This is the first episode of a two-part conversation featuring the High Leverage Practice of Perspicaciousness with Nadja Young. She shares her compelling story of growing up with all the odds stacked against her – low income family, fatherless home, parents without college degrees, mother with significant mental illness, father in federal prison from robbing banks, chronically absent from school, in and out of social services protection – only to become a strong, confident woman. She learned to be perspicacious at a very young age when most are shielded by their parents, connecting dots to create a pathway out of chaos that led to a happy, secure life.
Nadja Young is the Director of Education Practice and Federal Government Teams, Public Sector, for the SAS Institute. She leads national education analytic projects in all 50 states, and across six Federal Civilian Departments including the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Social Security Administration.
Nadja began as a Career and Technical Education Teacher, along with Varsity Dance Team Coach, at Chaparral High School in Parker, CO. She became a Certified Teacher for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards at Wake County Public School System, Raleigh, NC. Prior to her post with SAS, she was the Curriculum and Assessment Development Contractor for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
For three years Nadja was part of the professional dance team for the Denver Nuggets Basketball Team. She is an accomplished national speaker. Her B.S. degree is in Marketing Management from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and her M.A. in Secondary Education is from the University of Phoenix in Denver. Nadja and her husband Tony have two daughters and live in North Carolina.
