Yalda, is a former molecular immunologist, and later consultant to for-profit and nonprofit organizations. As an undergraduate, she majored in Psychology, with an emphasis on Child and Developmental Psychology, finishing a dual degree in Experimental Psychology and Human Biology. Yalda went on to pursue a career in biomedical research and spent eight years at Harvard Medical School, first as a research associate and later as a graduate student. In 2000, Yalda changed career paths and became a consultant for startups, Fortune 50+ corporations and nonprofit organizations as a strategist and evaluator.

In 2005, Yalda posted an ad on a local listserv in Berkeley, in search of a Persian language immersion program for her first-born son Kian, then two years old. She received a response from another mother that led to a weekly parent playgroup and eventually became Golestan, a Persian language immersion preschool and multilingual elementary school in the San Francisco East Bay Area. Yalda was hired as Golestan’s full-time Executive Director in 2008 and is an active board member for several organizations in the education, human rights, and humanitarian sectors.

She lives in Berkeley with her husband, Matthew, and two sons Kian (18 years old) and Manu (15 years old).