Assistant District Attorney Cheryl Yankolonis, Trial Deputy at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, was born and raised in Havre de Grace, Maryland, in a family deeply rooted in military and public service. Her father’s career at Aberdeen Proving Ground, an Army facility in Maryland, along with a generations-long family history of military service, strongly shaped her worldview. Her family has “very strong values when it comes to public service,” she said, and those values made a lasting impression that guided her career trajectory. “I knew from early on I wanted to do something in public service,” she recalled.
Her academic and professional path reflected an evolving interest in how crime and justice intersect with society. She began college at Penn State University, majoring in criminology with a minor in sociology, after initially considering a career in forensic pathology. What ultimately drew her in was the analytical and social framework of criminal justice: “I was really into sociology and the theories behind crime and criminology.” While she explored both prosecution and defense paths through internships and interviews, she ultimately joined the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office in the summer of 2003. “I came to the District Attorney’s Office wanting to expand diversionary programs,” she noted.
Yankolonis began her career in the narcotics unit before moving through Major Crimes and juvenile assignments, where she developed a specialization in sex crime cases. Although she did not initially seek out domestic violence and sexual assault work, supervisors identified her potential in those areas and encouraged her.
“I really enjoyed working with children” and found that she could “connect with children in a way that was different than connecting with adults.” That ability to engage with vulnerable victims became a defining hallmark of her prosecutorial work. Over time, she built a career focused on trauma-informed prosecution, particularly in cases involving child victims and sexual violence, finding meaning in supporting individuals through some of the most difficult moments in their lives.
In her current role as Trial Deputy, Yankolonis oversees multiple units across the office, expanding beyond family violence into broader areas including economic and forensic-based prosecutions. She is also helping to develop a DNA-forward cold case initiative in collaboration with forensic experts. Central to her philosophy is what she calls “individualized justice,” a rejection of one-size-fits-all outcomes in favor of nuanced decision-making that accounts for victims, defendants, and the circumstances surrounding each case.
In discussing Sexual Assault Awareness Month, she emphasized the importance of listening to and supporting victims. “It’s vitally important to give people a safe environment to disclose their trauma and abuse,” adding that even a survivor sharing their experiences for the first time “is such a big deal.”
Outside of work, she describes her lake house as her “happy place,” a family-built space tied to generations of shared history and labor that continues to ground her amid the demands of her work.