With colleagues and students, Dr. Young has been conducting substance use research in rural Kentucky for nearly ten years. She has led five federally-funded studies, including a project that piloted innovative methods for recruiting people who use drugs, a private-public partnership to develop software for identifying infectious disease transmission networks, a multi-site project with Oregon and Ohio to improve clinical trial design in rural settings, and a cooperative agreement under the National Rural Opioid Initiative to examine harms associated with substance use in twelve Kentucky counties (see www.care2hope.org for more information). In addition to working with rural Appalachian communities to improve their capacity to prevent overdose, HIV, and hepatitis C, she has also conducted research on HIV, sexual risk behavior, and vaccine acceptance in a variety of other settings, including the Philippines and Kenya. Dr. Young's desire to teach and mentor students was the most influential factor in her decision to pursue an academic career, and she welcomes opportunities to engage students in her research and mentor students in their independent endeavors. Dr. Young has taught Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Global Health, and undergraduate social epidemiology. She also recently designed a graduate course focused on the opioid crisis.