women of the African Diaspora (who tend to dominate this profession), to earn an a living for themselves and their families, without having to spend countless hours and sometimes up to $20,000 a year to obtain unnecessary cosmetology licensing”.
“My life’s work is to plant seeds and bring attention to hard to discuss topics, as it relates to marginalized people in our society. In the same breath, I want to help others see the connections we have with each other and our symbiotic relationship to the environment. I may not be able to sit in the shade of the tree that I planted, but I sit in the shade, under the tree that was planted for me and that is why my sense of responsibility is so strong to do the work that I do”.
Currently, Yvette is working on a decolonized curriculum for homeschoolers that focuses on the narrative of Black Americans in the United States.
