Yisset Gomez | Staff Portrait

Associate Director, Office of Community Engagement

Born on the beautiful Caribbean island of Hispaniola in the Dominican Republic, Yisset Gomez immigrated to New York City with her mother and younger sister, who has special needs, when she was 8. Three years later, her father was authorized to join them, but tragically, he passed away less than a year later. Gomez attended West Harlem’s PS 161 and IS 195 and then Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers in lower Manhattan. She has a bachelor’s degree from CUNY Lehman College and a master’s from Columbia University. Gomez lives in Hell’s Kitchen with “my amazing family—my husband, Robert; our daughter, Destinee’, and son, Lucas; and the sweetest pup ever, Buddy!”

Tell us about your job.
I manage community-based learning opportunities for Juilliard students, including the Gluck Community Service Fellowship, through which music, dance and drama ensembles present more than 450 interactive performances annually contributing to the therapeutic care of audiences in health care facilities, schools, and community-based organizations. Click here for more about Juilliard's Performing Educational Programs for Schools (PEPS) program.

What was your path to going in to the field you’re in?
I was heading toward a career in the private sector and was seeking opportunities in tech/computer info systems. Still, somehow, I always found myself back in the arts, so I’ve coupled my business capacities with my creative side.

What was your last job before Juilliard?
I worked for the NYC Ballet subscription sales office.

How did you end up working here?
I worked on the Lincoln Center campus part-time in college and started browsing full-time opportunities on the Juilliard website. I initially applied for a role in Human Resources. But a week later, I was extended an offer as executive assistant for a vice president who worked in the jazz and legal departments, and I started working for her in 2006.

What’s been the most surprising thing about your job?
The amount of time I spend interviewing students. Each of the college students who apply for the various Community Engagement fellowships is granted an interview.

What is the strangest or most memorable job you’ve had?
Every job has its quirks, and I hold fond memories from each one I've had—including my first official job via NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program at the American Guild of Organists and all the fun I had (not to mention all the valuable life skills I acquired) working throughout high school at a fast-food restaurant.

Did you ever consider becoming an artist?
The thought of becoming an actor crossed my mind from my early theater days in elementary school to minoring in theater arts in undergrad. But life plus some stage fright led me to embrace that passion in other ways.

What other pursuits are you passionate about?
I absolutely love to travel to new and exotic places—my travels, whether for business or pleasure, include North, Central, and South America, the Bahamas and Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. I’ve yet to go down under, so a trip to Australia and New Zealand is on the bucket list as are central and southern Africa. But what I love most about traveling is coming back home to the Big Apple.

Any meal, prepared by anyone, what would it be?
I enjoy all kinds of cuisines, but one of my favorites is Mexican. I also love my mom’s cooking (who doesn’t?) or anything prepared by my husband, who’s always experimenting. So depending on the day, a perfect meal for me would include my mom’s asopao (Dominican soupy rice stew/pottage) accompanied by avocado (my favorite fruit) and followed by my husband’s crème brûlée.

What might people be surprised to know about you?
I have two birthdays! I was born on April 25 but my birth certificate erroneously lists August 25. So I celebrate both my real birthday and my legal birthday.

What are you reading/listening to/watching/following?
Most recently, I joined my 10-year-old in reading the C. S. Lewis children’s classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

What do you always get asked?
Are you a musician? Or, are you a dancer?

What do you wish you’d get asked?
Would you like to go out to lunch?