Yolanda Medina has been named the Woman Veteran of the Year by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA), the organization announced on Tuesday.
Medina, the current Military Veterans Resource Center director at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is a dedicated advocate for veterans, especially women, Latinx veterans, and those affected by mental health challenges.
The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs’s mission is to work on behalf of Wisconsin’s veterans community — veterans, their families and their survivors — in recognition of their service and sacrifice to Wisconsin and the United States. Medina is the 16th Woman Veteran of the Year that they have recognized since 2008 who have compiled exemplary records of military service, veteran advocacy, and community engagement.
In the early ’80s, Medina attended boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, and trained as an aircraft environmental system technician at the Naval Support Activity Mid-South in Millington, Tennessee. Medina was assigned to the Naval Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina, and was the first female to work on the AV8-A Harrier as an environmental systems technician, air-conditioning, ejection seats, and oxygen systems, according to a press release from WDVA.
Medina is one of the first women veterans from Wisconsin to be featured in the Department of Veterans Affairs “I Am Not Invisible” (IANI) exhibit, a banner exhibit available through the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. In 2019, Medina received the inaugural award of Women Veterans of Distinction from the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2020, she organized the IANI 3.0 event, where 48 women veterans from Wisconsin were photographed at UW-Milwaukee to be added to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, doubling their collection. She is working to expand the collection further at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and create a collection at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
