Marilyn Yu

Marilyn Yu is one of the creative individuals our dynamic world needs in order to adapt and thrive. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin, naturalist.

The San Francisco Bay Area leads the country in innovation because of its unique sect of the creative class for whom creativity is not only the ability to create but is also an act of forward-looking problem-solving. San Francisco’s genre-busting artist Marilyn Yu epitomizes these characteristics. Gifted with both a right and a left brain, Yu applies creativity to all facets of her life from creating a Do-It-Yourself (“DIY”) religion to improving access to quality health care.

For over a decade Yu has interwoven media, ideas and people in her creations. She was a pioneer in introducing sustainability to high fashion with her award-winning, hemp-based clothing line Plutonium Clothing. She is a versatile management professional with over ten years operational experience at mission-based organizations in both healthy and distressed financial and funding environments.

In her latest works, Yu is creating a DIY religion, with a team of creative professionals, based on a contemporary heroine named Eva. By challenging the stagnant ideas of the dominant belief systems, Yu aims to empower people to take control of their thoughts instead of letting thoughts control them. She introduced Eva in “Relations That Suck: The Story of Eva and Dries,” a piece of art in book form that bridges the worlds of fine art, fashion, and fiction. “La Femme Fatale” is a gateway work that invites readers to have an intimate interaction with the beautiful and profound.

Yu is also working on the forefront of health care as the Director of Finance for the Women’s Community Clinic. Since 1999 the Clinic has used an innovative volunteer-based business model to provide free health care services to Bay Area women and girls. Yu works to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Clinic so that it can continue to provide and expand excellent services to people in need.

The newest project on Yu’s plate is to build a space for creative people to live, work, and play.

Yu’s vision is to bring diverse people together to engage in reflection, critical thinking, and cooperation. Her dedication to building and transforming consciousness and community-based organizations compels her to assemble teams that question the status quo and love to experiment. She works through a collaborative process that creates space for spontaneity and organic development.

Yu has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.