About YMAN

Our Organization

Founded in 2007 by two veteran educators who understood the importance of making solid connections with young people. They recognized that young people were at their best when their voices were heard and they felt fully supported. Now, we continue that work with a vision that there will be a world where young people are creating, thriving, and leading.

The concept of critical mentoring is at the heart of all of our work. Critical mentoring is n innovative perspective that reframes the mentoring experience as a youth-centered one, with an emphasis on race, ethnicity, class, citizenship, gender, and sexuality. Throughout all of our programming, mentors serve as supportive and trustworthy adults in the lives of YMAN youth participants and are available through a mix of one-on-one and group mentoring.

Our Freedom Work

The Youth Mentoring Action Network is a youth power-building organization facilitating transformative mentoring, education and wellness opportunities with young people across the globe.

Meet the Team

The incredible group powering the organization.

Chief Visionary Officer

Dr. Torie Weiston-Serdan

Torie is a scholar and practitioner with over 17 years of teaching and youth programming experience. She is also the author of Critical Mentoring: A Practical Guide.

Chief Operation Officer

Angela Solano

Angela is an educator, wife, and mother. She is a powerhouse youth advocate and a veteran high school English teacher.

Chief Music Officer

Dr. Gayle Weiston-Serdan

Gayle is a well-respected featured artist and educator. Her musical sound spans generations and she utilizes her music knowledge and experience to create world-class programming for the organization.

Black Girls (EM) Power Program Lead

Zyahna Bryant

Zyahna Bryant is a student activist and community organizer studying at the University of Virginia, who works on issues of Racial Justice in Charlottesville, VA. In the Spring of 2016, Zyahna wrote the petition to the Charlottesville City Council calling for the removal of the Lee Statue and renaming of the park formerly known as Lee Park. That statue is gone now.

Nurse Practitioner

Norma Scott

Norma is an experienced Nurse Practitioner, with specialties in Preventive medicine, Family practice and emergency treatment. While also focusing on natural remedies wellness of mind, body, and soul.

Meet the Board

A dynamic and experienced group of leaders.

Board Chair

Steve Vassor

Steve Vassor is a proud Daddy, husband, and mentor, who enjoys travel, and as a former DJ loves rap, his musical first love. For 25 years, he has worked with, and on behalf of young people and their families. His calling and passion are improving the life chances of young people, especially urban youth and young Black men.

Board Chair

Dominique Morgan

Dominique Morgan is an award-winning artist, activist, and TEDx speaker. As the Executive Director of Black and Pink, the largest prison abolitionist organization in the United States, she works daily to dismantle the systems that perpetuate violence on LGBTQ/GNC people and individuals living with HIVIAIDS.

Board Secretary

Kierra Jones

Kierra Jones is a St. Louis, Missouri native and a fourth-year Gerontology major with a minor in Cultural Proficiency at San Diego State University. She is also a proud Spring 2019 initiate of the Nu Epsilon Chapter of Theta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and a 6-year Youth Mentoring Action Network Alum.

Board Treasurer

Colton Wickham

A loving father, husband, and friend. Professionally, a career accounting and finance professional, having spent the early part of his career as a licensed CPA in public accounting and the recent part of his career in various finance and strategy roles in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Board Member

Dr. Brandi Fletcher

Brandi Fletcher Daniels is a dynamic high school administrator who began teaching at the School of Arts and Enterprise (also known as the SAE (SAY). Brandi has served as a Master teacher for Claremont Graduate University and mentors new teachers as well as the students in her class.

Board Member

Jennifer Rosenberg

Jenni Rosenberg is a seasoned litigator working at the intersection of law and policy.

She is currently a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California, and in that role, she works on complex issues of constitutional law and state power, including litigating cases addressing the state's affordable housing crisis and election law matters, defending common-sense gun control measures and COVID-19 public health orders in high-profile, high-stakes lawsuits, and providing advice to law enforcement agencies regarding anti-hate crime laws and initiatives.

Board Member

Dr. Tunette Powell

Dr. Tunette Powell is an activist mama and disruptor who has dedicated her life to dismantling the status quo while also honoring the freedom dreams of those who have come before us - our ancestors who believed that education could be and should be a passport. Her most important work is raising her three sons. She lives by the words, "Nothing About Us Without Us."

Board Member

Jennifer Sabbagh

Jennifer Sabbagh is a Social Studies teacher at Etiwanda high school. She has been in the educational field for 13 years and teaching History for 6 years. She earned her Masters in Education from the University of La Verne where she also earned her Bachelors in Social Science and Single subject credential.