Yamini Bala teaches by engaging students in urban agriculture and problem-based learning in order to solve the challenges of food insecurity, obesity, and diabetes that disproportionately affect the school community. She is currently completing her MS in education at Northwestern University, and has a MA in conservation and community development from Future Generations Graduate School. As an undergraduate at Pomona College, majoring in environmental science, Yamini spent a semester abroad studying comparative ecology in Ecuador.
Her experiences there fostered a passion for traveling, learning languages, and exploring diverse cultures and ecosystems. For much of the following decade, she studied and worked in over 20 countries around the world, while maintaining a home base in Detroit, Michigan where she was engaged in non-profit youth programming and urban agriculture. In her spare time, Yamini enjoys reading, gardening, music, and meditation.