Yolanda J. Gorman ’78, M.B.A. ’83, Ph.D. ’93

As lifelong Bruins go, her story began even before she was born. In Yolanda Gorman’s earliest childhood memories, she recalled climbing up external wooden stairs leading up to a UCLA Extension office on the site where the Ueberroth Building now sits, where her mother had worked even prior to Yolanda’s birth. This scene foreshadowed how UCLA became a part of every step in her Bruin journey. Fast forward to July 7, 2025, Yolanda became the interim associate vice chancellor for Alumni Affairs and Advancement Services, and CFO of the UCLA Foundation and the UCLA Investment Company.

Yolanda’s academic, career and volunteer trajectory was unplanned and unconventional. As a working undergraduate student, she didn’t have much time for activities, but she was a Bruin Belle, which gave her an opportunity to meet people and get involved on campus. She worked for UCLA Admission, which continued post-graduation, where she got to travel the state recruiting students for UCLA.

For grad school she attended Anderson School of Management and worked as a graduate advisor for students interested in business school. As a doctoral student, she worked for the Center for Study of Evaluation under the School of Education.

She said, “I always found a way to connect with those who were either interested in coming to the campus or students who were currently on campus. UCLA was all I knew and I loved it here. When I got my doctorate, it was really hard for me to leave.”

After graduating, Yolanda used her knowledge in business and educational psychology to start a consulting firm, which specialized in nonprofit management. She applied her research and problem-solving skills to help nonprofit human services organizations pursue grant funding, conduct evaluations of programs, and establish strategies for long-term growth and sustainability. This work led Yolanda to Phillips Graduate University, a graduate school of professional psychology and management, where she worked her way up from department chair to dean to president and CEO.

All the while, Yolanda always maintained a strong connection with UCLA. She served as president of the Alumni Association, a member of the UCLA Foundation Board and a two-time UC Regent in 2009-2010 and 2014-2016. Even as a consultant, she worked with and hired several Bruins, because she admired their analytical and problem-solving skills, along with their orientation for service. She said, “For me, I try hard to be a mentor for students and young alumni, because I really believe in giving back.”

Yolanda returned to UCLA full time in 2016 as the senior advisor, and later, chief of staff for Chancellor Gene Block and Chancellor Julio Frenk. By the end of this tenure, she had acquired so much experience and skills in these roles, the opportunity to lead Alumni Affairs became the perfect fit.

She said, “Having led an academic institution, having grown up in one, having been in a senior leadership role and even serving as a regent, gives me a very unique perspective of the work of the University and the Alumni Association. I think all of those experiences positioned me for this moment to help lead Alumni Affairs into the future.”

It’s a future that’s rapidly changing and faces a lot of challenges. Unprecedented state and federal budget cuts threaten to reshape the research landscape, a core mission of the University of California. Central to alumni relations work is figuring out the puzzle that is alumni engagement and relevancy from its base of 670,000 Bruins with diverse backgrounds, opinions, interests and needs.

Yolanda said, “Because of the diversity of UCLA, how we engage our alums in supporting the institution may have to be different than the way that we've done it before. Understanding which strategies will bring people into a conversation about how do we support through advocacy, financially, through volunteerism and thought leadership, will be important. We need to do our best to stay in front of those shifts and those changes, guide the narrative, and figure out how to be the bridge between what the institution needs and what alumni need. I think that is always the challenge.”

Having never been disconnected from UCLA, Yolanda understands the goal and the value of keeping alumni connected across their lifespan. She said, “It’s important to understand how we can ensure that there is a level of participation that helps alums continue to feel very connected to the institution in a meaningful way. The work of associations really involves continuing to be creative and innovative in the way it serves as the bridge.”

One month into the role, Yolanda described her short- and long-term goals. First and foremost is learning and soaking it all in. This is an exciting exercise for a triple Bruin who relishes being in an academic institution where she gets to continue to learn.

For the long term, she said, “It may sound cliché, but continuing to set the Association up for success. What that means to me is understanding how the work that we do connects to both the broad vision and the outcomes that we've set in our strategic plan. And having everyone really see the role that they play in getting there. That means building the internal capacity of the Association to focus on our goals of alumni engagement and storytelling, because I think the stories are the connecting pieces; they help people understand the contributions they can make. I want to look at how the staff understands their contributions, because that in turn facilitates the connection and contributions that we make to alumni and that alumni get to make to the campus. At the end of the day, I want to make sure we are all rowing in the same direction.”

Serving as a bridge goes beyond Yolanda’s professional career and enters historic territory. Not only was she the first African American woman to become president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, but now, in its 100-year existence, she’s become the first Black woman to lead UCLA Alumni as the associate vice chancellor.

Acknowledging this milestone, she said, “I'm very proud of it, and it's also an indicator of what an institution like UCLA sets people up for. UCLA taught me how to learn and it also gave me confidence to tackle things that I didn't see people who looked like me doing. I had the confidence to know I would be able to figure it out. I would be able to step into that role and learn it.

“From a historical perspective, what I hope stepping into this role does is encourage others to take what they get from this University and be willing to take on any challenge. When I became the senior advisor to the Chancellor, the position didn't exist. The Chancellor and I created it together and figured out what that work would look like. I never could have done that without the kind of foundation that I got from this University. It's taken a long time for a Black woman to get here, but okay, I'm here. I hope it represents a pathway for others.”

Yolanda couldn’t hide her excitement about being back at the Alumni Association. From day one, she’s referred to it as a homecoming. She said, “It's just like putting a bow on a full career with a lifetime at the University; to end up being in a place where the people that I work with, both internally and externally, really have a love for the University in the same way that I do. I can't think of anything better to do. It's like the best thing that could have ever happened. I'm so excited. Let’s do this!”