Building Tomorrow’s Leaders
How Yolanda Coentro ’00, MSW’01, is Shaping the Future for Nonprofits
Yolanda Coentro came to Boston College with a mission: to fight for the oppressed as a civil rights lawyer. Thanks to an unexpected epiphany and a caring professor, she discerned her true calling and now leads a national nonprofit dedicated to helping the social impact sector be more effective, connected, equitable, and diverse.
The daughter of immigrants, Yolanda had seen firsthand the effects of discrimination and economic inequity. “My parents weren’t wealthy; they worked in factories, waited tables, and cleaned houses and each worked multiple jobs to get my mom through school and then to set me up for school,” says Yolanda. “So education was the ticket. And I wanted to give back, to pay back my parents’ sacrifices by making a difference for others.”
BC was Yolanda’s top choice, made possible only by the University’s generous financial aid package. She eagerly took political science and other typical pre-law courses, but she felt they lacked a certain spark she’d expected. Then, in her second year she took an introductory sociology course with Professor Patricia Bergin—and she was hooked.
“It was everything I was passionate about! We were studying real issues facing society and learning how our culture and history play out in real life,” recalls Yolanda. “Prof. Bergin became a mentor and showed me how sociology and social work can play a role in addressing society’s ills.”
Inspired by this new approach to social justice, Yolanda changed her major to sociology and enrolled in BC’s BA/MSW program, taking graduate courses in the School of Social Work her junior and senior years and earning a master’s in social work just one year after her bachelor’s.
Outside of class, Yolanda was active in more than a dozen student clubs and organizations, including as co-founder of A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E., or Aiming to Teach Individuals Together Togetherness Until Discrimination Ends—“rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?” she says now, with a laugh. Her work with A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E. taught her invaluable lessons about organizational growth and scaling impact, as the club’s diversity skit quickly became an integral part of the First Year Experience and, by her senior year, the entire club merged with the Undergraduate Government of BC.
As she led these efforts, Yolanda looked to elders and mentors at the Heights for support and guidance, among them Donald Brown, the late and much-loved director of BC’s Office of AHANA Student Programs, where Yolanda was a work-study student.
“Dr. Brown played a huge role in my journey at BC, and then for many years beyond. He showed me how to create both individual and systemic change and he helped shape my thinking about diversity, equity, and inclusion—values that have been at the center of my work ever since.”
Yolanda Coentro ’00, MSW’01
“At a time when there is so much polarization and our social fabrics are increasingly frayed, the idea that I can play a role in building a movement that unites leaders across borders, across red and blue—that ties right back to the work I did as a young person at BC, and I’m pretty grateful for that.”
“At a time when there is so much polarization and our social fabrics are increasingly frayed, the idea that I can play a role in building a movement that unites leaders across borders, across red and blue—that ties right back to the work I did as a young person at BC, and I’m pretty grateful for that.”
Yolanda Coentro ’00, MSW’01
Putting Ideals to Work
After graduation, Yolanda went to work as a community organizer focused on economic justice. She loved the work and the mission but grew frustrated by the operational inefficiencies, low wages, and other structural issues that are common in many nonprofit organizations. She left to learn organizational practices in a large social service agency and merged the lessons from both settings as she rose in leadership.
“I put my macro social work view together with my activism at BC and my service orientation and I set about learning how to serve people at a much larger scale, by helping organizations become stronger, more diverse, and more effective.”
That’s when she learned of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, which offered a year-long nonprofit management and leadership certificate that she completed in 2011. Armed with her new certificate and expanded network, she landed executive roles at YW Boston and Horizons for Homeless Children. In 2014 she joined the INP staff as chief operating officer and in 2015, she was named as INP’s president and chief executive officer.
Under her leadership, INP has expanded to 11 sites in major cities across the U.S., introduced a free online leadership series, and built an alumni network of more than 4,000 social impact leaders working in 43 states, about 70% of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
“Working with INP is the combination of everything I’m passionate about: doing DEIB [diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging] work; supporting a wide range of organizations on a systems level; and affecting change at a much larger scale by investing in leaders and their teams,” says Yolanda.
Now INP is planning an even larger-scale expansion, with a special focus on rural and small-town communities, where a lack of funding and geographical isolation can limit nonprofits’ access to professional development. Yolanda envisions these new outposts as a way to unite people who care about bettering the world, regardless of geographic or other divides.
“At a time when there is so much polarization and our social fabrics are increasingly frayed, the idea that I can play a role in building a movement that unites leaders across borders, across red and blue—that ties right back to the work I did as a young person at BC, and I’m pretty grateful for that.”
Keeping BC Connections
Even as her work takes her farther afield, Yolanda’s heart is always close to the Heights. She married her high school sweetheart and fellow Eagle Shaheer Mustafa ’01, MSW’02, also a social worker who is now president and CEO of HopeWell, a nonprofit provider of comprehensive foster care. Most of their closest friends are BC alums who get together regularly, and she remains close to her college roommates who, despite being spread across the country, still meet up for a girls’ weekend each year.
Yolanda has also returned to the Heights as a guest speaker for classes in the School of Social Work and at BC Alumni Association events and has worked with dozens of BC alums over the years, whether as colleagues or as students in one of INP’s training programs. She especially loves helping students and alums find their way in the nonprofit field. “Any time I can have interns, at any job, they always come from the School of Social Work,” she says. “Working with BC students and being a part of their journey is so special; it’s a way to give back to the mentors who paved the way for me at BC and beyond.”
