With over 20 years of experience in the medical field dedicated to community navigation, medical case management, and patient care, Yolanda found her passion to serve and educate others through facilitation, coaching, and consulting.. Serving others by codesigning with organizational and institutional leaders who endeavor to reach the community through grant funded initiatives that prioritize persons with inequities and enhance healthier communities. She is the lead author of a PLE Implementation Guide titled; Engaging People with Lived Experience of Inequities: Relationship Building (2019). She is also the co-founder of the PLE Institute, dedicated to authentic and meaningful engagement of people facing inequities and recently recognized as one ofthe top 15 coaches in Columbia, S.C. Her work with inequities has broadened as she utilizes her certifications in Adult Mental Health First Aid, and her partnership with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). She provides education to students, families, and school staff in South Carolina by dispelling myths, and stigmas attached to mental illness. Yolanda has traveled across the U.S. consulting, facilitating, and hosting plenaries to lift equity in inequitable spaces. She is the Founder and Lead Coach/Consultant at Total Grace Consulting, LLC. As a PLE (People with Lived Experience of Inequity) Leader, she has partnered with WE in the World, the WIN Network, Rhode Island Department of Health, the California Primary Care Association, Kershaw County, S.C. Department of Social Services, and NPWF to bridge gaps by creating systems change. She continually provides support and enhances community engagement by becoming a voice to those deemed voiceless by inequities. Revealing injustices whether organizational, systemic, or individual, it is her continual goal to see communities thrive.

MLK Day: 5 women who played a vital role in the civil rights movement
Today we celebrate the legendary civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the many women who also played integral roles in the fight against racial, economic and gender inequalities in America. From lunch counter sit-ins to nonviolent marches, those...