Created in 2008, the WDVA's Woman Veteran of the Year Award recognizes women veterans in Wisconsin who have compiled records of exemplary service as military service members, veterans, and outstanding members of their communities.
Yolanda Medina is the current Military and Veterans Resource Center director at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She is a native of Waukesha, Wisconsin, graduating from Waukesha North High School in 1980 and enrolled at Carroll College that fall as a Theater Arts major. In her freshman year, Yolanda changed her direction in life and joined the US Marine Corps with her then-boyfriend Joe Medina. Yolanda attended boot camp at Parris Island, SC, and trained as an aircraft environmental system technician at the Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington, TN. Yolanda was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Cherry Point, NC. She was the first female to work on the AV8-A Harrier as an environmental systems technician, air-conditioning, ejection seats, and oxygen systems.
After completing their military service, Yolanda, her husband Joe, and their growing family moved to Texas for 11 years before moving back to Wisconsin to be closer to extended family. In Wisconsin, they reconnected with the military through Veterans groups like the Marine Corps League, the Veterans of Foreign War (VFW), and the American GI Forum (AGIF) for Hispanic Veterans.
Out of her involvement with the Latino Veteran community, Yolanda and Joe assisted the AGIF in creating the Latino Veterans Pictorial Project and the Latino Veterans Legacy of Valor. The collection of over 30 Wisconsin Latino Veterans was exhibited at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in 2011, where it is currently archived. Part of this collection is on permanent display at the Milwaukee War Memorial Center.
Yolanda returned to Carroll as a staff member in 2006. While at Carroll, she chipped away at courses to complete the degree she left over 20 years earlier. She used her husband's experience with complex PTSD to study the effects of Moral Trauma in service. Work and family took priority, but Yolanda was able to graduate cum laude in the Spring of 2016 with a BA in Religious Studies focusing on St. Francis of Assisi as a combat veteran.
While at Carroll, Yolanda used her military experience to support the military Veterans on campus, helping them navigate school and military obligations, connecting them to military education benefits, and supporting the creation of a student veterans' organization. Through the Carroll CSVO and a small fundraising campaign, Yolanda found a space to create a student veteran room in the basement of the campus center.
Yolanda's husband, Joe, succumbed to a long illness and passed away in August 2016. With the help and support of the Carroll Community, she began the Master of Education program. She earned an Adult, Community, and Professional Education degree from Carroll University, focusing her capstone on Moral Injury and Forgiveness. In 2018, she left Carroll to pursue the next steps in her life.
Yolanda continues her advocacy work with veterans as the Military and Veterans Resource Center Director at UW-Milwaukee. UWM has the largest military-related student population in the state. Yolanda facilitated the creation of a combined services space at UWM, doubling the footprint of the Veterans Lounge and computer lab, adding an office for two military education benefits staff, and an office for the only VA VetSuccess counselor in the state. Using funding from a Kubly Foundation endowment, Yolanda promotes mental health and wellness in the student veteran population. She also co-chairs the Veterans Advisory Council to the Chancellor and sits on the Chancellor's Council for Hispanic Serving Initiatives at the university.
Her passion for women veterans, the Latinx community, and veteran mental health and wellness have led Yolanda to serve on the boards of the Latino Veterans Legacy of Valor Organization, the American GI Forum, Forward Latino as an advisor to Latinx Veteran issues, and the Southeastern Wisconsin Task Force on Veteran Suicide Prevention.
Yolanda is one of the first women veterans from Wisconsin to be featured in the Department of Veterans Affairs “I Am Not Invisible" (IANI) exhibit, a banner exhibit available through the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. IANI is a national pictorial campaign that brings awareness and aims to increase dialogue about women veterans' contributions throughout the United States. In 2019, Yolanda received the inaugural award of Women Veterans of Distinction from the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2020, she organized the IANI 3.0 event, where 48 women veterans from Wisconsin were photographed at UW-Milwaukee to be added to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, doubling their collection. She is working to expand the collection further at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and create a collection at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
Yolanda plans to enter the Urban Education PhD program in Adult, Continuing, and Higher Education Leadership at UW-Milwaukee to continue researching Moral Trauma in the military.