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The daughter of an Italian shoemaker and a Russian Jewish concert pianist, Ms. Young's St. Patrick's Day birth led her father to declare her, perhaps prophetically, his "Little League of Nations." At home, the Easter bunny and traditional Italian Christmas eve seven-course fish dinners held the same importance as Passover seders and Chanuka celebrations.
By the age of nine, she developed and wrote two versions of "An Imaginary Musical Tour of Israel" which she performed for Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and a wide variety of community service groups over much of upstate New York.
At 16, Ms. Young lived with the Oglala Sioux Indians in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, leading to her first newspaper column and slide show presentations about life on the reservation upon her return home.
As assistant manager of the Binghamton Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Young had extensive media contact and frequently appeared as a guest on television and radio shows and was featured in newspaper interviews. She was directly responsible for raising attendance at an outdoor concert of the "1812 Overture" from an anticipated crowd of 3,000 to an actual audience of 25,000.
Ms. Young's credits include PHOENIX, SEVENTEEN, POLICE, DENTAL ECONOMICS, RACQUET and over 125 other publications. A former featured monthly columnist with Dell HOROSCOPE, in 1993 she was editor-in-chief of DRY HEAT USA, a magazine billed as "the first coed, bilingual, multicultural" publication for teens and young adults. She also served as editor of CHAMPION, a newsletter for parents of gifted children, for three years. Ms. Young was also editor of Unity Through Diversity: Multicultural Perspectives for Educators and Community, a 133-page book which conceived of by her colleague and partner-author, Dr. Paul D. Christiansen. Many of her works are housed in a multicultural library which was developed by Dr. Christiansen.
Her latest book Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Meeting the Challenge of Our Multicultural America and Beyond, is equally at home in the classroom or on the coffee table. It was released by Caddo Gap Press CADDOGAP@AOL.COM (San Francisco) in the fall of 1996
During the 1991-92 school year, the Tempe-Union High School District school board adopted Ms. Young's proposal for creating community and high school student councils to ease multicultural and racial tensions and gave the proposal a number two position in a 14-point, five-year strategic plan.
Born and raised in Binghamton, New York, Ms. Young currently lives in New York State with her four sons.
