Meet Yasmine Mukahal, TIP Newest Board Member

Board member Yasmine Mukahal

Profile by Brooke Wanser

Yasmine (pronounced Yes-meen) Mukahal was initially drawn into the world of wrongful convictions the same way many millennials in America were: through the hit podcast, Serial.

Listening to the show in 2014, which details missteps throughout the prosecution of Adnan Syed, who was convicted of murdering his high school classmate, Mukahal thought, “’ How is this possible?’ Then you start researching, see the statistics, and read all the stories of unjust and tragic incarcerations; it is appalling. I couldn't imagine spending years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit – it’s heartbreaking.”[1]  

“I’ve always really been drawn to diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice work, because it's a part of my identity; as an immigrant, Muslim, Palestinian-American woman, I learned how my lived experiences could make an impact on the organizations that I support,” said Mukahal, whose Palestinian family immigrated to the United States as refugees from Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War.

Today, Yasmine heads up college recruiting efforts for one of the nation’s leading hospital systems, HCA Healthcare. As Director of Campus Recruiting, she leads a matrixed team of 70+ recruiters responsible for end-to-end hiring of new graduates across the enterprise.

Mukahal has extensive volunteer experience in the city of Nashville. She is on the board of Faith & Culture Center, Tennessee Youth Courts, and serves on the advisory council of Millions of Conversations. When she joined HCA, she learned about several board openings, and one caught her eye, The Tennessee Innocence Project. “I knew I wanted to contribute to an organization on a mission to improve people's work and lives.” A few weeks later, she said, “I was at my Executive MBA program residency at the University of Tennessee and was doing some research on the available boards and then discovered that TIP first began as a clinic at the university.” She knew this was a sign that she was meant to be involved.

Mukahal is eager to help the Tennessee Innocence Project further its great work to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. “I don’t have a law background, I’m not able to help in that way, so I want to be a resource to the folks doing this work. It’s just a drop in the bucket to correct injustice in such an unjust system.”

[1] Syed has maintained his innocence in the killing of Hae Lee Min for 23 years.