Michelle D. Young, Ph.D., is the Dean of the Berkeley School of Education. Throughout her career, she has developed and sustained a reputation as an innovative, civic-minded, ethical leader with a strong commitment to diversity and social justice. Young has served in a variety of leadership positions in higher education, the nonprofit sector and for the US government, including almost 20 years as executive director of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), an international consortium of more than 100 research institutions with master’s and doctoral level programs in educational leadership and administration. As Executive Director of UCEA, Young worked with universities, practitioners, and state and national leaders to improve the preparation and practice of school and school system leaders and to develop a dynamic base of knowledge on excellence in educational leadership; provided leadership for the development of the Professional Standards for Educational Leadership and the National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) standards, which guide the development and accreditation review of educational leadership preparation programs; and led both state-wide and institutional reviews of educational leadership development programs. Her work has significantly increased the focus of research on leadership preparation and brought research to bear on the work of policy makers. Upon her retirement from UCEA, Young was granted Emeritus status.
A scholar of educational policy and leadership, Young has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles focused on how university programs, educational policies, and school leaders support exceptional experiences for students and educational professionals. Young has received multiple awards for her scholarship, including the JRLE and William J. Davis Awards for most outstanding articles, an Emerald Literati Award for Excellence, and was awarded the prestigious Edwin M. Bridges Award and AERA Excellence in Research and Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to research on the preparation and practice of education leaders. Young’s work in Critical Policy Analysis in education has contributed to the development of new frameworks and approaches to policy analysis that allow for a deeper understanding of power dynamics and structural inequalities embedded in educational policy and the policy making process. Her work centers critical theories, considers how overlapping identities impact individuals’ experiences with educational policies. Beyond theoretical analysis, Young also investigates the practical aspects of policy implementation. She examines how policies are enacted at the ground level and the real-world implications for students, educators, and communities.
Young has served on a number of boards, including policy boards (e.g., National Policy Board for Educational Administration), foundation boards (e.g., the Wallace Foundation), and state education reform boards (e.g., New York, Georgia, CAEP). She currently serves on the boards of WestEd, PACE, CADREI, and SOAR. She also Co-Founded and continues to co-direct the INSPIRE Leadership Collaborative which focuses on the evaluation of educator preparation programs.
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