I am Zayda Sorrell-Medina and I value equity, inclusion, diversity, advocacy, raising awareness, personal empowerment, social change programs, and the arts. My personal and professional mission is to advance humanity one person and community at a time through education, research, and the arts. Presently, I am pursuing my PhD at the University of California, Irvine in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy.  My research areas include evaluating immigrant-serving nonprofits impact, measuring immigrant inclusion and exclusion in US cities, nonprofit theories, and the effects of arts based organizational programs in contributing to social change. By social change, I am referring to any positive change that occurs in the social environment among individuals, groups, communities, cities and beyond. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods, my research advances the fields of nonprofit management, immigration, and public policy. I am also the Director of  Yemaya Productions, an enterprise whose mission is to promote social change by integrating the arts and research. I have a bachelor’s degree in the Arts from the University of Missouri and a master’s in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh. I am also multi-lingual, and my languages include English, Spanish, and French.
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