40 Under Forty 2024: Idaliana Medina, pastry chef and nonprofit leader
Photo | Erika Sidor
Idaliana Medina
Photo | MATT WRIGHT
At the Worcester Historical Museum are 40 Under Forty winners and alumni (from left) Joe Santa Maria (Class of 2002), Idaliana Medina (Class of 2024), Nicole Zea (Class of 2016), and Raquel Castro-Corazzini (Class of 2024)
- Title and organization Director of community engagement United Way of Central Massachusetts, in Worcester Professional
- Title and organization Pastry chef, Pastry Chef Medina, in Worcester
- Residence Worcester
- Birthplace Worcester
- Colleges Point Park University, Springfield College, Worcester State University, Johnson & Wales University
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Managing more than 1,000 volunteers completing unfinished projects throughout Central Massachusetts may seem like a daunting task for some, but it’s all in a day’s work for Medina.
In her position at United Way, Medina plans and oversees the nonprofit’s volunteer initiatives, including WooServes Summer Youth Service Institute, a six-week youth development program for children ages 13 to 17. Under Medina’s leadership, WooServes has increased its enrollment from 32 graduates in 2023 to 52 students enrolled in 2024. She has played an instrumental role in expanding United Way’s Dollar $cholar initiative, a financial literacy program for middle school girls, helping increase its participants by 63% to serve 650 students during the academic year. As the owner of Pastry Chef Medina, Medina has won first place awards in the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts’ Fork It Over Worcester culinary competition four years in a row. Medina volunteers on the board of Worcester nonprofits Inner Voice Outer Change and Adelante Worcester, supporting their missions of empowering marginalized communities. She previously worked as a career counselor for the Boston-based nonprofit Bottom Line, supporting 90 college students in planning and achieving their career goals.
Who’s career would you like to emulate? Yuisa Pérez Chionchio. Someone I have seen go from a teacher to a chief people officer, all while being a mother, a student, and community member.
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