Dr. Sarah R. Young received her PhD from the University of Alabama and her MSW with a focus in community organizing from the University of Michigan. Her love for the color orange started at Syracuse University, where she earned her BSSW in 2004. 

Born and raised in a rural town in Upstate New York, Sarah fell in love with the Deep South as a social work intern and lived in Mississippi from 2008 to 2012. She is the co-founder of the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, a youth-led LGBTQ advocacy group working to make schools safer for LGBTQ youth. From 2008 through 2010, she served as a Ford Foundation “New Voices” Fellow, one of 12 people selected as a new voice in human rights.

Sarah has over 10 years of social work practice experience, which includes child welfare case work, counseling clients impacted by HIV/AIDS and youth and community organizing. Additionally, she has practiced social work in England and Jamaica. Prior to joining the faculty at the Binghamton University Department of Social Work, she gained six years of teaching experience.

She is a former Point Foundation Scholar and was selected by the White House as an Emerging LGBTQ Leader. She has recently joined a team of physicians from across the country to assess best practices for prescribing opioids to people experiencing chronic pain.