What is your Why?

This is the classic question posed by Simon Sinek, whose TED Talk is one of the most-watched programs of all time, attracting over 60 million views. 

Whenever we’re asked What is YANA’s Why? Why does YANA exist? - I like to reply that the answer lies in our acronym, that YANA means You Are Not Alone, that together we’re building a community of like-minded, mission-driven alums committed to making our world a better place. 

But I also like to answer the question by flipping it, by asking what difference would it make if YANA did not exist over the past 12 years? The answers are illuminating: 

• There would be no central organization for Yale’s social purpose community to connect with, learn from, and emotionally support each other. 
• No forum would exist for helping alums convene, connect, and collaborate to advance their personal and organizational missions as they have through YANA chapters in New York, New England, Washington DC, Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Caribbean, East Africa, and Europe.
• There would be no conveying of information, free of charge, through YANA-hosted channels informing our membership of 8,000 social impact leaders and covering vital operational areas such as nonprofit leadership, fundraising, and governance — as well as key topics such as climate change, racial equity, healthcare, and more. 
• There would be no YANA-Dwight Hall Fellowship Program, which launched the nonprofit careers of 24 Yale students over the past 7 years. 
• Countless introductions would not have occurred connecting YANA members to jobs, internships, mentorships, funding, board memberships, and other career-enhancing and life-changing opportunities.  

With such a compelling Why we want nothing more than to continue building out our YANA community — and we invite you to come with us! This newsletter is designed to both inform and inspire, and to serve as a vehicle to share the challenges and opportunities we face as Yale’s mission-driven community. 

If you have any suggestions about YANA, about our Why, or have an interest in getting engaged with our work, please let us know. And please respond to our short (3 questions!) survey. We look forward to hearing from you. 

With appreciation, 

Ken Inadomi ’76

YANA Founding Chair

YANA Town Hall – The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

On January 31st, YANA invited Greg Khalil ‘03 LAW (President/Co-Founder of TELOS) to discuss Israel’s war against Hamas, along with the educational nonprofit’s peacemaking efforts both in the Middle East and closer to home, in the American South. Partly of Palestinian Christian heritage (with family currently in Gaza), the San Diego native advised the Palestinian leadership during the 2004 negotiations leading to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.  

The Town Hall began with TELOS’ origins in the unlikely alliance between Greg and Todd Deatherage, a right-wing Evangelical Christian formerly in George W. Bush’s State department. After a transformative trip to the Holy Land, Todd came to share Greg’s view that any resolution of the seemingly intractable Israel-Palestine conflict depends upon bipartisan American support for the “dignity, freedom, and security” of Palestinians and Israelis alike. To this end, TELOS leads “high-touch, multi-narrative educational pilgrimages.” Also covered were TELOS’ “12 Principles and Practices of Peacemaking” (which Greg’s team employs in tours of the Deep South which explore the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow) and Greg’s view of the Biden Administration’s overwhelming failure post-10/7 (among other things: its failure to support a ceasefire). For more on TELOS’ philosophy and work, see www.telosgoup.org.

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