Betty Young has dedicated her life to service of others through her career in higher education. She most recently served as President of Houston Community College Coleman College for Health Sciences. A priority from her first day in 2009, she began planning for the expansion of the college, which has grown from 1,400 students to serve 6,000 students in the 2013-14 academic year. She was a driving force behind the 2012 $425 million capital bond passage, which included $120 million for Coleman’s expansion in the Texas Medical Center. She further developed this expansion project by negotiating with the Texas Medical Center for additional land on which to build the expansion. The medical center board presented HCC with a 99-year lease at $1 per year with a 99-year extension, essentially saving the college $25 million in land expense for construction and delivering an invaluable asset to Houston.
Her commitment to educational pathways is demonstrated in partnerships developed with ISD schools including Roderick Paige Elementary and Jane Long Academy, exposing primary school students to careers in the health care industry and offer the pharmacy technician and associate degree, beginning with high school freshmen giving these students an opportunity to graduate from high school with a degree and career in-hand.
She has raised millions of dollars for student scholarships, including the two largest gifts in the history of HCC. She is a member of the HCC Golden Eagle Society and has endowed scholarships in her name and in the name of her late husband.
Her passion for community colleges is fueled by her own experience as a single mother starting at a community college at age 28 – in her words “to create a life for me and for my daughter, I took a few classes to get ahead at work.” From there, she went on to earn an associate degree in math and science, a bachelor’s degree in business, master’s degree, PhD, law degree and postgraduate Master of Laws (LLM) in Business.
Today, she is involved in advocating for the community college to offer the bachelor’s degree in nursing to meet the high demand for BSNs in the Texas Medical Center and surrounding Houston area. She is currently an elected member of the President’s Academy Executive Committee of the American Association of Community Colleges, an immediate past member of the AACC Board of Directors and Chair of the AACC Commission on Economic and Workforce Development.
Dr. Betty Young
5622 Bankside Dr.
Houston TX 77096
