Yariela Kerr-Donovan

Yariela Kerr-Donovan focuses on workforce development programs for community adults, youth, and current employees of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Kerr-Donovan has served as a leader in the healthcare, retail, higher education, and hospitality industries. She is a member of the Human Resources team for Hopkins local, an anchor institution economic inclusion initiative.

Kerr-Donovan speaks to various public and private sector organizations on workforce development, the engagement of persons with a criminal background, incumbent worker training, and youth development and serves on a variety of re-entry, workforce development, and youth development boards. Kerr-Donovan has served as co-chair of the Baltimore Workforce Development Board’s (BWDB) Youth Committee and is a member of the Baltimore Integration Partnership and the Democracy Collaborative, a national organization focused on healthcare anchor organizations impacting economic inclusion around the country.

Kerr-Donovan has also served on Vera Institute’s Pathways Project national advisory board and is a member of the ACCE Smart Justice Taskforce. She is a member of the Volunteers of America Residential Re-Entry Center’s, Center for Urban Families/STRIVE, Greater Baltimore Committee Second Chance advisory boards/committees, to name a few. Yariela serves as a Governor-appointed member of the Correctional Education Council, co-chaired by Maryland Secretaries of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation and Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, and has served on a Governor appointed Collateral Consequences Workgroup.

Additionally, Yariela has served as a lecturer and director of minority affairs at Cornell University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and helped establish the National Society of Minority Hoteliers.