Yahusef Medina

Yahusef Medina serves as the director of Community Initiatives at Virginia Humanities, the state’s humanities council headquartered at the University of Virginia (UVA). In his role, Yahusef provides leadership and expertise in broadening and strengthening community partnerships statewide. Yahusef leads the Virginia Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Scholars fellowship, the Virginia African American Cultural Resources Task Force, and works across the organization to co-design and develop educational content. Before his current role, Yahusef worked with youth and families in the K-12 public school system as well as the juvenile justice system as an education and re-entry program specialist in Harlem, N.Y. Yahusef is a visiting scholar at the Center for Minority Serving Institutions in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. He also serves as chair of the Education and Career Training committee for the Virginia Latino Advisory Board, advisory board member for Rivanna Books at UVA Press, and board member for the AfroLatin@ Forum. Yahusef is committed to building bridges between communities and organizations and uplifting marginalized voices.