[1] Young began her career in higher education as a faculty member and department chair at Washington State Community College.
[3][4] In September 2005, Young responded to a joke by late-night talk show host Jay Leno calling a sex industry education seminar "less embarrassing than going to a junior college" by staging a publicity tour called "The Lessons for Leno National Tour."
Young made a trip from Ohio to California almost entirely on her Harley-Davidson motorcycle, had a brief meeting with Leno, then staged a press conference defending two-year universities.
[5] Young was named president of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 1, 2007.
Criticisms laid out in a letter to the chairman of the Board of Trustees included overcrowded classes, an overuse of adjunct professors, inexperienced instructors, a lack of transparency in her leadership, and a disregard for staff and faculty input leading to a "continuous decline in morale among staff, faculty, students, alumni and the community.