Yvana Hepburn Bailey
North Rockland High School
Class of 2005
Before she was a professional actress and model, before she developed innovative physical education programs for students, before she started a personal training program for pro athletes and entrepreneurs, Yvana Hepburn Bailey was a track athlete. Make that a great track athlete. She was a national-caliber scholastic performer in the hurdles and starred on the collegiate and professional levels before a serious car accident thwarted her Olympic aspirations and effectively ended her running career.
Yvana established herself as one of Rockland County’s foremost female track athletes during her years at North Rockland. She captured three New York State championships in the straightaway hurdles – two indoors and one outdoors – and placed fifth and sixth respectively in the national indoor 55-meter and national outdoor 100-meter hurdles. She added a third- place finish in the State outdoor meet as a junior. Yvana holds the Rockland County record in the 100-meter hurdles at 13.9 seconds, and is tied for No. 2 all-time in the 55-meter hurdles at 7.9.
Yvana got her start in track as a seventh grader at Haverstraw Middle School. She gravitated to the hurdles while her friends dispersed to other events. “I’ve always had a bold affinity to try things, that others deny,” she says. “And that is how it all started.”
A classically trained pianist as a youth, Yvana transitioned to the athletic arena by trying out for basketball, but she then settled on volleyball during the fall season, putting her 5-foot-11 height to good advantage as a middle hitter and playing for two-plus years in high school. In track, she ran the hurdles as a freshman under Coach Dan Sullivan – “the first coach to ever believe in me” – and branched out to other events under Coach Brian Diglio, who was also her history teacher. Assistant Coach Steve Pashley provided instruction in the triple, long and high jumps, relays and hurdles. Yvana also ran the sprints from the 100 to the 400.
Yvana treasured her friendships made on the track team and enjoyed spending time with teammates such as Eric Sheppard, Elizabeth Morrobel, John Martinez, Charlene Gonzalez, Zaire Ashby and Danielle Grimm, among others. Scholastic opponents who “allowed my talents to shine the most” were Shenae Dawkins and Lynne Lane of New Rochelle, Shana Woods, Alyissa Hasan and Angelica Reed.
The greatest influences on Yvana’s athletic career at North Rockland were “God, my mother, and my grandmother,” she says. Her mother, Adris Graham- Swift, made sure Yvana had proper nutrition (“oatmeal and fruit were always in the mix), a challenging academic courseload and transportation to every competition. Her grandmother, family matriarch Esther Graham, purchased personal training sessions for Yvana and brought her to a top institute for sports performance, rehab and recovery. She also saved all the newspaper articles on Yvana’s athletic exploits and shared them with the community.
Yvana was able to excel despite suffering from what was thought to be severe shin splints from the end of her sophomore year through her first year of college at the University of South Florida, a Division I school she attended on scholarship. During a physical at the start of her freshman year at USF, team doctors diagnosed deep bone fractures in both legs that Yvana had apparently been training and competing with for some time.
After undergoing immediate surgery and arduous rehab during her redshirt freshman year, Yvana rebounded to train and compete injury-free the rest of her collegiate career. Highlights included a school record in the 60-meter hurdles of 8.40, which eclipsed the previous mark of 8.41 set by 2008 U.S. Olympian Damu Cherry; a 100m hurdles best of 13.40 at the NCAA East Prelim meet; All-Big East honors three times; NCAA Div. I All-Academic honors two straight years, conferred by the USTFCCCA; and a nomination as USF Female Athlete of the Year.
Yvana graduated from USF with a bachelor’s in communications and completed a two-year master’s program in physical education in just one year. While residing in the Tampa Bay area, Yvana became a director of the physical education department at Inspiration Academy Bradenton, FL, serving middle and high school students. She applied creative curricular programs that she had previously developed to “help children get healthy, active, fit and lead a lifestyle in that manner,” she says.
Fulfillment in the pedagogical sphere was mirrored in the athletic realm. Yvana continued on her Olympic quest in the hurdles by turning professional and competing both domestically and internationally. Her best 100m hurdle performances were turned in on the American Track League circuit, clocking 12.94w at a meet in Tuscaloosa, AL, and 13.07 in Baton Rouge, LA, both in 2014.
During this period, Yvana was advised to pursue dual citizenship to the Bahamian national team, using the Bahamian heritage of her father, Gregory Hepburn. The 100m hurdles is one of the USA women’s team’s strongest events in track & field, and the competition to make the Olympic team is fierce. Yvana competed at the 2014 Bahamian national championships, winning the hurdles in meet record time. She had started the process of working with the Bahamian athletic association to become registered as a Bahamian athlete for the Commomwealth Games and Olympic Games. However, a serious auto accident in 2016 forced her to abandon her Olympic dream and move on to other pursuits.
When one door closes, another opens. Yvana has parlayed her talents into a career as a professional actress and beauty, fashion and fitness model. She made her debut on the Home Shopping Network (HSN) just one month after signing with an agency. She later went into commercial and print work, runway shows, hand modeling for major companies, promotional modeling, and then onto the big screen in cinema. Her work has been featured in major roles both in international and domestic films, commercials and in theater. One of her greatest accomplishments, she notes, was being chosen for the part of a competitive boxer and actress who could portray the life of Laila Ali, a champion pugilist like her famous dad, during the peak of her career.
Yvana also runs a personal training program for pro athletes and entrepreneurs with her husband, Charles Bailey, a former SEC champion jumper for the University of Mississippi who also had his Olympic aspirations dashed by injury. Yvana credits the lessons she learned during her hurdling career with “helping me overcome the major disappointment of having my Olympic dream deferred.”
Yvana, who is 34, was raised in West Nyack and Pomona and now resides in Orlando, FL. Her parents still live in Pomona and both trace their lineage to the Caribbean, her father to the Bahamas and her mother to Jamaica. The Hepburn name stems from her grandparents, who hailed from Hepburn Town in the Cat Islands of the Bahamas. “Locals there knew I was of Bahamian descent before I even knew my roots,” she says. “This is what helped me pursue my dream but in another country where I already had roots.”
Yvana established herself as one of Rockland County’s foremost female track athletes during her years at North Rockland. She captured three New York State championships in the straightaway hurdles – two indoors and one outdoors – and placed fifth and sixth respectively in the national indoor 55-meter and national outdoor 100-meter hurdles. She added a third- place finish in the State outdoor meet as a junior. Yvana holds the Rockland County record in the 100-meter hurdles at 13.9 seconds, and is tied for No. 2 all-time in the 55-meter hurdles at 7.9.
Yvana got her start in track as a seventh grader at Haverstraw Middle School. She gravitated to the hurdles while her friends dispersed to other events. “I’ve always had a bold affinity to try things, that others deny,” she says. “And that is how it all started.”
A classically trained pianist as a youth, Yvana transitioned to the athletic arena by trying out for basketball, but she then settled on volleyball during the fall season, putting her 5-foot-11 height to good advantage as a middle hitter and playing for two-plus years in high school. In track, she ran the hurdles as a freshman under Coach Dan Sullivan – “the first coach to ever believe in me” – and branched out to other events under Coach Brian Diglio, who was also her history teacher. Assistant Coach Steve Pashley provided instruction in the triple, long and high jumps, relays and hurdles. Yvana also ran the sprints from the 100 to the 400.
Yvana treasured her friendships made on the track team and enjoyed spending time with teammates such as Eric Sheppard, Elizabeth Morrobel, John Martinez, Charlene Gonzalez, Zaire Ashby and Danielle Grimm, among others. Scholastic opponents who “allowed my talents to shine the most” were Shenae Dawkins and Lynne Lane of New Rochelle, Shana Woods, Alyissa Hasan and Angelica Reed.
The greatest influences on Yvana’s athletic career at North Rockland were “God, my mother, and my grandmother,” she says. Her mother, Adris Graham- Swift, made sure Yvana had proper nutrition (“oatmeal and fruit were always in the mix), a challenging academic courseload and transportation to every competition. Her grandmother, family matriarch Esther Graham, purchased personal training sessions for Yvana and brought her to a top institute for sports performance, rehab and recovery. She also saved all the newspaper articles on Yvana’s athletic exploits and shared them with the community.
Yvana was able to excel despite suffering from what was thought to be severe shin splints from the end of her sophomore year through her first year of college at the University of South Florida, a Division I school she attended on scholarship. During a physical at the start of her freshman year at USF, team doctors diagnosed deep bone fractures in both legs that Yvana had apparently been training and competing with for some time.
After undergoing immediate surgery and arduous rehab during her redshirt freshman year, Yvana rebounded to train and compete injury-free the rest of her collegiate career. Highlights included a school record in the 60-meter hurdles of 8.40, which eclipsed the previous mark of 8.41 set by 2008 U.S. Olympian Damu Cherry; a 100m hurdles best of 13.40 at the NCAA East Prelim meet; All-Big East honors three times; NCAA Div. I All-Academic honors two straight years, conferred by the USTFCCCA; and a nomination as USF Female Athlete of the Year.
Yvana graduated from USF with a bachelor’s in communications and completed a two-year master’s program in physical education in just one year. While residing in the Tampa Bay area, Yvana became a director of the physical education department at Inspiration Academy Bradenton, FL, serving middle and high school students. She applied creative curricular programs that she had previously developed to “help children get healthy, active, fit and lead a lifestyle in that manner,” she says.
Fulfillment in the pedagogical sphere was mirrored in the athletic realm. Yvana continued on her Olympic quest in the hurdles by turning professional and competing both domestically and internationally. Her best 100m hurdle performances were turned in on the American Track League circuit, clocking 12.94w at a meet in Tuscaloosa, AL, and 13.07 in Baton Rouge, LA, both in 2014.
During this period, Yvana was advised to pursue dual citizenship to the Bahamian national team, using the Bahamian heritage of her father, Gregory Hepburn. The 100m hurdles is one of the USA women’s team’s strongest events in track & field, and the competition to make the Olympic team is fierce. Yvana competed at the 2014 Bahamian national championships, winning the hurdles in meet record time. She had started the process of working with the Bahamian athletic association to become registered as a Bahamian athlete for the Commomwealth Games and Olympic Games. However, a serious auto accident in 2016 forced her to abandon her Olympic dream and move on to other pursuits.
When one door closes, another opens. Yvana has parlayed her talents into a career as a professional actress and beauty, fashion and fitness model. She made her debut on the Home Shopping Network (HSN) just one month after signing with an agency. She later went into commercial and print work, runway shows, hand modeling for major companies, promotional modeling, and then onto the big screen in cinema. Her work has been featured in major roles both in international and domestic films, commercials and in theater. One of her greatest accomplishments, she notes, was being chosen for the part of a competitive boxer and actress who could portray the life of Laila Ali, a champion pugilist like her famous dad, during the peak of her career.
Yvana also runs a personal training program for pro athletes and entrepreneurs with her husband, Charles Bailey, a former SEC champion jumper for the University of Mississippi who also had his Olympic aspirations dashed by injury. Yvana credits the lessons she learned during her hurdling career with “helping me overcome the major disappointment of having my Olympic dream deferred.”
Yvana, who is 34, was raised in West Nyack and Pomona and now resides in Orlando, FL. Her parents still live in Pomona and both trace their lineage to the Caribbean, her father to the Bahamas and her mother to Jamaica. The Hepburn name stems from her grandparents, who hailed from Hepburn Town in the Cat Islands of the Bahamas. “Locals there knew I was of Bahamian descent before I even knew my roots,” she says. “This is what helped me pursue my dream but in another country where I already had roots.”