Yefry Mata Diaz is a current Mentor Fellow in the Youth Law Center’s 2025-26 Scholars In Action Fellowship is an Enhanced Care Advocate at Helping Empower Reentry Services (HERS), where he supports individuals experiencing homelessness and those reentering society by connecting them to critical benefits, housing, healthcare, and community-based resources. His work is guided by a trauma-informed, culturally responsive approach and a lifelong commitment to equity and healing.
Yefry’s advocacy journey began at Cabrillo College, where he was one of the co-founders of the Rising Scholars Club, a student-led initiative supporting justice-impacted and formerly incarcerated students. That experience was the catalyst for his commitment to creating transformative spaces across education and community systems. Ever since, Yefry has dedicated himself to “paying it forward”—uplifting others as he continues to grow in his own leadership and scholarship.
Now at California State University, Monterey Bay, Yefry is a McNair Scholar, conducting research on how Central American students navigate higher education amidst deficit narratives, assimilation, and cultural erasure. His research centers the experiences of often-overlooked communities, working to shift narratives and promote visibility and belonging in academic spaces.
In addition to his scholarship, Yefry serves as the President of the Central American United Student Association and Vice President of the HSI (Hispanic-Serving Institution) Student Advisory Board at CSUMB. Through these leadership roles, he advocates for culturally sustaining programs, institutional transformation, and student voice in higher education policy. He will also serve as an Emerging Leader Mentor, guiding fellow students as they pursue academic success and social change.
Yefry has also held impactful roles as a Student Coordinator for Project Rebound, supporting justice-impacted students at CSUMB, and as a Youth Justice Intern with MILPA Collective, where he contributed to healing-informed, youth-centered advocacy rooted in racial justice and systems transformation.
Across every space he enters, Yefry remains grounded in his values of liberation, service, and solidarity—carrying forward the legacy of those who have supported him, and creating space for those still finding their voice.