Yvonne has over twenty-five years of experience as a financial consultant. She honed her skills with institutional and individual clients at the world’s largest private pension fund, TIAA-CREF (now known as TIAA). She developed extensive technical knowledge of employee benefit plans while at TIAA. She acquired a depth of expertise in guiding institutional clients through analyzing, designing, and installing these plans. She also has vast experience providing financial consulting services, guidance, and information for her individual clients, helping them plan for a more secure financial future. Yvonne has a strong commitment to helping women develop greater financial literacy, conducting seminars for women on the importance of planning and saving for retirement.
A strong proponent of the value of professional growth through continuing education, Yvonne has earned these financial services industry professional designations:
- Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU)
- Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)
- Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI) with distinction
- Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS)
- Associate, Customer Service (ACS) with honors
- Health Insurance Associate (HIA)
- Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor (CMFC)
Yvonne has also passed the FINRA Series 6, 7, 63, and 65 exams. She earned a Master of Arts degree at New School University and a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Puerto Rico. Yvonne completed the Women’s Leadership Institute certificate program at the Hartford Seminary and Education for Ministry (EfM) from the School of Theology, The University of the South.
At the 79th General Convention of The Episcopal Church, Yvonne was elected to the Board of Trustees of the fourteen-billion-dollar Church Pension Group and serves on the Audit Committee and the Benefits Policy Committee. She is also on the Board of Trustees of The Church Club of New York and is a vice president. Yvonne was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the prestigious American College of Financial Services, the oldest and largest academic accrediting organization serving the financial services industry. She has also served as a Trustee of The Cathedral School of Saint John the Divine and the Board of Directors of the Society of Financial Service Professionals. Yvonne has also been a member of the board of the Diocesan Episcopal Church Women and the Diocesan Council. Yvonne was elected Lay Representative to the Province II Council in April 2018.
Appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Advisory Council of the Anglican Communion Office at the United Nations, Yvonne volunteered to attend UN meetings, attending the Financing for Development Forum in Doha, Qatar. Currently, she represents Africa Development Interchange Network, promoting sustainable development, at the United Nations. Yvonne is a member of the Executive Committee of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women. She is active in other NGOs and was the co-chair of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY. She is active in New York City for CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women) Act working closely with the Commission on Gender to end all forms of discrimination against women.
In the Episcopal Diocese of New York, Yvonne is a member of the Standing Committee, the Task Force Against Human Trafficking, and the Task Force on Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse. As chair of the Diocese’s Companion Diocese Committee and later the Global Mission Commission’s chair, Yvonne fostered international mission outreach connections in congregations. She has traveled internationally, especially in Africa and India, to strengthen bonds among congregations and help develop anti-poverty programs.
Yvonne grew up in the church. She began reading in church as a very young girl at her great-grandmother’s annual birthday church service. Yvonne was first elected to the vestry as a teenager and has held various positions in her parish, Holy Trinity in Manhattan. She is currently a warden there and a verger at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, where she officiates at Morning Prayer on Fridays.
Yvonne was awarded the Society of Financial Service Professionals’ Paul S. Mills Scholarship, recognizing her lifelong commitment to education, voluntarism and ethics. The Council of the City of Philadelphia honored and recognized Yvonne with a Citation, dated May 9, 2018, “for her commitment to the advancement of women and girls in the United States and abroad.”
Yvonne was pleased to be invited by the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine to deliver the sermon of the Diocese’s first-ever Absalom Jones Service, held on February 14, 2021.