Cheryl Karran

Senior Regional Director

Cheryl first joined YAI in 1988 as a Social Work Intern in the Department of Community and Family Services. Her expertise is in crisis intervention, mental and behavioral health, and acute traumatic stress. Cheryl played a key role in developing YAI’s relationship with START, a crisis prevention model from the University of New Hampshire. Since 2018, Cheryl has overseen and helped build YAI’s California programs. She is committed to cultivating a compassionate and empathetic workforce that prioritizes the needs of the people they support and helps build strong community ties. Cheryl holds a master's in social work from New York University and a bachelor's in English literature and history from the University of Guyana - South America.