Dr. Young is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Howard University College of Medicine, Interim Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, Director of the Newborn Services at Howard University Hospital, and Director of the B.L.E.S.S. (Breastfeeding Lactation Education Support Services) Initiative at Howard University Hospital. She also serves as one of the Breastfeeding Co-ordinators for the D. C. Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Young is a member of the Advisory panel for the U.S. Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. From September 2000 -2003 she served on the USDA Advisory Council on Maternal, Fetal and Infant Nutrition, and in 2001 she was appointed to the International Lactation Consultant Association Advisory Panel.
A graduate of Howard University College of Medicine, Class of 1979, she did a rotating internship in Medicine and Pediatrics at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, after which she says she saw the light and decided to do Pediatrics. Her Pediatric residency was done at Howard University Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Neonatology at Georgetown University Hospital. Most of her clinical and academic practice was at D. C General Hospital where she was the Director of the N.I.C.U. for the last five years prior to the closure of that Hospital in July 2001.
Dr. Young speaks locally and nationally about the benefits of human milk for human infants and their families. It was her personal experience that she had learned very little about breast milk and breastfeeding at the time of the birth of her first child even though at that point she had just completed her neonatology fellowship. This experience set her on a life long commitment to ensure the education of health care professionals as well as lay persons about breastmilk, breastfeeding and the risks of not being breastfed.
