Yoly hailed from Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. She was a former English and Literature professor at the College of Science of the University of Santo Tomas. Yoly also taught briefly at the Borno College of Basic Studies in Maiduguri, Nigeria before immigrating with her family in Chicago, U.S.A. in 1984. After working briefly as office marketing representative at Harper Collins Publishers, she left the company to join her husband, Bart, in publishing the PhilippineTIME U.S.A., a broadsheet publication and then, the Philippine Time U.S.A. News & People Magazine and Filam Weekly MegaScene, which later became The Filam MegaScene. Yoly has served as President of the National Press Club of the Philippines in the U.S.A. She is a Board member of the US Filipinos for Good Governance (USFGG).