Yelena Ramautar currently serves as the Director of Member Services and Community Engagement for CDAD. In this role, Yelena’s work is focused on engaging members in all of CDAD’s work. This includes planning and leading their bi-monthly membership meetings, member-only meetings, caucus meetings, community engagement learning communities, and Community Development (CD) Week. Prior to joining CDAD as a team member, she was a board member.  

Prior to joining the team at CDAD, Yelena was the Special Projects and Partnership Coordinator for Detroit City Councilman James Tate. She also worked for a Wayne County Commissioner and for Schoolcraft College. She was a community organizer for O’Hair Park Community Association for six years. As a community organizer, Yelena developed a deep passion and commitment to community organizing, engagement, and development. She believes every resident in the City of Detroit deserves to have their voice heard and they must be a part of the development of their city. She now serves as the board secretary for the O’Hair Park Community Association. She believes in the resilience of the people of Detroit and looks forward to positive community growth. 

Prior to moving to Detroit in the summer of 2015, she resided in New York City for over 20 years. Yelena was born and raised in Guyana, South America. Her family moved to New York City when she was a teenager. She graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx, and Bard College with a bachelor’s degree in political science. After college, she spent the next 15 years as a college advisor to first-generation students in various New York City Public High Schools. She used her immigrant experience to inspire and motivate her students to pursue higher education. Yelena loved working with young people for their tenacity and drive. It was very rewarding.  

One of Yelena’s greatest accomplishments in life, was being the first person in her family to return to their ancestral homeland, India in four generations. She lived in India for six months, researching history and learning the Hindi language.