She is currently serving on a fellowship at the Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (DHS CISA). She has a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from George Washington University, an M.S. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University, and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University. She also is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP). She credits being an alumnus of a Historically Black College/university (HBCU) to her initial education for understanding engineering and systemic racism and how to foster authentically inclusive spaces where everybody can thrive. She entered the Coast Guard through the College Select Pre-Commissioning Initiative (CSPI).

LCDR Young-McLear joined the faculty at USCGA in 2014 as a member of the Permanent Commissioned Teaching Staff. She leverages her understanding of people, information, technology, and complexity to identify system vulnerabilities and solutions. Critical aspects of her Ph.D. research in leveraging social media for large-scale disaster response management were adopted by the Coast Guard for two historic hurricane seasons, resulting in her team’s selection for the 2017 Captain Niels P. Thomsen Innovation Award for Cultural Change. Her current research focuses on complex cyber-physical systems within the maritime transportation system.

Before accepting a position at the Coast Guard Academy, LCDR Young-McLear served as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS). She provided direct support to a Deputy Cabinet Secretary for developing DHS policy, mission planning, and execution for 240K employees. She has served in several Coast Guard communities, including Marine Safety and Naval/Industrial Engineering. As a Marine Inspector, she certified the safety and security of commercial vessels and mega cruise ships. As an Industrial Manager and Deputy Project Manager, she led repair availability projects totaling more than $150M.

Throughout her entire career, she has been an active leader in the community. She has championed justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, which has resulted in numerous Coast Guard and DOD policy changes to enhancing workforce climate and dignity. For example, in 2014, she spearheaded efforts off-duty to change Coast Guard grooming policies that adversely affected women of color, becoming the first military branch to model these inclusion standards a year ahead of the Department of Defense Secretary mandate. She previously served as Chair of the Leadership Diversity Advisory Council (LDAC) and member of the Inclusion Excellence Council (IEC), which promotes the tenets of civil/human rights, equal opportunity, and public service programs to approximately 1,600 military & civilian personnel.