Yolanda Vega

VEGA ASCENDS TO LEAD AS WDBCCC CHAIR

In 2020, Yolanda “Jolie” Vega ascended to serve as chair of the WDBCCC board. She was selected for the position in July and will draw on her 13 years of experience on the board to guide efforts to increase the organization’s visibility.

“I couldn’t be happier,” the seasoned Vega said. “In this role, I want to make us more visible. I want our board members to take back our messages to their companies – how to utilize the workforce development board for their companies or their partners, and to embrace their position as board members, which is when they’re out there at company meetings to talk about the workforce development board.”

Vega herself knew little about the work of the WDB when she was first introduced to it by a friend. She became interested and joined the Youth Council in 2007 as a member and worked her way into positions with greater responsibility over the years, among them serving as chair of the Business & Economic Development Committee and on the Executive Committee.

Vega, Puerto Rico-born and raised in New York’s Harlem, comes from humble beginnings. But she has never let that stop her, thanks to the mantra her parents gifted her: If you want to do it, do it. These words have propelled her into a life of service, including a special focus on veterans, in honor of her late son, Senior Airman Jonathan Vega Yelner, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2008.

She is a member of the U.S. Air Force’s Survivor Advocacy Council, president of the Gold Star Mothers of Contra Costa County and a volunteer at the veteran’s hospital in Martinez, among a list of other service positions.

Vega holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and political science from The City College of New York and a master’s degree in marketing and finance from the Executive MBA Program at St. Mary’s College of California, in Moraga.