Yma Johnson joins Plowshares as our primary grant writer at the end of 2022. Over the years, She has raised $7.5+ million for organizations that protect the environment and support BIPOC communities. Additionally, she is an activist for transgender youth at the local, state, and national levels.
About Yma
Yma is also the Director of Culture for Springmatter and Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC). She shares the company’s mission and history and supports inclusive company culture. Yma significantly advances its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and its initiatives to diversify the tech industry. She joined the company in 2018 as a Community Outreach Manager before being promoted to her current position.
Yma holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and a master’s in creative writing from Eastern Michigan University. She began a journalist’s career in Puerto Rico two decades ago. She has written for various publications and won multiple awards for her fiction. Her creative work has appeared in anthologies and literary magazines in the United States and abroad.
Why now?
For Plowshares, adding Yma’s substantial talents comes at a critical time. The company is at the beginning stages of building an artistic home. This new venue is dedicated to serving creative artists needing emotional and financial support to feel safe and sustained. Such a space where Black creatives think this can be few and far between. Time and again, Plowshares has created that feeling of safety, empowerment, and economic care for our creative partners. As such, we’ve become a tool for more significant regional equity and justice. Yma understands why an arts organization would adopt this approach from her work as an activist and advocate. We are telling stories that deal with the costs and the harms of losing our history and humanity.
We need this theater as a space for this company to perform and as a community gathering place to help us focus the conversation around what we value and how those values inform our path forward as a society. Finally, raising additional dollars to support this mission appeals to someone like her.
Titling this post, “Yma Johnson joins Plowshares,” doesn’t capture our feelings appropriately. We’re beyond thrilled that Yma has joined Team Plowshares!