The day job wasn’t enough, however. She harbored a desire to act. “It was always something that was eating away at me.” She recalls her epiphany in an acting class.” I just had a breakthrough. I was doing a monologue and I felt that complete one-ness with my surroundings, a complete “I’m not here, I’m somewhere else”. I felt I had to act to recreate this feeling over and over. I thought “Wow! This is what I’m meant to do. I finally found it.”
So Kerri started to plan a life where she could pursue both passions. Her first stop was London, where she did a masters in healthcare policy at the London School of Economics as well as studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. The next step was LA, magnet for talent from all over the world, where she is combining her acting career with work on a PhD, and, of course, a day job in a public health non-profit. She finally feels it’s all coming together. “I’ve decided to go full force with my two passions in a major way. They’re meant to work together because one’s going to feed the other. I’m actually starting to see the fruits of that now.”
Kerri has set up Youth Health Watch, a non-profit organization that will train teenagers to become community heath educators. This stems from her PhD research into a grass roots ‘train the trainers’ model. She wants to explore how individuals can help improve access to health care within their families and immediate communities. She calls them “information intermediaries” and is especially interested in how they can have an impact on breast and cervical cancer. “It’s about incremental change,” she says. “First of all, the kids involved have to have an interest in changing so there’s an application process. I have them write an essay. Secondly, I want them to develop the methods of how they’re going to communicate to their families.” She plans to track the teenagers’ influence on their families’ lives. “Do they drink more water, eat more vegetables? Have they got the proper screenings they need? Do they go to the dentist? How many times a year do they go to the doctor? If they don’t have health insurance how have they then found ways to get better care for themselves? Have I taught these kids to be better health care advocates?”
It could be the beginning of great things. Kerri sees Youth Health Watch as part of “a larger mission that I have to construct a think tank and foundation in my lifetime called Community Health Watch. I’d like to open up Phase Two which would take some kids abroad to learn about community health care issues in other countries. In five years’ time I envision this program in at least twenty schools.”
She is also clear about her acting career goals in that period. “I want to be a name actress in the next two or three years. I don’t have to be huge yet, but I just want to be considered a name.” She doesn’t feel her twin ambitions conflict in the slightest. Kerri, believes she has chosen two equally noble professions. “To me, acting is about giving, public service is about giving. I love giving. That fuels me.” So many people in this business are fuelled by greed, narcissism and insecurity, and are likely to fall apart in a melee of tabloid headlines as a result. Kerri Yoder’s sense of purpose will make her a name to remember, long after lesser rising stars have crashed and burned.
Make Up Artist and Stylist — Aaron Henrikson of Green Apple
©Karina Wilson 2007