About Dr. Columbus
Dr. Yolanda Columbus challenges the status quo and facilitates change. She specializes in shifting mindsets and building generations via games, workouts, and workshops. When she accepts a new client, it is because she believes the value added to her, her client, and her network significantly exceeds the quantifiable.
Dr. Columbus (aka dr.yoco) is a proud product of the inner city. For more than twenty years, that pride shaped her impact on multiple higher education institutions. Then in July 2017, her Bigmama died unexpectedly in her arms as they prepared for Sunday dinner. After her Bigmama’s death, Dr. Columbus decided to expand her impact and to honor her Bigmama’s legacy. Hence, she established a real estate investment business focused on shifting mindsets and building legacy welath.
As an higher education administrator, Dr. Columbus enjoyed success at a traditional 4-year public university, a newly accredited 4-year public institution, and a community college. She introduced evidence-based quality course design standards to a well-established traditional institution,
integrated quality course design standards into the fabric of a newly accredited 4-year public institution, and implemented data-based decisions at a community college.
Her results are both quantifiable and anecdotal. In her most recent position at North Lake College, she serves as the Associate Dean in Liberal Arts. When she started, she presented a report published by the Education Advisory Board titled ‘Smart Growth: Running the Academy by the Numbers’ to the Executive Dean. To date, those ideas have impacted enrollment management, course scheduling, and hiring practices. And while her results may impress some, it is the “why” that guides and motivates her.
These experiences in higher education have helped her to quickly determine her niche in real estate and to take action. In August 2017, she joined a local real estate club, DFW REI Club. In September 2017, she established her LLC, 5028 Holdings, LLC. In late October 2017, she signed her first sandwich lease on an unfurnished single-family home. By mid-November, she welcomed her first guest into her vacation rental (i.e. AirBNB)
Dr. Columbus was raised in Fort Worth, TX in a neighborhood called Stop Six. While outsiders may focus on the crime rate or the socio-economic status of the residents, Dr. Columbus focuses on the sense of community and the ingenuity of friends and family. In her own words, “I was raised in a marginalized area that many despised or ignored. People like my friends, my family, and my neighbors are stuck by circumstance, not by choice, in similar areas. I labor to break barriers and extend access to those in forgotten spaces.”