Jordy Yager began working with the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in 2017 when he helped launch the African American Oral History Project with local filmmakers Lorenzo Dickerson and Ty Cooper. In 2018, he continued that work with a project grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation to map racist housing policies and the corresponding life outcomes for a forthcoming exhibit at the JSAAHC.

He is a graduate of Charlottesville High School, earned his B.A. in Sanskrit, and his M.A. in Journalism from Boston University. For the last 12 years he has worked as a daily journalist, primarily in Washington D.C. and his hometown of Charlottesville, where he focuses on issues of race and equity.