Yarkenda Payne-Diallo, MBA | Director of Justice for Black Coloradans (JBC)
yarkenda@chicdenver.org
Yarkenda Payne-Diallo is a political strategist and bridge-builder serving as the Director of Justice for Black Coloradans. She designs solutions to confront systemic harm, dismantle inequities, and build pathways for Black communities to thrive across Colorado.
Rooted in education, asset-based community development, and strategic policy design, Yarkenda’s work bridges lived experience with bold vision. She has led initiatives in affordable housing, preventive health care, food sovereignty, and youth leadership through a lens of racial and economic justice. She challenges the status quo across nonprofit, public, and philanthropic spaces and advances community-centered power.
Yarkenda believes Black liberation must be built intentionally through policy and that true justice demands communities shape the systems meant to serve them.
