Meet Yesi Morillo - Emerging from Life's Unfortunate Events with Resilience and Shattering Glass Ceilings
Yesi Morillo, Senior VP, Global Diversity & Talent Management at Citi participated on these panel discussions at GlobalMindED 2022 in June: The Future of Capital is Diverse and Inclusive - Who is Leading the Change?, Scaling GlobalMindED: Funding Our Diverse Talent Pipeline in Education, Workforce, and Leadership, and Urgent Needs and Innovative Funding: Inclusive Funders Driving Outcomes at Scale
What is your personal story? What key moments led you to where you are today?
My personal story is something I describe as “dense”… I’ve lived a life of lot of unfortunate events with fortunate events weaved in (like the birth of my two sons and my ability to ignite power in others). But I will give you 5 decades in the shortest form possible. I was born and raised in NYC by immigrant parents who arrived from the Dominican Republic to raise 5 children they hoped would become professionals. My Dad was a carpenter by trade and the sole provider of not just our family of seven, but also provided some support to 3 children from his first marriage. My birth mother was a housewife with a second-grade education who could not read, write nor had any skills to work. In July of 1977, my birth mother found my father dead when she went to wake him up for work – he had suffered a fatal heart attack. Shortly thereafter, the family completely fell apart. After his death, our family never had the simplicity of a dinner together. At the age of 7, I was working night shifts packing bags at a supermarket in New York City, while attending school during the day and living in a squatters building. All of my siblings endured hardship as well and unfortunately, every single one of my full brothers did hard time. I spent most of my teenage years traveling to different prisons while doing odd jobs to survive – I went to school for the food, not the education.
There was a short period of time when life was starting to improve, but was short lived. My mother abandoned me around age 10, and I was “adopted” (it never became legal) by a friend of the family. She took me in, nourished me with what she could, but she also had two young children, did not have an education or speak the language and had health issues. Nevertheless, she provided shelter and safety and I honored her as my MOM. We went through turmoil and I lived in poverty until the age of 19-20. The story is longer, but this is sufficient to share that life was not pleasant… yet, I was determined to break the cycle of poverty and missed opportunities and achieve the dreams my Dad came to this country to achieve. In 1990 at age 17, I became the only person in my immediate family to graduate high school. I held 2-3 jobs and put myself through college, eventually earning a degree in finance, a master’s in business, a second master’s in writing, and completed 7 years of Doctorate studies… one day I’ll finish that dissertation.
Alongside my educational achievements, I also succeeded in corporate – shattering a glass ceiling when I became an executive director at one of the largest financial services firms in the world – the first woman of latin descent to reach that level, after having started her career at the firm as a secretary. This seemed like the most impossible thing for a woman at this firm, especially a woman of color who didn’t have the pedigree most individuals had. I graduated from a community college, but I was a heck of a hard worker, a fast learner and had serious aptitude for creating genuine relationships.
Taking all that I had learned both in my hard knock life, and my corporate life, I created a blueprint for a firm that I launched in 2011. Proud To Be Latina became a staple in the Latina community, helping women not just break self-imposed barriers and cultural lies, but equipping them with leadership tools that took them to new heights. In the 11 years I had the company, more than 3.2 million women were touched, I delivered coveted programming to dozens of Fortune 500 organizations and through the firm, women got jumps in the c-suite, at VP, SVP and Director levels. That is my soul work… igniting hope, power and potential in others… sometimes I feel like a hummingbird that casually enters into people’s lives at a time when they just need the push for make their calling real. My soul work brings me a great deal of joy.
Today I focus on speaking, mentoring, educating and helping believe in the impossible. I also help people outline their life blueprint and create plans of execution. I seem to attract those that need it most… my LinkedIn profile ends with, “light to your soul”.
What inclusive, equitable goals do you have in your new role at Citi?
I cannot comment on that but I can tell you that I am working extremely hard as a talent and diversity advisor to be voice and an advocate for everyone. I know there are underrepresented groups, as well as underrepresentation in the c-suite and in other high-level leadership roles, but I also know that no matter where people sit, they are making a difference… I know that not every white person is privileged, or biased, or rich, and I also know there are many who invest in others. My part - to continue to be a voice for those that cannot always speak up for themselves; to provide my subject matter expertise to create an environment and programming that elevates people and to treat everyone like a human, (not a race or ethnicity or gender) like a human who has the potential to reach unprecedented heights if they so choose to. So long as they choose to stay the course.
That’s my motto: STAY THE COURSE. I had every opportunity to give up, to become a statistic, to stay low, to believe the people who told I’d never make it but I knew there was something bigger. For everyone reading this, there is something bigger than yourself, something you can’t even imagine and every shortcoming doesn’t happen TO you, it happens FOR you. If I didn’t know failure, I definitely couldn’t taste success.
What did you learn from being at the GlobalMindED conference in 2022?
Several things… but my biggest take away was: take your soul work seriously. Dream the impossible and go after it with all you have until you achieve it. Forget timelines, every day is progress and if you put in the work, consistently and relentlessly you will begin to see results. Stay the course, it is so important to stay the course especially when it gets really hard.
How can you and/or your company help GlobalMindED’s mission to connect First Gen and poverty-affected students connect to role models, mentors, internships and jobs?
By using my network and engaging successful individuals who have risen from poverty, who are committed to making a change and who want to see others win.
What else can the GlobalMindED Inclusive Success Network do to inform and advance your equity goals?
I don’t believe I can directly answer that question, but I do know that when you build a network that broad and wide, the amount of education you receive is limitless. Being connected to thought leaders and individuals that are dedicated to effecting change is one of the best tools a professional can have – to learn from each other and to support one another – that helps us unify and when we do so, we can better help others.
What advice do you have for the next generation of inclusive, inspiring leaders?
Don’t let cultural barriers, your environment, or the words of those who don’t want to see you succeed sink into your mind. Rebuke all thoughts that tell you something cannot be done. You are not on this earth by accident. We are all born with a gift. Your job is to find that gift, feed it, embrace it and give it away. Do what has never been done before, for your family, for your community, for yourself, for the next generation. There are people you don’t even know looking up to you, giving them reason and purpose - you never know the effect you are having just by doing your thing and being you.
