Yolanda Martinez is an international development professional with more than 15 years of experience in government, non-profits, and private sector relationship management. She has lead and managed youth empowerment and workforce development initiatives and has vast experience in development assistance design, management and implementation, foreign direct investment projects pre establishment due diligence and project management, and leading corporate social responsibility programs.
She is currently the Regional Donor and Government Coordinator at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Contracting Officer Representative (COR) for the $800million Central America Regional Support Services IDIQ. At the USAID El Salvador and Central America & Mexico Regional Mission (ES-CAM) Mission, Yolanda works as a senior-level Foreign Service National advising the mission on donor and government coordination across the USAID/ES-CAM portfolio to ensure targeted, impact-driven, and integrated development.
She has served at USAID for eight years. In prior roles Yolanda managed and advised on how technical assistance can drive a general change in youth employability by connecting the talents of young Salvadorans with educational and job opportunities in El Salvador, as well as how new partnerships with local organizations can make sustainable change in development assistance.
Before joining USAID, Yolanda was the senior investment specialist for Remote Business Services for the Government of El Salvador at PROESA (now Invest). During Yolanda's tenure at PROESA, the national strategy for this economic sector was developed. She also contributed to the development of various public policies such as the National Policy for Productive Transformation and Diversification.
Among other professional experiences, Yolanda also carried out advisory work for international organizations where she developed, and negotiated, specific alliances between higher education institutions and four economic sectors in El Salvador to make important curricular reforms in the country’s higher education system.
Yolanda Martínez has a degree in International Business Administration with a minor in French. Degree obtained in Oklahoma, where she graduated with high honors. Yolanda also holds a Master in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Chile and completed a specialization in Economic Growth at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Most recently, she was selected as the only Salvadoran of the Latin America Leadership Program (LALP) at Georgetown University in the 2022 LALP Cohort.