Yana received her B.A. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley in 2017, after which she worked as an English teacher in Paris through the Centre international d'études pédagogiques and as a reading teacher for the Institute of Reading Development. She began her Ph.D in 2019, studying the sociopolitical role of translation in the USSR. In addition to her academic work, she also serves as the co-director and speakers lead for Beyond Academia and co-facilitates Berkeley's Translation Studies Working Group.