Yamillet Payano

Yamillet Payano has worked in a variety of roles in the public and private sector. Yamillet began their career in 2013 as a Conference Assistant, Front Desk Receptionist, Research Assistant, and Spanish Tutor at American University. In 2015, they were an intern at The Urban Institute's Housing Finance Policy Center. In 2016, they were a Fellow at the American Economic Association Summer Program at Michigan State University, an Urban Institute Associate, and a PPIA Fellow at Princeton JSI. Yamillet was also a Georgetown University U.S. - China Initiative Fellow in 2017. In 2018, they were a Fair Lending Analytics- Quantitative Analyst I and Fair Lending Analytics- Financial Engineer at Fannie Mae, and Student Body President at American University. In 2021, they became the CEO & Co-Founder of Sign-Speak. Prior to that, they were the Founder of Cross Campus Organizing Network (CCON) from 2016-2021, where they were responsible for managing CCON administration and operations, recruiting and bringing on board 40 people from different organizations from the DMV area, and obtaining funding from CCON member institutions in order to stage events for immigrant students, parents and educators.

Yamillet Payano obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Economics from American University between 2013 and 2018. During this time, they also studied Mandarin at Peking University between 2015 and 2016.