An award-winning author of nonfiction books for children and adults, Yvonne interweaves environmental and social justice into all she writes and credits her diverse family for piquing her interest in an inclusive and multicultural world. Although most of her publications have been about Indigenous peoples of the U.S., she has also penned books about Arab Americans and the many different cultures of the country.

She serves as the Education Director for the Children’s Cultural Center of Native America, an educational program that seeks to eradicate racism and stereotypes about First Peoples and is the founder/former director and current board secretary of Nitchen, Inc. an advocacy organization for Indigenous families in the New York City metro area. Yvonne is a board director and educational coordinator of Coopdanza, an interdisciplinary art, media and educational non-profit that supports the power of dance, with a focus on Indigenous styles. An active member of the Bank Street Writers Lab, she also belongs to the Wordcraft of Native Writers and the Radius of Arab-American Writers.

A founder of her local block association, she is an opponent of gentrification, which she sees as contemporary colonialism. She is a lecturer, workshop facilitator, and consultant for many different organizations. In 2014, Yvonne received the National Arab American Museum’s Best Children’s Book of the Year Honor (A Kid’s Guide to Arab American History), a Sanaka Award and the David Chow National Humanitarian Award.