Yazmin Garcia Rico, Director of Community Engagement and Impact, joined the Foundation in May 2024. Throughout her career, she has been a tireless advocate for the Hispanic/Latinx and historically marginalized populations in North Carolina through different roles in the nonprofit, health, and government sector. Born in México and raised in Alamance County, Yazmin draws on her lived experience navigating complex systems as an undocumented immigrant who later benefited from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and eventually became a permanent resident and a naturalized U.S. citizen to inform her work advocating for those at the margin. Yazmin comes to the Foundation after serving as the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ (NCDHHS) Director of Hispanic/Latinx Policy and Strategy for the last three years. Yazmin earned her Bachelor’s degree from Guilford College in 2011 and graduated in 2018 from UNC Chapel Hill, with a Master of Social Work with a community, management and policy practice concentration.