Yanira Leon is the Vice President of Operations for the North American Travel Journalists Association, where she oversees the annual awards programs, the organization of the conference, website development, in addition to the day-to-day office administration. For the awards competition, she is responsible for overseeing entry submission and processing, coordinating review panels and judges, and the distribution of prizes and certificates to winners. For the conference, she coordinates with NATJA staff and the host destination on all logistics pertaining to the annual meeting.
Yani joined the NATJA team in 2010 as an administrative assistant. Since then, she has run multiple half-marathons and one marathon in support of AIDS Project Los Angeles, adopted not one, but three dogs, and added more stamps to her passport, plus visits to several domestic destinations. Yani attended Brown University in Providence, RI and returned to her native Los Angeles, California, where chances of snow are non-existent.