Ella Yoo

Ella Yoo (she/they) is the 2025-2026 Dunn Fellow for the Office of Equity and Wellness. Ella recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.A. in Political Science, and minors in East Asian Languages and Culture and Legal Studies. Growing up as the eldest daughter of first generation Korean-American immigrants, Ella has always had a deep interest in social justice and advocacy issues, to create a better and more equitable world especially for vulnerable and marginalized communities. In high school, their participation in a gender-based violence training and internship pushed their passion specifically toward advocacy for vulnerable Asian immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Especially after the Atlanta spa shootings in 2021, where Asian women were targeted and killed on the basis of them being assumed as “sex workers”, their desire to create change and work to build a world free from violence strengthened even more.

At her time at the University of Illinois, Ella was the Poy Health and Wellness intern at the Asian American Cultural Center (AACC), where she worked to create culturally competent health and wellness programming and initiatives for Asian/Asian American students. Working at the AACC, Ella recognized the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion work in regard to making programming culturally competent and accessible for various students across campus. Additionally, they also founded and was president of the Asian American Coalition Combatting Oppression, Racism and Discrimination (ACCORD) and of In Between at UIUC. Through these experiences, they’ve developed a strong interest in supporting marginalized communities through culturally competent advocacy work.

Her professional experience includes having worked as the Central Training Institute Intern at The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence. Through this role, she helped research, develop, and facilitate a training about racialized misogyny and how intersectional lenses are crucial for direct service domestic violence volunteers and professionals to utilize when directly interacting with diverse groups of survivors and their circumstances. They also interned at the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Press and Communications, where she developed her particular interest in public service, and saw firsthand how initiatives and policies were implemented at the ground-level and had such positive impacts on its constituents.

As a Dunn Fellow, Ella is excited to grow through this role, and experience professional and personal development in the world of government and public service. Ella is eager to contribute to the Office’s mission to advance DEIA through state agencies, stakeholders, and community partners to create a more inclusive and better Illinois. She aims to attend law school, and eventually return to public service or become a domestic violence prosecutor.