Meet Yolanda Lorge
Yolanda Lorge is originally from Mexico and is now a naturalized American citizen. She is married with two children: Alanna, who lives in Kansas City with her husband and three daughters; Carlo, who is married with four daughters. Carlo is serving in the military, he is a Cavalry Scout in the army, has served two tours of duty, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
Yolanda has long been involved in serving the Springfield community. She is a founder and current president of Grupo Latinoamericano, as well as director of the folkloric dance group and instructor of Spanish and English for the organization. Yolanda has also been a Spanish instructor at Ozarks Technical Community College, and currently serves a Spanish interpreter for the courts of Southwest Missouri.
Yolanda wrote a monthly column for the Springfield News-Leader, and served on its editorial board. She was also the associate editor and writer for Enfoque, a regional Hispanic magazine.
She produced and conducted a weekly radio program in Spanish called NOSOTROS, an informative program which deals with topics of interest to the Hispanic community, or issues that affect or pertain to the Latino population. She was a columnist and reporter for El Mundo Latino of St. Louis as well as a reporter and columnist of El Mensajero, Spanish newspaper in Southwest Missouri.
For two years, Yolanda was an associate producer and conductor of a weekly program on Ozarks Public Television, which celebrated cultural diversity in the Ozarks.
She is a former member of Missouri State Committee of Psychologists; the State Board for the Healing Arts; Ozarks Regional Alliances, Sister Cities Association (she obtained the city of Tlaquepaque, Mexico for Springfield) and a Board of Directors member of Community Foundation of the Ozarks, Council of Churches Refugee Resettlement Board, Girls Scouts of the Missouri Heartland. She currently serves on the boards of Southwest Missouri Council of Governments; Writers Hall of Fame. She has been named by the Supreme Court of Missouri to the Disciplinary Committee, the body that oversees the lawyers’ compliance of professional conduct, and she currently serves in that committee.
She participates or has participated as a member in several statewide and local community advisory boards and committees, such as State School Boards, Missouri Minority Health Alliances, Junior League of Springfield, Springfield Public Schools, Citizens Committee for Drug Court, Great Southern Bank, member of Safety and Justice Roundtable.
Yolanda has received numerous awards and recognitions such as: The Gift of Time Award from the City of Springfield, Most Influential Women in Business from the Business Journal, the DAR Americanism Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution, Minorities in Business Advocacy Award, among others.
Grupo Latinoamericano
Established in 1987, Grupo Latinoamericano is a Springfield-based organization dedicated to the betterment of Latinos and the pursuit of a better understanding between Hispanics and the rest of American society. One example of this is the organization’s involvement in helping immigrant families successfully integrate into the country and adjust to their new surroundings.